Some Rearranging and A Lot of Toys

I know I keep talking about how we’ve moved Abe’s tent out of his room, owing to how it’s ginormous and Abe’s room isn’t. Today I will finally show you where it is now!

Where Abe’s tent used to be:

tent03s

Kind of crowded. Actually, you can’t really tell from the picture how crowded, but it was right next to the door, so that the door almost hit it when it opened, and it was just the first and only thing you saw when you went in the room. It wasn’t working.

Here’s where it is now!

toys01s

I know. It’s looking amazing in there, right?

Maybe not. But it’s a very practical space for a play area, as it’s right off the kitchen, and the other half the room is a family room/sitting area type space where people can hang out while Abe plays:

toys02s

I’ve always been resistant to giving up a whole room of this house to just toys. But as Abe gets older and has more and more stuff, it’s become clear that we need to work on carving out more spaces for him to play (and places for his toys to neatly go when he’s not playing). We’ll see how this area gets used over the next few months and try to find some ways to make it more user friendly and more aesthetically cohesive with the rest of the house.

Mostly, though, I still like the idea of little play areas tucked in in rooms that the whole family still uses (even if the trucks do need a bigger basket these days):

toys03s

So where then, you must be wondering, is the table that used to be in the sunroom? Where?!

sunroom-new8

I thought about just selling it; we paid $40 for it on Craigslist a few years ago and could likely get our money back for it on there now. But I decided on the alternate plan of trying it out in the office part of our bedroom upstairs:

toys04s

Doesn’t it look great there?!

Okay, not really just like that. But we might move most of the chairs down to the basement and use the table as a second desk in the room. Two grownups need two desks for working!

You can see here a rare pulled back shot of this whole half of the room, revealing that, aside from the corner we finished as an office awhile back, it’s still very much a work in progress. Or a work that needs to be in progress. Just kind of a stagnant space where we still have a bunch of stuff we moved out of Abe’s room months ago and can’t decide if we can bear to part with yet. Mostly me. I’m mostly the one who has trouble getting rid of Abe’s nursery stuff. Sniff, sniff. But some of it will be going back into his room soon.

And as for the rest of this space….aside from two workspaces, I want to put some kind of loveseat or other seating in here and a TV, so we can have a grownup only hang out space for if the kids want to use the TV downstairs sometimes in the evenings.

Also, I think that’s Fergus’s tail on the bottom of the photo. I didn’t notice it to to crop it out when I was editing. And now I think it’s kind of funny, so I’m leaving it!


Comments

Some Rearranging and A Lot of Toys — 8 Comments

  1. I like the new location of the tent. Next to the windows should give it interesting shadows, which all tents need. (And if a tent isn’t mobile, why is it a tent?)
    I really like the table in the office. Surely an office needs more than one work surface, especially if they can be different heights.

    • I’m hoping the big surface area the table has gets used for good (maybe working on projects in addition to having space for the computer) rather than evil (giant piles of paper everywhere) 😉

  2. I love little play areas in rooms that the entire family uses too. After all that’s where the kids want to hang out too. I’m sure the table will work great as a second desk too

    • Yeah, we’ve never had much luck with getting kids to play in their own separate space (well, not until they’re older anyway)

  3. I also love the idea of having little areas where the kids can play in spaces that’s for the whole family! That’s I have a million baskets in my house to hide the toys at the end of the day LOL!

  4. I have been struggling with where to put Henry’s toys in the new house. His toys are getting bigger and bigger. I’d love to have them in the basement, but since it’s unfinished it’s not fancy or that nice yet. And Henry’s not a fan of being there by himself – so not quite sure. I think having a space like yours is a great happy medium – still accessible but also useful for everyone.

    • Yeah, we thought about a playroom in the basement, but I know it would mean either it wouldn’t get used or I’d be down there with him all the time…at least until he’s older.

Like all human bloggers, I love comments :)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.