Playroom Ideas and DIY Kid Kitchen

Why don’t you follow me out to the playroom? Now that Saylor is older, we’ve weeded out the baby toys and have revamped the space to include lots of fun things for a toddler to play with! There’s even a Mommy bench, come let’s have a seat!

Playroom Organization

Playrooms are bound to get messy but it is nice to have a designated space for that to occur rather than around the rest of the house! So I’ve accepted and embraced the messiness! However, there are a few great ways to keep a space of any size “relatively” organized.

Toy Chests or use Ottomans, Benches, Decorative Boxes instead to keep it looking not so kiddy.
Book Shelves, you can even stack books horizontally too!
Ball Pit, a large soft basket works great, inflatable pools, laundry hampers as well.
Art Supply Storage
Stuffed Animal Zoo which you can use a scarf as a hammock!
Blankie/Pillow Zone works great for a tent and I have a DIY tutorial!

The rug I am using is really special. My cousins grew up in Arizona on a ranch and they drew this picture when they were young to play on. My aunt then had it made into a rug and she sells them through her company JMS Products, where she primarily sells beautiful practical Merino Sheepskin products. They are called Horseplay rugs and she has two types, English Countryside (mine) and Western Rodeo. The neat thing about them is if you buy them both, they fit together and the roads will line up. Really cute, especially if you’re looking for something unique and adorable for your playroom!

Rather than having a specific spot or bin for every single toy, I found bench chests at Old Time Pottery and I throw almost everything in there that is plastic and unbreakable. I find clean up to be much faster and easier that way. I do use a separate basket for the balls, but other than that I can do a quick clean up in the playroom in five minutes! Perfect organization of every toy is neat, but time consuming, so skip the individual bins. If you’d like to know where I got the items in the room, let me know in the comments!

DIY Kid Kitchen

Before and After

Husband bought this Kid Craft kitchen on Craigslist for $40. In college I worked at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and during my time there, Julia Child’s Kitchen was donated. We had the entire piece on display and I wrote a post about it- old pictures I know, but you can at least see it. So this past summer Husband, Saylor and I hopped up to D.C. just for a couple days and I was able to show them around. One of the new and neat things at NMAH was a kid play area where they had recreated Julia Child’s Kitchen as a little kid version! I was obsessed! Here’s Saylor playing in that replica. So ultimately I knew I wanted to incorporate a couple touches of JC and you can see them in Saylor’s revamped kitchen. I traced around the pots and pans, just as JC’s husband did for her and I added a Julia quote about butter, of course!

I must say it was almost more fun for me putting it together than it is for Saylor to play with! Here’s a few of the details I did to give you inspiration for making your own.

Painted it white
Lined the shelves with removable wallpaper or use decals to make it unique!
Made a new penny backsplash using real pennies!
Added a “Galley” sign…I love all things nautical.
Traced around pots and pans as an ode to Julia Child, which you can see at the Smithsonian!
Placed fruit and veggies in cabinets including a Hello Fresh box.
Created an Herb Garden

Okay, enough with the explanation, I know. Now to the meat of the story, photos!