Go Ahead and Open It

This was the last untamed room. This "room" has been represented in every home we've moved into. The place where all 1/2 and 1/4-full boxes of all kinds of random stuff go that we didn't immediately need or have a place for when we unpacked the house. I know. It's bad. We never showed it to anyone, I promise.

The first thing I did was remove everything from the room and begin the sort: keep in storage, keep and put it away in it's spot in the house, give, sell at my garage sale, and toss. The neighborhood garage sale, by the way, was my main motivator (aside from the fact that I've wanted to do this since we moved in) for finishing this last week. Free advertising? I'm there. Oh, and we live on the corner, so traffic to my garage should be high. Come on over Saturday morning. I'll sell you my junk.

Here's the results after day one. The room was cleared out to only what would stay, which was little, then I moved all the toys from the family room into the new play room.
The closet is full of the stuff you can buy on Saturday.
The next step was painting these.... Yeah, I know. I think so too.
This entire project was an exercise in using what I have. There were over 50 unused black frames in those leftover boxes. I took the girls to Hobby Lobby (since this is their room and all) and picked out several sheets of scrapbook paper to put in the frames. Have I mentioned how much I love framing paper?? Oh, I have? Well, it's worth repeating.

Then, I assembled the room.
I already had everything- the frames, shelves, etc. All I added was paper. The thing with the circles has clips, so we hang their artwork from it. I made it a really, really long time ago.

I found this fun doll in a stray box I hadn't seen in forever. I got her in Poland in college. I haven't shown the girls how she opens yet, but, I think they'll love it. I do...
This is the futon, the one Jim had throughout college, and even served as our first sofa. Sweet memories. It's been disassembled for several years, and now it's back and comfortable, and wonderful for curling up with books at story time. I even found a color scheme that made the green work. The pillows and blankets were a box-discovery too.
I also had this frame. The girls immediately wanted this paper, and I wouldn't have normally picked it out for this, but, I think it looks really great here.
Here's the new closet, painted the lovely Oyster Bay. The closet holds all our home school stuff, and my craft stuff. That mirror was in another box too.

I got the fabric for the curtains at Hobby Lobby and I absolutely love madras, so this was great. I hung it with upholstery tacks.
At first I hemmed the edges with my trusty glue gun, and then took it apart. For now, I think I like the uneven edge. If I ever don't, I'll just take the 10 minutes and hem it up.
Here's one of the four purchases I made, fourth to the paper, curtain fabric and paint- a cheap and useful shelf. The very first paper towel holder we ever had is now a ribbon organizer.
An old silverware tray serves as an organizer for supplies. Oh, and there's me.
Ah, the beauty of using stuff you had stuffed in a box. I love the stars, but there wasn't a place in the house they would work- but they're fun here. And those are two chalk boards, painted Oyster Bay as well. There's my craft totes. I'll organize them better...someday.

I really do love this fabric.
It's lots of individual squares sewn together.
Some extra hooks from IKEA now make excellent curtain hold-backs.

But most of the time, all those supplies are out of sight, out of mind for the kids.

And here's the finished school spot. It didn't change as much as I thought it would, because plans for how I'd throw everything together were adjusted in the end. (That closet looked a lot bigger to me when it wasn't full of junk...I mean, unused stuff.)

See that bench under the table? I've had it since I was little. I had thought I would need to get some extra seating for this table (our first table in our first apartment, a hand me down, so sentimental. All my first terrible meals were eaten here by two in-love and clueless kids.) Anyway, the bench used to hold some of our games for the kids, but now those are all in the closet and I filled it with our puzzles. It fits perfectly under the table. And, I think it's cute.
I wanted a globe for our school room for a while- I loved the globe when I was a kid. Still do. I got this one for $3 at a g sale. Again, everything in this room was already here, in a box tucked away. The only thing I bought for the school spot was those clear plastic cups for our colored pencils.
I found a home for this chalk board, and these buckets, which were free at a garage sale.
Now the buckets are our "out" box and our recycling bin.
The girls were far more excited about the play room and school spot than I expected- especially the play room. That was really rewarding. And, whew! My house is done (as much as it can be- everyone knows your house is never "done".)

By the way, I promise that this will be the last House Beautiful post for a while. Wait, can I promise that??? Well, there will be fewer, that's for sure. To everything there is a season, and for these last weeks, this season of taming has consumed me. Posts of a completely different nature are right around the corner, I'm sure. But, I do love it when you show me your houses, so, maybe you don't mind.