Playroom Re-design in Progress

We finally decided on some furniture to go in this room. It's not what we originally intended but we weren't left with many choices when it came to getting something up the stairs and turning the corner and going through a 29 1/2 inch doorway. I spent the afternoon after church painting only three walls. I did not plan on BLUE but I saw a pamphlet of a blue room with brown furniture with all the paints and it looked good. It also allowed me to keep our striped wall and it not look tacky. My friend and I spent too much time painting these stripes to paint back over them.


This photo below is dark but you can get an idea of how large this room is and how stupid it would have looked with just a futon which many salespeople tried to talk us into. I already have paint peeled off the wall b/c I tried to put up a large piece of corkboard I bought at the Educational Express store yesterday. I asked the saleslady if the sticky stuff with it would tear off the paint and she said "No". She was wrong. Not only did it do that, it wouldn't stay on the wall two seconds. Now I have to find an alternative to hanging it back up. The windows are bare but I have decided what I'm going to do. With three toddlers, blinds are not an option. Even downstairs, our blinds stay up all the time to keep them from breaking them. I'm going to put up the shades that roll-up like a tape measure. They can't reach them to pull it down so when I'm in there with them, I'll pull them down. The sun shines very brightly through this window and the room stays hot plus makes it impossible to see the tv with all the glare. We definitely need some type of window treatment that the kids can't tear down.

The toddlers didn't see the furniture until this morning. We went to a park last night while Tony stayed home helping the delivery people get the furniture upstairs and when we got home they went straight to bed. Nate walked in, didn't notice it and went to the train table. Andrew saw it, said "uh oh" and climbed up it with his sippy and it leaked out milk on it. (The fabric is microfiber and is suppose to be easy to clean.) Madelyn first threw the pillow in the floor. She couldn't climb onto it at first. She struggled and grunted but eventually got up.

I'm still working on the walls. I don't like bare walls. I have an alphabet train I'm going to hang up when I get some adhesive. It's 18 feet long. The kids also made their own paintings which I will post after this. The walls will not be covered in nice paintings or expensive wall hangings but instead with whatever the kids want to put up. It's their room. It's the room we'll hang out in with them and spread toys everywhere. It's the room we can close off when company comes and they don't have to see a mess. It's where eventually the kids can go with their friends and play the Wii, watch movies, etc. I will not put TV's in their rooms. I don't like that idea. I want us to be a family, not everyone go their different ways. They'll still have their rooms they can go to for silence, play with their own toys, read books in peace, etc. (except Nate and Andrew have to share). This is the room that deserves the title "Family Room".