Thursday, April 29, 2010

Basement Playroom: The Before Pictures

We have what my 7-year-old niece calls "the coolest playroom ever" - true story. Except, as a 33-year-old, I'm not so crazy about it. I'm always looking for ways to improve what we have. So I decided to take a few pictures to document my (soon to be, I hope) progress on updating the area for Ish.

A few disclaimers before we begin our tour: Ish has a TON of toys. I make no apologies for spoiling my only child! And the room is in a state of chaos at this time - we are not using it for it's intended purpose at the moment (which is kind of the whole point of this post). I really need to get this room in order.

Here's the right side wall. Adorned with Winnie the Pooh wall decals (stolen from Ish's nursery). There are various storage bins (which I need to re-evaluate and replace) and a cute little desk set we got for Ish at The Container Store (which as you can see, I'm also using for storage at the moment!).
The back wall houses a piece of our sectional couch, a toy bin and a little book shelf (we definitely need a bigger book shelf down here). The small windows are the only source of natural light (our basement is partially underground). Note: that lovely A&P bag is filled with clothespins - we have a retractable clothes line that I use once in a blue moon.
The left wall. Two big problems.
First problem: the entryway to our under-the-house storage (this is our only real storage area, as we have no attic). It takes up a good 1/3rd of the wall space. We can't really do anything about it without involving major construction to our home.
Second problem: this lovely Ikea entertainment center. It's a nice piece and has some storage, but it's not very practical and I think I can make better use of the space. I would like to replace it with a corner TV stand - which I think makes a lot of sense as it would have a smaller footprint and would make watching TV easier (since it would angle the TV towards the couch).
That's it for walls - the fourth wall is the entry to our laundry area and Matt's tool room (which is a disaster of it's own!).

I'm thinking we should change the wall color(s) too. I fought this idea for a while (because the vibrant colors seemed to give the room a "brighter" look), but I'm warming up to the idea of something in the blue family. Maybe with stripes - although I can't commit to that because I'm not a great painter, Matt would have to do it and he may not be keen on all that extra work! I like what Behr has to offer:

I emailed all these pictures to a friend who is great with all things organization and volunteered her services for brainstorming - I'm going to need all the help I can get. As I get brilliant ideas and come across must-have storage solutions, I'll let you know! Stay tuned for after pictures.

3 comments:

nbjenni said...

I can't wait to see the final product!

Katie said...

I am loving the blue, like a grayish/tealish one. Can't wait to see what you do with it!

Christine said...

That is indeed a lot of toys!! Good luck with the reorganization. I love blue as I'm sure ish does too! You could maybe throw some reds or greens in it to make it brighter?