A New Play Space!

We made our big move cross-country and survived (though barely) and I am now happy to say that after two and a half months, we've got ONE COMPLETE room that I am thrilled with.  Seriously, it's my favorite room so far in our house - it's colorful, it's bright and it has tons of character.  Yes - it's a bit girly but c'mon, we're a house full of girls.  AND, if you dig in some of those toy cubbies you'll find some matchbox cars and trucks - promise.  :)

welcome!  the bonus room/F.R.O.G. (family room over garage) is on our second floor and has french doors to either lock in our monkeys or 'hide' the mess!  

I orginally wanted to paint - I had grand visions of striped walls but after paying money to have rooms painted downstairs and breaking our backs painting the girls bedrooms I decided to go a different route - wall decals!  And more specifically - wall designs.  Who doesn't love polka dots?  I went with turquoise because it wasn't pink or purple and we already had a lot of turquoise in the room with other decor and furniture (the girls' upholstered chairs from Pottery Barn Kids).

Polka dot wall decals found here!  They are from LookSugar on Etsy and wow - so easy to put up!  I used a ruler and a level and went through making marks with a pencil every two feet to get the grid then went back and put up each circle.  A little time consuming but WORTH it.  My 4 year old even helped put up some of the circles!  LOVE the effect and one of my favortie elements in the room!

This is a couch we've had FOREVER.  There's always a lot of talk about 'do we get rid of it?'  BUT then we find ways to use it in our homes and it stays.  Really, it's pretty comfortable and down the road I might get a slipcover for it but for now - it works!

ESPECIALLY since I added these cute pillows and blankets!  Lots of bright colors but I love the turquoise/yellow combo.  The chevron and daisy prints were found at JoAnn's:

The floral print pillow was made using two napkin from World Market.  The afghan an fun and fabulous thrift store find!

This wall features the TV and a fun gallery.  Yes, the TV is super old - probably from my college days?  The hope is to buy a new flat screen sometime in the future... just add that to the 'wish list'!  (which is a very, very long list.)

Recognize anything here?  The media stand is what we used in our old house for our big TV but it's now mounted above our mantle in the living room!  Thankfully there's plenty of room for DVD's, the portable DVD player and the girls headphones.  I added the fabric strip garland from our mermaid birthday party last summer and the pink/purple desk used to be in #1's bedroom in FL.  

This is kind of random - it's a painted calendar holder and should be hanging vertically!  I love the colors though and think it's a fun place to add photos.

The "I am a child of God" printable was found here.

I painted this mermaid painting last Spring to be included in the mermaid birthday party.  I tried so HARD to sell it on Craigslist with the other party supplies but no one was interested - it did used to say 'happy birthday' on the banner so I painted over it and added the 'always believe in mermaids' saying instead.  We are BIG "The Little Mermaid" fans in this house so it's fitting. 

Toy storage in this room was really important to me, mainly because the room is so big I had awful nightmares of thousands upon thousands of toys and dress-up items littering the carpet and never being clean.  I figured it I had LOTS of storage options the girls would easily see where things went.  This is a laundry basket I picked up at the dollar store but turned into stuffed animal storage!

I had lots of fun using found items and pictures as wall decor in this space.  The "R" and "D" used to be in our bedroom but spray painted gold, they have new pizazz!  The "You are my sunshine" print was found on Etsy here, the hoop art was newly made and re-purposed and the pink/coral display shelf is a wooden divider that packaged some toys at one point.  

The white bookshelf laying on it's side is from Ikea but I found it on a swap site via FB when we were in FL!  I originally was going to add a cushion to the top for seating but with the Princess castle and stable, that idea didn't seem too smart.  :)  Flat table surfaces are in demand in this space considering all the 'playhouses'!  

I loved this idea when I originally saw it online here, clipboards to hang and change out artwork!  Are you kidding me?  GENIUS!!!!!  Also genius?  The people who make Command hooks!!!  I used them a LOT in this space so there'd be less mess to deal with next time we move....  My poor husband filled a thousand holes in our last house because I just hung pictures with whatever nail I could get my hands on - sometimes that meant decking nails.  Oops!  Lesson learned!

GREAT inspiration girl quotes found here!

Ugh, the dress up clothes!  When I first had girls I loved the idea of having them play dress up - then they did actually start playing dress up and I realized what a pain in the keester it was!  I believe we own 10 tutus and countless crowns, beaded necklaces and quite a few Disney princess dresses which are currently in shreds because my oldest often insists on wearing them to the park, grocery store and many other locations.  :)  I was desperate to figure out a way to store everything!  

At our old house I did have a few wall hooks but not enough and all the dress up clothes ended up in two large baskets.  A good idea?  You'd think BUT not if someone wanted a dress at the very bottom of the basket!  Then EVERY SINGLE ITEM in that basket was crazily thrown out of said basket everywhere around the room.  (sigh).  I needed more hooks and a cubby system!  SO.... more hooks purchased at Target (5 to be exact that each have two hooks) and a cube storage with fabric baskets to hold shoes, accessories, crowns and hats.  As we like to say in our house: "NAILED IT!"  

the gold mirror was a clearance find at Hobby Lobby and used to be painted with stripes - now it's a lovely and 'REGAL' gold!  Perfect for my princesses!

so far it works.... talk to me again in a few months.  :)

On the opposite wall from the books and playhouses/castles is more toy storage and our play kitchen:

Lots of storage for legos and bristle blocks, and a fun gallery wall featuring artwork found around the house, more clipboards with quotes and fabric bunting.  There are SO many amazing free printables available on the Internet - just do a search via Pinterest for 'printables'.  

A very fun new addition to our playroom this year is this teepee!  I think I'm the most excited in the family about it but that's ok.  I know the girls will play with it more once they realize how fun it is to hide in!  :)

Thanks for taking a tour of our fun new play space!

I'm linking up to the following great blog:
http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/