This room makeover is sponsored by The Range

Hi, well we are now at part 2 of our playroom makeover. Do you remember last week I showed how much of a junk/dump room it had become with no clear identity?

The Playroom Makeover

Well we have been decluttering madly and hugely reduced what we have in there. It was so silly really so much of the stuff was just ‘stuff’ taking up room with no purpose

1.  completed work books and colouring books
2. dried up paints
3. out of date face paints
4. dried up mixed up playdough and plasticine
5. old drawings and models
6. jigsaws with bits missing
7. broken toys

The above just needed sorting and throwing away all of it, except for the old drawings and junk models . I just didn’t have the heart to part with them.  They represented part of my childen’s development and they had put so much time and effort into them.They couldn’t however stay clogging up the play room so I popped to the range and purchased these fab art folders. One for each of the kids. These can then hold their precious pictures and be stored easily up in the loft.

For the models they had made, we took photos and popped them in portfolios too then the models were binned in all but one case and for the one that wanted to keeping it was properly displayed on a bookcase in the bedroom. Yes this did take some negotiating.

The second part of the declutter was a bit more tricky.

1) toys no longer played with (except very occasionally, but still wanted)

2) outgrown toys no one wants to admit are outgrown

3) 3 dolls houses!  (its a small room)

4) 4 footballs (living in the dolls cot)

5) All my work files and personal documents mingling on a dusty bookcase with games and kids books.

Tough decisions – The Playroom Makeover

So…out grown toys and those rarely played with ? Into a storage box with them clearly labelled up the loft. Daddy promises he will bring them down whenever the kids request to play with them. What’s the betting they never do.

One of the dolls house up the loft, One in the shed for garden play and one can stay. Footballs went into the shed too, 1 to be kept in the boot of my car. 1 in the book of daddy’s car.

Decisions are needed when it comes to decluttering. Some people believe it is the putting off of decision that makes clutter in the first place. Well I tried to declutter by involving the kids but that didn’t work because they kept saying  they wanted everything . So cunningly I waited till they went back to school. They barely noticed what I had decluttered but they did play in the room lots more because what was left in there worked, was complete and relevant to the room and they could get to it.

Decluttering merely cost me time and a few storage boxes and cases it has made a HUGE difference.

A vision for the room – The Playroom Makeover

Next we needed a vision for the room. I have picked a few key new pieces from the Range for the playroom. and we need to somehow pull this together. The chair was key. We wanted a relaxing chair that we could sit into read ( we all adore reading) and look out into the garden. So we chose this gogeous black Derry  swivel chair form the Range which is SO comfortable.It retails at £149 and is absolutely a great chair. It is made of faux leather and is perfect for relaxing and unwinding.

We all ready had white ikea storge shelves but they looked cluttered and mess. We wanted the room to be fun but still look stylish.We love red and I had my eye on a red rug to warm this room.

We decided to take some advice form Jen  at Love Chic Living. Jen is an interiors stylist and lucky for me an old friend. Here is her advice

“In terms of styling a playroom, the colour of toys and toy boxes can often overpower the look of the room, so use one accent colour, in this case red, to create a harmony in the design. Keep everything as streamlined as possible and add lots of fun cushions to complement the colourful storage drawers. Great for the children to lounge around on and to help encourage their play.”