House Tour: Toddler Playroom Update

What's more exciting than looking at photos of somebody else's kid? LOOKING AT THE STUFF OF SOMEBODY ELSE'S KID!!!

On the subject of kid stuff, though - I'm being serious here, for once - I'm revamping Master P's play area, which is the rare home design project I get excited about.

Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love looking at other people's Pretty homes - but I usually suffer from creative paralysis when it comes to decorating my own; I just don't have the same enthusiasm (read: spending habit) for it as I do for my wardrobe. Combine that with the current dance the AH & I are doing, that well-known yuppie "Do we stay in the tiny-but-central bungalow or move to the bigger house / better school district / will-to-live-free suburbs?" limbo, and I'm often hesitant to spend on house prettification.

The wee CEO's playroom, however, is a work of love. I get the immediate payoff when he likes something new I've done-  you know, insert puffy rainbows here about making your child happy or whatever - and it evolves every few months as his interests evolve*.

(*"His interests evolve" inadvertently sounds stuffy there, as if my two-year-old is sitting around in a wee smoking jacket, puffing on a pipe as he muses over Spain's debt crisis. You know what I mean.)

The challenge we have in our current wee house is that our so-called "playroom" is in fact a gated-off corner of our open-plan kitchen / living room / dining room, so I'm limited both by space and what won't hurt my adult eyes too much.

This most recent playroom iteration started off here, with just too much disorganized stuff, only a fraction of which he plays with now:

Pay no attention to that wine fridge off to the left, la la la . . .

Living in the tiny-but-central house necessitates a Zen-like approach to possessions - you just can't have too many of them, because there simply isn't enough room. After having Master P and all the things that come with him, I've really tried to implement a "one thing in, one thing out" approach, either storing or more often donating away what we aren't currently using.

After an overhaul of the current toy administration and a quick IKEA trip (as quick as Swedish meatballs & intentionally confusing store design can be, that is), things look more like this:

Bonus points if you can spot the Pug.

There are books and another box of toys stashed away in this IKEA tent - Master P loves to go in here and play for a while, and I love that this doubles as storage space (and, yes, that it buys me some independent play time).

storage bins from Target, Step 2 train table 

we park our shoes & trucks at the front gate

My favorite bit of the alphabet wall, of course.

Technically this IKEA desk/ chair set isn't in the play area; I put it near the couch / dining room area to better leave open play area floor for train tracks (I don't pretend to understand the train thing - I just live here).

This IKEA easel is also technically outside of the play area - remember all that floor space needed for trains? -  but occupies a corner previously filled with a high chair & other baby detrius no longer in use.

Some kind readers - hey, Kate! - have asked me about doing a more comprehensive home tour, which I will consider but fear will underwhelm you - or, perhaps worse, merely whelm you (is that a thing?).

Until then / should you be suffering from insomnia, you can read here about the crisis of craftiness - a rare disorder primarily caused by too much time on Pinterest - which led to the initial sprucing up of this play area.