Drab Dumping Ground Turned Playful Playroom

Apr 2

Pop inside this boldly patterned playscape. It’s a vibe.

The assignment:

Create a fun playroom with lots of space for a five-year-old to move around and, well, play.

When we started, the room felt a bit sad with its old, warped laminate particle board desk and darkly stained wood trim everywhere. And since it is a playroom, we really took that to heart—playing with color, pattern and texture.

Our goal was to transform the space by brightening it up, making it functional and adding a dash of whimsy.

Since one of the walls is wood and wouldn’t be papered, we decided to go a bit daring with the wallpaper, landing on this funky-yet-precious pattern from Chasing Paper.

Going big with blue meant finding two complementary blues to use with the wallpaper for the fourth wall, doors and trim. And with Valspar ‘Someday’ and ‘In the Nick’ we took the boldness up a notch. Painting the doors using both of them added more depth to the room and took the builder-grade accordion doors from blah to bespoke.

After checking out a how-to video, reading a couple of blog posts and walking through every single step with the tool guy at Lowe’s—who was surprisingly knowledgeable, helpful and super encouraging!—I felt ready to tackle the butcher block desk. Creating this butcher block desk nook was my first foray into power tools, and I have to say, I’m excited to play with more of them in the future.

I learned a new skill and the final product turned out better than expected. Added a sherbert-y orange vintage mid-century modern Thonet chair for a pop of color and *boom*—a desk space perfect for art projects now and math homework later.

From there we pulled from the roundness of the arch in the fireplace and found a tool set and fireplace screen with rounded edges. Our goal was to keep everything simple, clean and refined to let the boldness of the brick sing.

What do you think? Did we accomplish it?

The black interior also created the perfect stage for these gorgeous andirons we found from Rejuvenation. Truth be told, I’m having a moment with these Iron Age relics. They just feel more substantial and versatile than your typical log grate, not to mention much more aesthetically pleasing.