Play Room for $6

We have been drowning in toys. We were sick of sitting around the living room looking at primary colors, trucks spilling over the bins, random toys stuffed under the couches, and not having a grown up area anymore. Since Joshua sleeps so well, and Jacob said he would love to sleep in the same room as Joshua (for now, haha), we decided to move Jacob into Joshua's room and convert Jacob's room (the larger of the two bedrooms) into a full play room. It was a HUGE project, but a project we actually only spent about $6 on! Amazing, and we are THRILLED with the results.

I took these pictures before the sun was up (but the kids were up to see the room for the first time), so they are dark, but I wanted to get pictures before it was covered in toys!

Here is the view walking int he door. We took the closet doors off so I didn't have to worry about the boys pinching their fingers, and so it didn't take up any room they could have for playing!

 The wall on the far side of the room. We had one of the bookcases in the living room holding DVDs, one bookcase in our room with the boys' books, and the third bookcase had been purchased a few years ago, but never put together and was sitting in the garage. The cube organizer was in the living room with toys. We didn't have fabric cubes for all the holes, or for the organizer we left in the living room. But, we got rid of some baby toys and took them to a resale shop, received just under $50 for them, took that money to Target and only paid about $6 of our own money!

 Another view of the wall across from the doorway. There is nothing on the wall with the door, so there is a ton of floor space. The pictures don't do the space justice since there is no great angle to take the picture, but the boys have a TON of room to play without anything in their way. I didn't want to clutter the space all over the room, which is why we tried for almost all of the toys to be in the closet or on the wall with the bookcases.

 A view into the closet. The only thing that was there before was the wooden shelf up top. We really would have liked to pull it out and have a whole wire closet storage system put in, but we didn't have the money to spend on that right now. So, we took the shelving that was in the garage from a previous owner. Bob had to cut a shelf in half, but it worked and is perfect to get things up off the floor. Even though he hated to do it, I made him put a hook in for the Little People roads to get them off the ground as well. The stuffed animals will not be there anymore once we get a little hammock thing to hang them in to get them out of the way. The white baskets were holding baby toys, but now they are holding our Geo Trax collection. And, the shoe rack turned truck parking was in Jacob's closet for the same purpose already. I love the perfect size of this shoe rack and wanted to keep that in the play room. It is just so perfect for the trucks and makes it easy for the boys to find their favorites.

 The right side of the closet. Another shelf that Bob took from the garage. The wood shelves were just pieces of wood we had in the garage that Bob cut down to size. The plastic drawers wer had before, but were holding extra sheets. Now, they hold our entire Little People collection.

 The left side of the closet are things the boys will need my help getting out because they are heavy. Their Thomas collection, Play Doh, dinosaurs.

 And, here is the view going into the shared bedroom. This bookcase was in the living room holding random toys, but now holds the boys' book collection. It is packed to the max, so we will need more book storage soon, but it looks nice in the room for now!

 Jacob's bed.

 Joshua's crib had to go here instead of in the corner because of where the outlet was.

 Not much room in between the beds, but just the right amount for the boys to pull out the puzzles that are stored underneath Jacob's bed. Really, all they ever did in their own rooms before was sleep, so that's all we needed this room to do for us.

We haven't switched wall decals or decorated either room, but for now, it is perfect. Our living room is SPOTLESS for the first time in four years, and we are in heaven. We did leave one cube organizer in the living room to hold DVDs, their musical instruments, and Legos. I only wanted to leave blocks and things in the living room that were great for everyone to have out together and more of a family time together. But, everything is concealed and nothing spills out, so it looks fantastic. We moved our glider into the living room and bought a storage ottoman because we had extra space! We are beyond thrilled to have a great looking living room again. Next step will be to actually decorate, but I just cannot explain the relief we feel at the end of the night not having all the clutter in the living room. I love the boys having a great place to play, a place where they can keep their toys together, and a nice room to share until they are a little older and want their own space back. But, by then, they won't have as many toys and we will be able to store them in their own rooms. I hope Jacob and Joshua have a lot of great memories from sharing a room and from playing in their play room together. Jacob LOVES seeing all his toys so organized - he is very OCD about where his toys are kept and keeping things together that are meant to be together.