....play room project......

.....there have been many times I have mentioned on this blog my disdain for crafts.....truly, I do not enjoy the pasting, glueing and glitter that is required for some of the masterpieces we have made in our home.....however, that is not to say that I am not creatively influenced every once and a while......and there is nothing that screams opportunity more than moving into a new house.....

.....Stefan has certainly learned over the past few months that it may not be uncommon to arrive home from work on a Friday evening to kick start the weekend of family time and he is quickly removed from whatever mental idea he had by my......hmm, how shall I put this?......artistic inspiration waiting for him on the kitchen counter......his former plan of fun for the weekend of taking the girls to a movie on Saturday immediately changed to a family trip to the Home Depot upon glancing at our counter......

.....not as relaxing, but still oh, so fun.....

.....honestly, I am joking......taking three kids 5 and under for a list of 30+ items to Home Depot on a Saturday is a far cry from popcorn and a good flick; but when momma is inspired, the whole family will be too......

.....moving in to a home three times the size of our humble NYC apartment has been overwhelming.......there are so many things we want to change, enhance, and decorate that I literally can only take very small baby steps without feeling too overcome with decisions......throw in pinterest, design magazines and opinions of friends and family who all have great ideas and I freeze with anxiety on where to begin.....

.....Stefan and I originally made a list of the rooms in the house that would get priority based on time, use and budget......that list gets chucked out the window when an idea comes to me......it is as if the idea strikes me like lightening and all I can think about is getting started......

......the playroom has always been at the bottom of the list since the space we use for the kids to play is in our basement.......at the end of the day, I can close the door and I don't have to see what lies below......well, I am also the one who spends most of my time downstairs during the week with the kids and Stefan may frequent it a time or two on a weekend......I made the executive decision as COO of this household on a cold, dreary winter day that I would no longer be a prisoner to a white and bland play room.....

....we were due for a make over and lightening had struck.....

.....without mentioning my bursting enthusiasm to Stefan, I spent a few nights on houzz.com and pinterest........I made a few phone calls to my go to friends who have an eye for style and I made one quick trip alone with the kids for some paint samples......a glass of wine, some good music, the babes tucked into bed and splashes of paint on the dreary white walls and our new weekend plans were born.....

......goodbye plain and lifeless......

.....hello to our new future space for creativity and play......

.....I narrowed down some bright color to liven the place up and let Stefan make the final decision....

....part two of the project was my idea for giving the girls a designated area to sing, dance and click their tap shoes to their hearts content.....I handed Stefan several inspiration pictures of a stage that I wanted him to build so the girls could have a place to perform their shows......he glanced at the pics, headed down to the playroom and stared at the corner for a while......he made his list and less than 24 hours later; he was hard at work......

....completing the chalkboard in the art room was the easiest and fastest part of the project......we finalized the size of the board, slapped on two coats of chalkboard paint and then framed it with some wood trim he cut and painted in white......

.....the girls were playing school by the end of the weekend, which was a good distraction so we could move over to the "performance section" of the playroom......

.....that part got a little trickier.....

....once we finalized our contrasting color, I worked on the painting so Stefan could build the stage.....

.....the construction was the easy part......waiting for the stain to dry took weeks.....the garage was the only place we could keep the wet stage and 20 degree weather is not conducive for wood stain to set.....

....so we waited....

.....the delay on the stage bought me a little bit of time to go back to the art room and solve the dilemma of the many works of art that the girls bring home from nursery school......Elsie has access five days a week to an art studio at school and I am not exaggerating when I say she brings home at least five masterpieces per day.....again, pinterest served its purpose because I found an idea that would work perfectly for my wall adjacent to the chalk board.......the original idea is here, but I altered it a tad.....

.....I bought cheap wooden frames at Michael's.....I added clothes pins, wood glue and spray paint and was good to go......

.....I configured the layout I wanted for the wall art display, which is hard for me because I am not good at puzzles or making things fit symmetrically.....after several shuffles, I found a configuration I liked.....

.....I glued the clothes pins to the wood frames, testing each one so the art work would hang centered in the frame......for the larger ones, I used a popsicle stick to lower my clothes pin so the art work would hang centered......

.....I attached the clothes pins and let them dry for a few hours.....

.....the girls were dying to contribute, so I tasked them with painting.......

.....we bundled up, headed into our screened patio and they made it through the word inspire before they were done and wanted to move on to snack time, stickers and get back to playing teacher......

.....I spray painted the wooden frames, carefully painting over the glue and the inside of each clothes pin so they would match the color when opened to hang art work......

......after a few hours, I was ready to complete the wall, so I grabbed my hammer and nails.....

.....wallah....

.....there are still several things I want to do to accessorize our playroom, but the heart of the project is complete.....

......the chalkboard is never clean, so I decided to leave it as is as a testament to how much our children are enjoying it......

 ....my list for completing this space is adding a few new light fixtures, an accent rug, some more wall hangings, tags for the sea grass storage boxes so the kids know what goes where for clean up and definitely some boy toys for Brody.......

....and the stage did eventually dry.....

......we have heard more karaoke than you can imagine, but it has been exactly what we envisioned for our playroom.....I am certainly enjoying the cheerfulness the room now brings amidst a winter that doesn't seem to want to leave us.....

....happy weekend.....happy play space.....