the playroom: version 2015

September 22, 201516 Comments

when you enter our home, you basically walk into a big open space that is our staircase, living room, and dining room. this space is definitely where we do a lot of our living, but it is far from formal.

the playroom version 2015

there was a time when i longed for a playroom like the ones in the pottery barn catalog.

eventually, our living room became a designated playroom.

that was 5 years ago, and it’s changed a lot over the last 5 years.

{2011, 2012, 2013, 2014}

it’s still the PLAY room, but it is really so much more than that.

it’s a place to sit, love, and create.

in the corner, near the front door, i set up a little workstation for myself. it’s a nice place to keep my laptop and be able to have it out of the way of everything else that is going on in the house.

the craft table is now in a nice open location with plenty of room to move around it and add more seats if needed. it is also where the kids eat their snack and do their homework after school.

although toys are not spread all over the floor like they used to be when the kids were younger, this is still the place they play…as in video games.

it is also a space where they snuggle up and read or watch cartoons in the morning.

our dining room is our only eating space where all four of us can sit together, so it is far from formal.

the sofa area is so cozy now.

this space has always been one of my favorite spaces in the house, but i really love this version of the playroom.

yes, that is the cat litter box underneath the easel. keeping it real, folks!

soon, i’ll be posting more details of each area with sources.

home is…the ever evolving playroom.

{31 days} vintage fisher price

October 13, 20146 Comments

~thrifted~

Welcome to our playroom.

It’s a happy place.

It’s where our vintage fisher price toys live.

They are classics.

I found most of them on shopgoodwill.com. Did you know you can shop Goodwill online?

Well, you can. It’s like an auction. You can choose a local goodwill and pick-up, or pay shipping for items coming from other locations across the country.

Most of the fisher price items are sold in lots, so you can get some pretty good deals.

Also, if you know exactly what you are searching for it is a nice way to shop without driving all around town.

So, now you know one of my thrifting secrets.

I love the graphics.

I love the color.

The kids love them, too. They set up little towns and make stories about the people.

They are adorable.

The kids.

And, the toys.

{You can also read my original post {collecting} vintage playroom from February 2013}

home is…{31 days} a thrifted vintage fisher price for the playroom.

Join me while I link up with The Nester every day in October for #write31days.
Click here to find a list of all 31 posts as they are published.

{31 days} book wagon

October 7, 20145 Comments

~secondhand~

I turned a garage sale radio flyer wagon into a mobile book case in our playroom!

In addition, Goodwill (and other thrift stores) are a great place to find used children’s books!

home is…{31 days} a secondhand book wagon.

Join me while I link up with The Nester every day in October for #write31days.
Click here to find a list of all 31 posts as they are published.

{collecting} vintage playroom

February 25, 2013April 6, 202014 Comments

When I started thrifting less than a year ago I also started some new collections.

My collections are of items that I have always had a fondness of, but never knew how to find them…until I started thrifting.

One of my favorite collections is my vintage fisher price collection.

These toys come from the days of my youth. I am not sure I ever had any of them, nor do I recall playing with any of them (although I am sure I did at some point), but they take me back to when I was a little girl.

I say it is my collection, but it is really for all of us…as are most of my collections.

The toys fill the shelves in the playroom (remember the playroom…something I thought we would never have).

The kids, most days, will pull the vintage fisher price off the toy shelves before they choose any of the newer toys.

For me, I love…

…the simplicity…

…the graphics…

…the bright colors…

…it all just makes me happy!

I imagine that these toys will go into the attic (or my creative cottage) to be stored until my own kids have children of their own.

And, just like my kids do when they visit their grandparents in New York, they will play with the same toys that generations before them have been playing with.

When I come across duplicates of what we already have I put them into colton+cadence or post them for sale on instagram.

If you are interested in starting your own collection you can follow @coltoncadence on instagram or visit the vintage playroom section of colton+cadence on etsy!

home is…collecting something that makes you (and your home) happy.

a good witch or a bad witch?

October 23, 20122 Comments

home is…playing.

dr. suess inspired vintage school map

September 27, 20124 Comments

I recently found a vintage school map of Asia.

I love the look of the map, but have no particular attachment to Asia, so I thought I would get crafty.

I found this font online and downloaded it to my computer.

I typed out the phrase I wanted to use and enlarged it to 650, so there was one letter for each page.

