Pssst... Wanna see my playroom? Keep reading.

This summer we made the big cross-country move from Utah to Pennsylvania. We rented a big, old farmhouse (sight unseen!) that was built in 1902.

This house is amazing. UH-mazing. It’s huge. For the first couple of weeks I actually kept taking wrong turns and getting lost. The downside? Lots of ratty old carpet and some pretty horrific wallpaper. One room has something like seven layers of wallpaper. Not kidding.

Because we’re renters, we don’t want to do anything hardcore. But the landlords have pretty much given us carte blanche to take up carpet, rip down wallpaper and paint. All of which doesn’t cost very much if you do it yourself.

So we’ve updated the bathroom a little, then moved onto our living room. We recently decided to transform what was at first my office into a playroom. I realized we were making parenting super difficult by not having a place to dump the kids when we become overwhelmed. And let me tell you, having a designated play area makes all the difference. The room has two entrances, both of which have doors so we can lock the kids inside and we can’t even hear the Dora The Explorer theme song! Plus, when the room is a dump, which it usually is, you can just shut the doors and ignore it while you have a glass of wine for the evening.

So, I didn’t really take any before photos although you can kind of see the room in the background in this photo… But the room had dark wood-paneled walls, the horrible seventies kind and then that one wall, which you can see in the photo had wallpaper along the top half.  The room also has some old Berber carpeting. We kept the carpeting because I prefer carpeting for a playroom and baby’s tender head and hopefully soon we can replace it. But for now we focused on painting and decorations.

Now listen — this isn’t some fancy-schmancy situation here. This is something we whipped up over the course of two days. So wipe those HGTV scenarios and glossy magazine spread-type images out of your head right now. This is pretty basic, but I’m happy with what we’ve done although I’d love new carpet.

Check it out!

Wide View

This is the view from one end. The wall to the left was completely dark wood-paneled so we painted it a darker blue. Then, on the other wall, we painted the paneling white to emphasize the wainscoting. Where the wallpaper used to be we painted a slightly lighter shade of blue. That far door over there on the left opens onto a small foyer containing a staircase and a second door that leads to our living room. You can see the old Berber carpet... and the fact that both dogs favor this room to all others.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Tweet

11

Pin It

Go Back To Babys First Year Blog

11 Comments

Add your take:

Note: Babble is a supportive, diverse community. We encourage a range of opinions,
but any unduly hostile comments will be removed.