The Big Reveal: Playroom & Guest Room Makeover

Holy hell, y’all. It’s done.* And to think, it all started with just painting the walls. But I’m just a teensy bit blue about it… what the heck am I going to do now after the kids go to bed??? Actually clean the kitchen up from dinner? Psssshaw. Whatevs. I’m probably just going to zone out on Pinterest with a glass of wine. Don’t judge. You know you do it too.

Let’s get to the good stuff.

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I’ve seen enough design blogs and Before & After posts on Apartment Therapy to know that what people want to see when you reveal an “After” are photos in the same angle and POV as the “before picture. So for those of you people who may read this, here you go:

The guest area, from roughly the same spot.

You can see that not too much has changed on this side of the room–the bed and bedding are the same, but we have added a Kallax bookshelf to serve as dresser-ish nightstandy thing for anyone staying at the O’D Inn.

Here are some detail photos:

I wanted the things in the shelves to be practical for a guest–plenty of fresh towels, some enjoyable books and some books about Chicago. Easy access to electric sockets… all the comforts of home!

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I’m a mom so there are always snacks around. I just figured I should put some up here for my guests, too. Oh who am I kidding. The moment the kids discover these in the baskets, they’re done-zo.

Is there ever anything more frustrating than not knowing the password to the wifi when you’re visiting somewhere? I decided to solve that with a jaunty little picture.

I feel like it’s a pretty cozy little nook for my mom or my in-laws or whomever else decides to pay us a visit! (Come visit soon!!)

But what my kiddos are most excited about is the playroom space. I have to admit… I am too.

Pay no mind to the painters tape that I just realized is still on the ceiling fan, ok?

I love how bright and fun this looks. It’s better (to me) than some of the local indoor playspaces! I’m so glad we did the Flor carpet tiles.

Read about the disgusting job of removing of the old carpet and how I laid the new carpet tiles!

This is from the inside of the “secret” room… I made a conscious decision to do square tiles in here rather than the triangles in the main playroom. First, we only decided to finish out this hidden crawlspace after we had initially ordered the Flor tiles for the main play area. I wanted the secret room to have a different feel than the main room, but still match it, you know? I think the beadboard and the square tiles helps accomplish that.

The secret-hidden room slash reading nook was an afterthought, but man, am I glad we after-thought it.

We decided to finish the crawlspace all the way to the back wall… it’s pretty long but I figured it would be great storage space after the kids are grown and gone.

The cubbies really make it, in my mind. You can see the toys but there’s also a place for everything, which is what it’s all about, right?

These chairs and table are my favorite shopping conquest ever! We got them at the Land of Nod’s warehouse sale–they were floor models from The Land of Nod store so they had a little wear and tear, but I thought “Hey. They’re for kids to use! They’re going to get beat up anyway!” You cannot beat a deeply discounted 75% less than the retail price, right? Right.

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None of those books taught my kid how to swear, by the way.

My kids seem to love anything that has a million pieces. Thank goodness for Ikea's storage boxes.

We used some scrap beadboard from the secret room to back the kallax bookshelves so toys wouldn’t fall behind into the abyss. I love the look of beadboard. I want every room to have beadboard somewhere.

I love being able to display some toys and hide all the rest! Maybe this will encourage me and my kids to put things back where they belong.

Here’s a floor plan for those of you who like to see how it all actually fits together!

I hope you like it as much as we do! Now I want to redo EVERY room! Maybe I should just start by cleaning every room. Ha!

Source List

Playroom & Guest Room Walls: Benjamin Moore “Atrium White” in eggshell

Secret Room Walls: bead board painted with Benjamin Moore Ultra Spec Semi-Gloss trim paint

Flooring: Flor carpet tiles

Guest bed, table, shelves and lamps: Ikea

Guest bedding: Target

All Storage Baskets and Bins: Ikea

Table: Land of Nod (discontinued)

Chairs: Land of Nod

Train Table: Melissa & Doug

*There are still a few things left for me to do up there. I need to put the shoe on the baseboard to bridge the gap between the carpet and the baseboard. I need to obviously remove the painters tape from around the ceiling fan. I’m going to sew a curtain for the secret room opening (when I learn how to sew… ha). The insanely huge and unsightly brown air conditioner that just stares at you from the wall… I’d love to get rid of that thing and get something more sleek, energy-efficient, pretty, but we just can’t right now. The thing is a tank and it works really, really, really well. It sticks out of the siding of the back of the house so replacing it isn’t merely the same as replacing a window air conditioner and it would be far more expensive. So in the wall it stays, until one day, it finally dies on us. And I want to figure out some sort of art for the walls… that is going to take time.

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