I chose some pretty paper from a new scrapbooking pad I got at Michaels and printed the letters.

What do you think?

home is…inspirational words.

play games

March 15, 20128 Comments

Inspired by this…

I decided to do this…

in our playroom.

I am not handy with a saw and I don’t think we even have a table saw. So, I just glued a 12″ x 12″ canvas to the back of each game board and hung them up on the wall.

Originally, I used our more current game boards.

Then, after thrifting, I found some “vintage” game boards from the 80’s that I liked better.

So, I took the newer game boards off the canvases and put some thrifted ones back on.

I got the canvases on sale at Michaels…7 canvases for $20…so that’s less than $3 a piece.

The Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land and Life games were all found at Goodwill for $1.99 each.

We had the Scrabble and Monopoly games on hand.

So, for about $20, I added some colorful and playful art to our playroom!

home is…being playful.

*linking up with…

{holiday home tour} it’s beginning to look a lot like christmas

December 12, 2011April 6, 202036 Comments

It seems to be the time in blogland to post a tour of your home all dolled up for the holidays.

Our house is not anywhere close to clean and I am still decking the halls a bit, so I will do a more thorough tour later this week.

For now, here is a peek at our tree and the playroom…

home is…there’s no place like home for the holidays.

*linking up with…

www.jenniferrizzo.com

our living-room-turned-play-room-sometimes-guest-room

February 4, 201116 Comments

Call it flexible.

Call it multifunctional.

I call it our living-room-turned-play-room-sometimes-guest-room.

It is my belief that just because a floor plan or home builder calls a room by a certain name does not mean that you have to use it as said space.

We technically have a 4 bedroom house, but one of the bedrooms is small, downstairs, and used as a full-time home office for my husband. That leaves us with 3 bedrooms upstairs…one for baby girl, one for the little guy, and the master.

We also need a guest room. We moved away from all of our family, so when they come to visit we like for them to be able stay with us.

One year after we moved into this house that we thought would have plenty of room for our family and guests, the little guy was moved out of the nursery and into the room that was the guest room. Baby girl was on her way and we no longer had a dedicated space for our guests to stay.

When baby girl came along she stayed in our room for the first couple of months while we had visitors in town to help us out. Our visitors were able to stay in the nursery (where we set up the old guest bed) and have a bit of privacy. When our guests left, we set up the crib and baby girl took over the nursery. That is when we really no longer had a guest room!

At some point in the nesting frenzy that took place before baby girl was born we invested in an IKEA Ektorp sleeper sofa to fill the void in our empty living room (along with new carpet, new entertainment system and storage, new family room furniture, and new furniture for the little guys room).

We also invested in some storage solutions (also from IKEA) for all of the toys that we were accumulating.

When baby girl turned one, I decided that we no longer needed a dedicated living room and needed to move the toys out of the family room. So we turned the living room into the playroom.

Through all of this, we have had visitors come stay with us. I use the red storage ottoman (also from IKEA) to store all the bedding for the sleeper sofa.

Sometimes they choose to stay in a hotel (for a bit more privacy) and sometimes they choose to stay with us in the living-room-turned-play-room-sometimes-guest-room space. The kids love it when we have guests and they can go snuggle with Nana or Meme or whoever happens to be in the guest room. It’s definitely not a private space for our guests, but it works.

What do you think? How have your spaces evolved with new additions to the family? What kind of flexible spaces do you have in your home?

home is…using the space you have to meet your needs.

Grown up looking storage solutions for kid friendly spaces

January 11, 20109 Comments

If you are anything like me you long for a space in your home that can be designated as a “Playroom”. I dream of a room like the ones I see in the Pottery Barn Kids catalogs that can be dedicated to my children and all the toys and activities that keep them occupied. In reality, we share all of our space with them. Our “Family Room” is exactly that, a FAMILY room.

Recently, we made some very big changes to our “Family Room” that have made it a comfortable space for all of us to “play” in. Using Markor storage solutions from IKEA, I have created a “grown up” look to store all of our childrens toys. In addition, we have storage for DVD’s, video games, books, accessories, and our new flat screen TV!

Reminder: I am an interior designer, not a photographer!

While I still long for a designated “Playroom”, I am happy with the solutions that we have put into place in our “Family Room”. What storage solutions have you implemented in your “Family Room”? What would be on your wish list for a dedicated “Playroom”?

stephany taddeo

home is what you make it

Tag: playroom