Monday, August 17, 2009

here it is.

This is it. The playroom. I love it. As I was uploading these pictures, I was reminded of all the time I spent this year pouring myself into designing it. This playroom is one of my favorite projects that I have ever created. I can still remember when Josh and I walked through this house for the very first time in March of 2005. I was about 8 weeks pregnant with Hunts and when I poked my head up through the door to the attic, I told Josh that the space would someday be a great playroom. Here we are, 4 years later, and that dream has become a reality. A most practical and exciting reality, I must say. It is such a stress reliever that the toys are no longer all.over.the.house. They have a home. And it is on the third floor.

Here's the overall view of the room, from south to north. The room gets a ton of natural light, which is, I think, one of the best features about the playroom.
IMG_5764

Remember my chairs from Ikea? Well, this is what they became. I have the most amazing upholsterer, Harold, who comes directly to my door, picks up my furniture, and returns it to my door in one week or less. These are beauties. I love how Harold can take any fabric you give him and stretch it over any shape of canvas and produce an amazing product like this. Thank you, Ikea, for making this project incredibly affordable.
IMG_5765

I bought a few of these frames from Ikea, spray-painted the mattes, took a couple of my favorites of Huntleigh's drawings that I've been saving and one of Lucy Walker's and made some fun art out of them. I love how the assortment looks, which includes a painting that Josh's sister did for Huntleigh's first birthday.
IMG_5766

We wanted to utilize the west side of the room as efficiently as possible, so we created some built-in shelves to accommodate all these bins I got from Ikea. My brother-in-law, Bill, built these to fit 32 buckets to hide all the toys. I loved this part of the project. I'm all about hiding stuff in an organized way. We added the dentil trim to give the shelves a bit of fun texture. That little support in front of the shelves had to stay there, so we thought it would be fun to create a little "window" in between the supports with a ledge for imaginative play. Huntleigh loves making use of the little window. I totally owe that idea to my friend Mary Ellen.
IMG_5769

I spent hours on the labels for these buckets. And I mean, hours. I loved every minute of it, but I used a lot of quiet time to think through all the toys we have and to come up with custom labels for all of them. And then when the labels arrived, I spent a ton of nap times sticking the labels to the bins so that the kids wouldn't know they are actually just stickers. This was one of the most time-consuming projects of the whole room, but the result was completely worth it.
IMG_5788

The project corner. Their little table fits just perfectly into this space. The paper roll was another thing I spent a bunch of time on, thinking how to best incorporate it.
IMG_5785

The alphabet, up close. These make the best border for any child's room, whether a playroom or a bedroom. I had to bring these back up into the new playroom. They were the border in our old playroom, as well.
IMG_5786

This bookshelf is another one of those well-utilized spaces in the playroom. It was good empty space put to use and it gives me a place to put all of the board books that I used to have on Huntleigh's windowsill.
IMG_5800

Another treasure from Ikea. Huntleigh used to call this "the shower," but lately she's been calling it a tent. If you look behind the tent, you can see the window seat. We use the window seat all the time. It's become a favorite napping spot in the house.
IMG_5802

This is just the view heading down the stairs to the 2nd floor. The original color I chose for the room was a light gray, but upon seeing the whole room painted in that color, I had was sorely disappointed and so I opted for a more friendly and uplifting blue. It has proved to be such a better choice than the gray. I was afraid to pick a color that could be a bridge between children and adults, but this blue has done that trick. It's a superb blue.
IMG_5807

Overall, I had a great team of people who helped me pull off the vision of this room. My husband was awesome throughout the whole project, and has taught me a great deal about patience. My brother-in-law was an excellent listener as he heard my thoughts and applied them as he built this room for his nieces. Mary Ellen, who gave me her time and expertise when it came to giving me insight with all of my design questions. Audrey, who made a special trip to Ikea on her vacation in Phoenix because she knew I needed more red bins! My painter, Aaron, was also patient as he spent hours painting layer after layer of that bright white for all the trim. And he graciously accepted the fact that I hated the gray after he painted every single wall in the room with it. Excellent work, Aaron. I hope everyone who enjoys this room is blessed by it. I am so thankful for it.
IMG_5810

27 comments:

brooke b said...

oh my goodness, sarah! unbelievable how cute and fun this space is! your girls (and every kid on the block) will be loving this room for years. love the colors. love the organization. love the different spaces to play. love that you spay painted the mats (need to buy spray paint, pronto). love the little art station (though the idea of my boys having such easy access to the markers makes my heart race...haha). love the bins and the labels (seriously, how cute is the idea and the font?). the fabric on the chairs -- oh, so fun. the window/supporting wall....brilliant! I see restaurant, post office, puppets....even just a silly "boo" through it would make any kid giggle. good thing this stalker doesn't live in st louis, or i'd be knocking on your door in the am. :)

Shannon said...

