Playroom re-do

Previously, our 4th bedroom was our school room/office. We did "school" in there for a while but it just didn't work for our family. There wasn't enough room for the littles to play while the bigs did their work. It was too far from the laundry and kitchen. Eventually we moved everything to the kitchen/dining/living room area and starting doing school at the kitchen table.

The before pictures are from when I re-arranged to make it work for school.

Before

After

I added the mat to help with the noise. We don't have any carpet in our house - which I LOVE - but it does make for noisy tractors and trucks on the floor. The mat helps some but I would like it if I could cover the whole floor or at least more of it.

Before

After

Let me just say that I don't see this bookshelf/cubby unit going anywhere. For one thing it's solid wood and weighs a TON! But I really like it. It is very versatile. We purchased it when the McCrory school district moved the elementary to a new building. We had an auction for them and sold all the surplus equipment. I also have some wall maps I bought there (3-4 years ago) that are still waiting to be hung on the wall (will require strong anchoring and they are heavy).

It previously housed our non-fiction books, read alouds, and chapter books (all the easy reader were in another shelf). We cleared out some closets and moved all those books hopefully - out of sight, out of mind for the little boys. Anything that is out now, they can play with.

My awesome mother-in-law made this bookshelf/storage unit for the boys a few years ago. {I figured you would ask ;) } She also made Madisyn one shaped like a house. I saw similar units in a catalog but they were particle board. Nana took the general idea and really improved on it. The barn has two trap doors, the silo opens (I left it cracked so you could see), the silo has shelves and the roof is copper sheeting. We've had it 3 years and it still looks this great!

Proof that it doesn't always look nice. In fact, that's one of the best things about it. There are no toys in the boys' room. No more tripping over tractor/trailer rigs in the dark of night.

I allow the playroom to stay messy (though there is a no books on the floor rule) until Thursday afternoon. Friday is our lite school day and we generally do our cleaning and errands then. This way the playroom is done before we start our Friday activities.