When we were deciding whether to buy our home or not, I thought long and hard about the layout of the downstairs and how it would work for us as a family. The house was empty and an empty house always seems a lot smaller than it actually is. So how I thought we would use the space before we moved it, was not how it ended up.
Our lounge is one big room that is the whole side of one half of the house and the position of the door, lends itself well to having the room split into areas. It was sold to us as the space at the front of the house being a study area, which it might one day become as the girls grow up.
For now it makes the perfect playroom area for them. Alice is a child that wants to have one of us with her at all times, she likes the presence of us being there even if she is happily playing and doesn’t actually need us. And whilst Holly is the complete opposite to this, it’s great that I can be in the lounge area and actually sit down! Or if friends come over they can happily play while we chat and have a coffee.
When we first moved in we used the furniture that we had in the previous house, but it didn’t really fit and we just made do until we could afford to change it. It’s now all finished and I thought I would give you a guided tour. I’ve embedded the video below, for you to see it better.
This first wall is where we have most of the storage. These are the Northcode Modular Units from the Great Little Trading Company. I went for these and I like that you can buy different styles and they slot together. You can mix them up and swap them about.
In the cupboards is where I keep all their games and jigsaws. Holly can’t reach them at the moment, which is only a good thing!
This is the gallery wall, all of them except the ice cream print are actually greeting cards. They are a great way to display art on walls. All the frames are the Ribba frames from IKEA. The ice cream print is from Not On The High Street and you can personalise it. The rainbow card is also from Not On The High Street.
I love this Sisters sign, we had it in the old house and I just had to make sure we had a place for it here too. I made it myself, well kind of. I brought the wooden letters from eBay and brought tester paint pots to paint them the colours that I wanted. In our old house the playroom, was a pink, grey and star themed room. I also brought some little wooden stars and added these to the corners.
These name signs were in their bedrooms in the old house, but they didn’t really match their new room themes and I thought they would look great here. These are from This Modern Life and I just brought 1 pack of letters and had enough to both their names and had lots left over.
We brought Holly her Dolls House for her 3rd birthday and she loves it. It is the Rosebud house from ELC. I brought it about 4 months before her birthday as it was in the sale and a great price. I then waited for their room offers to come on, that I knew they did. You can buy 2 room sets for £20 and I got a few and grandparents gave them to her.
Next to it is the hit present from Christmas. Holly loves her Scoop & Learn Ice Cream Cart.
This side of the room is the main play area. The shop is a well loved toy and children who come to play seem to love it too. This is from George at Asda, they do really lovely wooden toys that don’t cost too much. I brought this for £25 for Christmas a couple of years ago, sadly they don’t sell it anymore.
They spend a lot of time playing with their kitchen. This is the Peppermint Townhouse from Plum and it is a 2 in 1 kitchen and dolls house. On the other side is the dolls house, I reviewed this and you can see it fully here.
Both my girls have always loved playing with a tea set from a young age and I don’t see that stopping anytime soon. I love this set from George at Asda, with actual wooden tea bags. They don’t sell this exact design anymore, but this one is similar and very cute – Wooden Tea Set.
It took me a while to decide what to put on the wall above them, as it’s quite big and also it spans into the lounge area. I needed something that would work for both areas. I’ve always loved this large wicker heart and have wanted to buy it for a long time. It seemed to be the perfect answer to my problem and I love it.
On the floor are 2 star rugs which I brought from NEXT. They only longer do this one.
I store in these cubes all the toys that are most played with. They are sectioned in different toy types, for example one cube has all their Busy Books in. If you don’t have Busy Books I really recommend them, my girls play with them all the time. I buy ours from Sainsbury for £5, but places like WHsmiths also sell them.
On top I have some of my favourite photos of the girls and us. These pink frames are from GLTC, sadly I got them in the sale and they no longer stock them. Above the unit is a clock that I brought from IKEA.
That is the playroom complete. I’m really pleased with this space that the girls have and I can see as they grow up, it growing with them. When it’s time to say goodbye to the kitchen and shop, we can put them a desk there to do their homework on.
As I mentioned above I’ve made a video tour to give you a better idea of what it looks like.
I hope you enjoyed this, I will be sharing a tour of our lounge area soon as that is finished too.