It looks amazing sarah. it was so fun to see this room in progress and only wish I could see it's completion in person. I've been thinking of you as your b'day is approaching especially and how we need to talk soon. Love you and miss you!

Shannon

Erik Shelquist said...

Wow! That looks so awesome! I"m so happy for y'all!!!

we are the spencers said...

fantastic. amazing. i love it! i want one.

Mama Hutch said...

Gorgeous! Great vision - must be awesome to see it come to life AND be enjoyed by your little ones.

Inkling said...

You did a fabulous job. It's creative, truly beautiful, kid friendly, and saves your sanity in the organization department. Now I really think you should come to Canada and organize me! =) I love the alphabet and number tiles, all the colors, and textures in the room. Beautifully done!

Audrey Woita said...

sister!
nice work! i love the historical story you shared..and how beautiful you can create in less than a year! favorite pix is the last one...or my imagined one of Josh going night-night on the window seat.
congrats!

Lindsey said...

amazing amazing amazing. amazing. it looks awesome. I wish we were there to see it... and play in it! You are so creative, Sarah, and sounds like you had an awesome team. Your hard work and patience has certainly paid off! Hunts and Lucy will have tons of fun in there.

Alyssa Reeve said...

I can't believe that's the 3rd floor of your house!!! It's beautiful! You have such an amazing gift!

Camille said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Camille said...

WOW!!!!! That playroom is simply amazing. I hope to take Carter to play there someday. I would love to spend time there as well. I think we would both be smarter after playing in that space! It looks fantastic. Nice work.

Davina Perret said...

I love it and I wish we could come for a play date! Miss you all the time.
Love,
Davina

Hannah Hager Wood said...

WOW Sarah it really looks great....Bill did some nice handywork rebuilding the whole thing and with your designer hand the whole place turned out GREAT!!!

If anyone wants Bill Gooden's number you can call 314-898-3317....I am sure lucky to have such an artistic family!! I wish some of it had rubbed off on me....

Unknown said...

It looks awesome, Sarah! I love everything about it! Will you be my decorator??? :)

Unknown said...

Sarah - It's fun for a non-designer like myself to be given insight into your thoughts for creating the space as you did. What a blessing to be able to see your creativity come to life. It has been such a blessing being around your family. God bless you all!

Lori said...

Looks great Sarah!

Elizabeth Lloyd said...

It is just beautiful! This should be in a Magazine, or an ad for City Sprouts or something! Great job Sarah, you truly amaze me with all your talents! Most of all you are an amazing Mommy! Kuddo's on the room!

leslie the young mother said...

oh wow, this looks sooo good! What a fun place to go play and imagine! Kudos Sara to all the planning and creating, I'm sure your girls enjoy it every day!

selena said...

i absolutely love this space! i saw your pics posted on ohdeedoh.com and had to come on to comment here. i'll be stopping by here often!

Cynthia said...

Found you on Ohdeedoh as well and I'm now obsessed! Expecting my first in 2 weeks and am dying to know where you had your custom labels made and where those amazing alphabet/number cards are from?? The labels are perfect for my obsessive-compulsive (but realistically so) disorder. Hiding things in plain sight makes me happier than almost all else! Also, what a photographer you are! Curious as to what camera you use? So many questions, please forgive me. I'm in hyper nesting mode. So glad to have found your great blog. :) thanks!

Christi said...

i LOVE LOVE LOVE your play room! wonderful inspiration, so practical and beautiful!

kb said...

Absolutely gorgeous! We have a 1 and 1/2 story home but the 1/2 story will never be a legal room because the ceiling is only 6' high. This would be the perfect transformation for that space! I'm wondering how high your ceiling is.

Thanks!

Unknown said...

Wow, what a wonderful playroom, you have such lucky kids. I love the bins, and the effort it took to label them all. Can I ask a few specific questions? What's the font on the bin labels, and where did you get them made? And where did you get the borders? They don't all look the same. We're (fingers crossed) going to be buying a house very soon with what's going to be a very large bedroom for our daughter, with a lot of sloping walls, and I'm going to need some interesting (and not terribly expensive) things to hang up.

Again, kudos on such a great job!! BTW, I adore the name Lulu, it was my beloved great-grandmother's name.

Lauren said...

I found you on Ohdeedhoh and would love to know where you found the number posters. I can't tell but it looks like they might be Charlie Harper? I am also trying to figure out how to wall mount a roll of paper in our office for my daughter...what did you use to do that? Thanks soooo much, your room is a really great space, I am sure your girls will love it for many years to come!

Catherine Casey said...

This playroom is amazing! Can you tell me where you purchased the labels for the bins as well as the alphabet border? I've been looking for a similar border for a few weeks - Thanks!

becky k said...

psssst! The font is Inkster...

mamakraus said...

Love this room! I was hoping you could share your wall color