Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Our Dining Room Playroom

Here is what our dining room looked like first thing Saturday morning:



We have a house with an open floor plan. It is great for entertaining, and is also nice for when one of us is in the kitchen so that we can carry on a conversation with the other of us in the living room. It is not, however, great for keeping rolling babies all in one place. I can only imagine how bad it could be once they get more mobile. We knew something had to be done, but we didn't know where, or how. At first we discussed taking away Gary's "Man Room," which is upstairs over the garage. But -- it's upstairs. That is just inconvenient for us. I'd rather the babies be near the living room and kitchen.

We finally decided that we just had to turn the dining room into a playroom. Gary, as you can imagine, was more than pleased to keep his pool table and other man items in his room and did not put up much of a fight. I spent a lot of time researching and measuring and planning and buying things for Gary to put together and install (that is how it is supposed to work, right?). Then we spent ALL DAY on Saturday working on the playroom -- and by "we" I mostly mean Gary, though I am a great supervisor. Thankfully, Brooke had already put together the changing table and toy organizer earlier in the week, so that saved us lots of time and frustration. Here's how it came together (notice that Henry and Piper spent some time supervising Gary for me when I was busy with other things):







And here is the finished result!







The babies (and Gary) really enjoyed getting to use the playroom on Sunday!




4 comments:

Lindsey Wolfe said...

Heather - that is fantastic!! If we had an eat-in kitchen I would totally do that. We only have our dining room. (Although - Logan's changing area is on top of the table right now and we haven't eaten at the table in months!) HA! That looks awesome!

Marissa said...

AWESOME!!! What fun! And I love that it's all contained. I often feel like others look at me like I have two heads the way I have everything "contained," but I don't think they quite realize how important it is that those kiddos remain corralled!!!

steph said...

This is absolutely awesome! Great job on the transformation. It looks so fun and adorable and totally functional!!! Playrooms definitely help with the containment factor, huh? Fantastic idea - thanks for sharing!!!

Cathy said...

This is just perfect!! You are all going to love this setup! I want that foam flooring to cover some of the tile in our basement. I am going to find you tomorrow to ask you about it! You all did an amazing job with this room!