Another "before" photo of the playroom.
"Before" photo of the playroom.
- Things at her level.
- Place to create art (draw, color or kits).
- A room to grow with her.
- Desk for homework.
- Calm, minimalist decor.
- Vanity to do her hair.
- Place to read.
- Make things easy for her to put away.
- Room that can change over time.
This list is not all inclusive but will give you an idea of where I want to go. From there, I identified four main areas of the room:
- Closet-To store all of the toys.
- Vanity-To do her hair and to hold her jewelry.
- Desk Area-To color, paint or do any kind of artwork. Also, for homework.
- Reading area-I wanted a comfortable place to read to encourage reading but also to help her learn that it's o.k. to be still and quiet once in a while.
In addition to storing all of the toys, I wanted to think about the future needs of this room. I wanted adjustable shelving in the playroom so that as her needs change, so can the room. I thought that perhaps one day this room might be an office and if it were, the shelves could hold bulk office supplies or be moved to accomodate whatever hobby room this might be.
If you look closely at the top of the closet, you can see a horizontal bar along the top back of the closet, which is the "hanging bar" for the three uprights.
In addition to toy storage, I also thought she could open the doors and just play right there. She had some doll houses and stages that needed to sit flat so I thought the shelves would work just fine. She can play right there. And that's exactly what she does. The beauty of this is that it makes it easy to put things away since they are already in the place where they should go.
For the closet shelving, I went to Menards and used the Rubbermaid kiosk to purchase the supplies for this closet. Prior to going there, I measured the closet height and width and drew out the shelves for the closet. I knew I wanted adjustable shelving and I measured the depth so I could get a deep shelf for the closet. To save costs, I ordered the regular wire shelving and not the "linen" shelving which is more expensive. The regular wire shelving would hold her toys just fine. Once I knew what I wanted, I went to the kiosk and put in my information. You can use the pre-designed closets or create your own. I created my own. Once that was selected, you enter in the height and width of your closet, then select your shelving sizes. In this case, I selected 16 inch deep shelves so it could hold the games but also the larger plastic bins. For the width of the closet shelving, I took the actual width of the closet and had the shelves cut 1/2 inch smaller than the width so I could get the shelf in the closet easier. If you cut the shelf the exact same size as the width, you won't be able to install the shelf in there.
The beauty of this kiosk is that it will print a shopping list for you with the supplies you need for the shelves, but also the tools that you will need, complete with Sku numbers. You may already have many of the tools, but it doesn't hurt to check. One of the biggest advantages to the kiosk, is that it will tell you the minimum number of shelves to buy so you don't overbuy. In the past, I would figure all of this myself but since the kiosk was there, I decided to use it. A lot of the times, the wire shelving can come in 6 and 12 foot widths, with different prices and since you want to buy all of your shelving for the lowest price, it will figure this out for you. You could also use the kiosk to get an estimate for your project so let's say you wanted to get an idea of what a closet remodel would cost, you could enter in your measurements, push the button and you'll have the cost and the shopping list for a later day. In this case, I printed the list and the client purchased all of the materials and brought them home and I installed them on my next work day. (O.K. maybe I did call Dream Dad to help me hold the hanging track and drill into the walls.) The cost of the closet shelving was $212.
For this closet, I wanted the closet to have five 16 inch shelves that were 50 3/4 inches wide (The actual closet width was 51.5 inches wide.). The kiosk printed a shopping list that included the shelving (one 6 foot shelf and two 12 foot shelves), the uprights for the back (it figures out how many uprights you will need based on the width of your closet), the hanging track/bar (see photo above), the wire shelf brackets to support the shelf, the end caps and the screws. Installation was fairly easy. You simply attach the hanging track, then the uprights and then your shelves. I love having adjustable shelves in a closet so it's a nice improvement over shelving in the past, when you installed each shelf in the closet separately. Picture of the finished closet.
In addition to the closet, the little girl already had a chalkboard in the room that she wanted to keep. I simply added a metallic strip with some bins for the chalk. Also, the mother purchased this letter for the playroom.
"Before" photo of the letter "e".
"After" photo with the new ribbon to match the room's decor.
"After" photo of the finished closet and the chalkboard.
Coming up: Dream Playroom Makeover Part II: The Vanity
To see the entire playroom makeover, click here.
Note: I am a Professional Organizer and Home Stager and have my own business called, "Dream Organizers." My motto is, "Keep it simple. Get organized. Make it beautiful."
2 comments:
It's fabulous! I'm especially loving the creative painting of the initial letter and the polka-dot ribbon. I do a lot of quilting and my rule of thumb in fabric selection is to ALWAYS include some polka-dots - they can be either contemporary or traditional, but they always liven things up! Can't wait to see the rest of this adorable room!
Truly you are one talented, gifted, creative woman! Thanks for sharing these wonderful pics! WOW! The transformation you made to this room is AMAZING! How inspirational!
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