More House

Today, I thought I'd share some more of our new house. As many people would probably agree, the formal living room is a lost art. We have no need for one. When guests are over, we all gather in the family room/kitchen area. Having said that, in both of our last two houses we had and maintained a formal living room at the front of the house....which was rarely used. The kids used it to play games when I was trying to watch tv (good mom) and Eric used it to practice putting. After moving into our new house, I knew I was not going to use the front room as a living room. I decided it would be the toy room. We painted it off white and used Caleb's favorite color to accent the room....RED!

We got the toy room started with a tv and video games.....but we were lacking in furniture and style. The sea foam green had to go. We needed something a bit more kid friendly.

We finally finished painting and upgraded to furniture. The room is bright, kid friendly, and very usable.

My puppet theatre, see through curtains shall be replaced by large, colorful polka-dot ones someday. (As soon as my mom comes back into town. :)) And I LOVE the train table/coffee table. Perfect for our wooden trains, assembling puzzles, and playing board games. Plus it is bright and colorful.

We are still debating the chandelier. I was against leaving it a first because I thought it wasn't kid friendly, but now I think I like it. Although, in AZ, a ceiling fan would be much more practical.

We needed some major storage. Thank goodness for our local IKEA store. Max storage, made for small spaces, in fun colors.

And fun, colorful ways to store our video games.

We used the kids' artwork to decorate the room. We bought a few new frames and spray-painted several old frames white. Again, it is bright and colorful, which we love, and I think it makes the kids feel special. Plus, there are several pieces that look store bought.

Just today, we finished hanging the last shelf....the perfect spot for the boys to display their Pez dispenser collection.

And yes, when you enter through the front door, this is the first room you will see.