Harlow's New Playroom

Our house is overflowing. Since having Harlow, her stuff has really taken over our house. I'm the kind of person who likes everything in its place. I don't like things to be left out, or messy. Having Harlow has helped me learn to let go a little. (just a little though) Until I just couldn't take it any longer. One night I told Pete that we should just bite the bullet and make the guest bedroom into a playroom. Which meant that it would make having family stay with us a little more interesting and the possibility of having another baby a little difficult. But we came up with a plan. An air mattress for family who need to stay with us, and we do the playroom in colors that are gender neutral that can easily be changed into a nursery if need be 10 years from now. (I kid. But, not anytime soon) I already had a color scheme in mind, taken from Harlow's first birthday party. Which meant I already had some things to decorate the new playroom with. So then it was just putting my ideas into place. Which I procrastinated over for the next few weeks.

It's funny how much you can get done in 24 hours when you wait until the last minute. Which is usually a rerun of my life. I have had about 20 paint swatches stuck to our guest bedroom walls for the past 2 weeks. I just could never force myself to pick ONE. Finally, with a few days before Christmas I sat in the room during the day and picked my favorite and then did the same thing at night to make sure I liked the color in daylight and when it was a darker in the room. We went with grey walls and light teal curtains and rug and yellow accents. Which can easily be changed and tweaked into a boy or a girls room if we ever have another baby. We wanted the room to be completed before Christmas to have a place to store all her new toys. So finally with 24 hours before Christmas eve, we got to work. No kidding, we did the whole things in the span of 24 hours!

This is what our guest bedroom looked like to start with. When I say guest bedroom, I mean, junk room. Eventually the bed got moved out (and all of our Christmas presents got moved in. Which is another reason I waited so long to start, I had no where else to put them!)


Before we could do anything, we had to take everything out and it ended up piled in the hallways.


The room got painted a light grey. And Pete put together the Expedit shelf from IKEA.




In the morning, the curtains were hung and books put on the shelves.


With a little decorating thrown in really quick.









I'll post more pictures eventually of the room after Christmas. With all of her new toys. So happy to no longer have baskets of toys everywhere in our house!