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A Reimagined Playroom

Remember that initial excitement of moving the playhouse into the playroom last year?  We would “cook” and pretend in there for hours.  Sadly, as with most new toys for our children, the novelty wore off.  LOL Surpise Dolls were taking over and the playhouse was all but forgotten.  I don’t know about you, but I can only play with those little plastic dolls for so long before I start to lose my mind.  I started thinking, how can I put the “fun” back into the playroom?  And here’s the real trick, without spending a dime doing it.  It hit me!  When I was a kid I loved to rearrange my furniture, toys…EVERYTHING really.  It’s so silly how something as simple as moving an object to a different location can give it life again and make it seem new.  I put on my “moving” clothes and got to work.  Everything in the room was kept the same or repurposed in some way.  I decided to create a Cafe space and add little menu’s in the frames I already had.  The Playhouse is no longer the focal point in the room, but as Brennan from Stepbrothers said, “It will give us so much extra space to do activities!”

Pretty in Pastels Playhouse

Have you seen those amazingly made over playhouses on your screen lately?  You know, the ones that are nicer than your own home?  So have I, but not in my own backyard.  We purchased the playhouse almost two years ago for our daughters second birthday.  After much love and (A LOT) of labor, the house was put together with no extra frills or details and was placed in our backyard.   We had a great time playing and letting our imaginations take over.  Now almost two years later, the playhouse no longer looked loved.  The elements had gotten the best of it and the house was being overrun by the awful W’s.  Wasps and wolf spiders (eek!).  The house was just begging for a make over, and after all, I do love a good project.
After thoroughly cleaning the house, I was able to persuade my husband to help take it apart and move it inside.  Thankfully, after taking some measurements, it would fit in the playroom and so we moved it in there.   Because of it’s size, I chose to keep the colors light and bright.  I started with a good primer and brushed painted the entire house.  I then went to my go to white paint, Benjamin Moore Simply White, (this is my trim, door, and cabinet color in my house) and gave the house three good coats.  I chose a pretty blush pink for the door and top window shutters and spray painted the phone, phone holder, and planter boxes in black.  The play kitchen and food shelves fit perfectly on the back wall with two additional shelves installed above the kitchen for storage.  Since the playroom can sometimes be a little dark, I opted to keep the window areas bare and not reinstall the plastic windows that came with the house.
To complete the space I moved the art desk and it’s crayons and pencils to the opposite wall and painted the roof on the dollhouse in the blush pink to match the playhouse.  Everything else in the playroom was able to stay the same (sources all listed here).  The project took a full five days to complete and we are all enjoying having it inside.  After a much needed makeover the playhouse is now loved again!