Remember when I said I *HAD* to finish decorating the playroom? Well, hand me a pen because it is time TO CROSS THAT SUCKER OFF OF THE LIST!
I'm a widdle bit excited about this.
Wanna see? Wanna see? WANNA SEE?
Too bad. I'm posting the pics anyway.
So . . . the before . . .
Basically, it was a big white box (18' x 22' of big) with crap all over the place. I have better pictures that more accurately show the volume of crap all over the place and the vast whiteness of it all, but I'm too lazy to find them right now. Long of the short, absolutely nothing had been done in the room since the house was built, unless you count Alexis' "decorating" with toys. TOTAL blank slate.
Originally I wanted to paint an elaborate Tim Burton-esque Alice in Wonderland mural in there, but given that the simple fairy murals in Alexis' bedroom still aren't done a year after I started them, I decided I better simplify. A LOT.
So, I looked for inspiration. And found it.
Mr. Husband bought this little piano for Alexis a few years ago. She LURVES it. She also LURVES playing her electric guitar, dancing, singing, and looking at herself. And, thus, she got this:
Let's work bottom to top, shall we?
It all starts with the stage that Mr. Husband built last fall. It was one of those insanely inexpensive projects that makes a huge difference. It's nothing more than a bunch of 2x4s, a large piece of particle board, some super cheap laminate flooring from IKEA, and some trim to finish off the top edge all the way around.
On top of that is Alexis' halfway decent collection of musical instruments. The drum set she got for Christmas last year from her grandparents, the pianos she has had for years, and the guitar and mic came from us for Christmas last year. I still need to find a drum stool (the lawn chair is a bit awkward), but that little bit of it is going to have to wait for a while.
Behind the stage is a crap-ton of 12"x12" mirrors from IKEA. I have been slowly buying them for months because, seriously, there is a crap-ton of them. I fully expected that the second I put them on the wall (double-sided tape is my friend), Alexis would be drawn like a moth to a flame and wouldn't be able to stop staring at herself.
I was right.
On either side of the stage are two IKEA bookshelves. I plan to actually arrange the stuff on them in a way that makes sense after Alexis' birthday party this weekend. There really is no point in putting things in their proper places right now when I know the contents will be on the floor within 30 seconds of her party starting.
Hanging from the ceiling is the greatest thing in the history of playrooms:
Oh, yes, I have a DISCO BALL! in my house. A REAL DISCO BALL! The idea was born when I took Alexis to Burn the Floor a while back. The final number involves a DISCO BALL! and when that shiny glass globe of joy dropped from the ceiling, she turned into one of the aliens in Toy Story. She was all, "Oooooooh." Later, I checked to see if I could buy one on Amazon and went, "Aaaaaah!" Affordable birthday present. She got a DISCO BALL! for her birthday (a few days early). Weeeeee!
Turning a bit . . .
On one of the bookshelves is this thing:
It's a mini jukebox that works with an iPod. We first bought one over a year ago as a Christmas gift for my father-in-law. We paid full price at that time, but when we happened upon the exact same one on clearance for $20 at Target last fall, I broke out some kung fu moves and high-tailed it out of there with the thing stuffed in my pants. I may have stopped to pay for it, but only because SCORE!
Moving right along . . . I like to call this wall the Alexis' Mom is a Genius Wall.
Alexis creates "masterpieces" Every. Single. Day. The only way I could manage to have a fridge big enough to display it all would be if I had a meat locker, so I needed another way for the kid to hang up some of her favorite things. PERFECT! It's about six feet wide and three rows tall, so there is plenty of space for her to change things out and hang up whatever she wants.
The top row, however, is mine. I picked what goes there and until the kid grows about two feet, she can't do a darn thing about it.
Where else would I keep her first ballet slippers?
Part of the reason I think I'm sort of a genius for thinking of that little display is that it is made of all things we already had around the house. See:
Curtain hooks, wire, and eye screws. The red ribbon came from my Christmas stash. I did add the black frames, which I found on clearance at IKEA last week. Alexis had a blast picking out what she wanted in each frame. She managed to declare this her favorite photo of all time:
All together now . . . Awwwwwww!
Moving along . . . SURPRISE! More IKEA stuff!
There is a $15 floor lamp and several flower-shaped wall lamps. The wall lamps are another thing that I have been collecting for quite a while, assuming that I would eventually figure out a way to make them work with everything else. (This is the only room in our house that wasn't wired for a ceiling light fixture, so I had to find ways to make use of outlets.)
The tree mural is a giant vinyl sticker that I found on Etsy.
I really do enjoy painting wall murals, but that took less than four hours to put up. That's . . . uh. . . 600% less time than painting something would have taken. WIN.
(One of the things that isn't done about the room is that I want more butterflies and birds to scatter throughout the room. Eventually.)
Then, in the corner, is Alexis' kitchen play area.
The High School Musical kids are babysitting Ariel and Belle. Obviously.
I'd like to find a new kitchen, preferable a red retro style one that has separate pieces for the fridge and oven, but for obvious reasons that's not a priority. Also not a priority is the fact that I still have three more IKEA flower wall lamps to hang behind the kitchen. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. Possibly.
The super boring red curtains are the suprise win of the room. I looked and looked and looked for a print that would tie in all of the colors in the room, but couldn't find anything. I finally happened upon the solid red faux silk ones at Garden Ridge. They were regular $15 but on clearance for half price, so WIN! AGAIN! The best part is that they actually look pretty good, if I do say so myself.
Lastly, the wall paint. It's the same boring beige/cream we have in our dining room. I actually HATE it in the dining room and plan to repaint in there, so it made sense to use what was left of that paint in the playroom. I think I like it in the playroom because there was no need to go bold with the paint, especially considering that there is a lot going on, what with the DISCO BALL! in the middle of the room. (Yes, DISCO BALL! has to be written in all caps. It's a law. Somewhere. I think. Alexis sure does seem to think it has to be pronounced that way.)
So. Playroom. Done.
Alexis is one happy camper.
