Before and After: Playroom

The closet under the stairs had become our catch-all room. It was storing so much junk we didn't need. Christmas bows, laptop cases, old files. None of this stuff belonged anywhere really.

A few weeks ago Clementine started opening the door to this room and running in to explore. We figured if we could find a home for all the other junk, this room could become hers. It's in the perfect spot, just off the main room, under the stairs.
The thought of never again stepping on the sharp hoof of a plastic toy pig/horse/cow filled me with wild energy and I knocked this project out in one night.
So everything found a new home (mostly in the garbage) and this is what we ended up with! TA-DA!
Clementine has my old toybox in the back corner of the closet to hold some big stuff, a cushion to sit on and read, her toy bins and mailbox.
I don't know who was more excited, Clementine or me! We let Clementine stay up a bit later than normal bedtime so she could play. When she woke up the next morning the first thing out of her mouth was "TOY ROOM?! Come on Mama!"
This little project is one that's been in the works for awhile, and it probably will go on for much longer. It's a plastic Target shoe organizer that I hung on the back of this door. I got the inspiration from this looking through a teacher catalog that had a similar organizer where students could spend time during their literacy centers practicing letter sounds. Only this company's organizer was over $100.
I bought this organizer for less than $10 and have been gradually filling it up with happy meal type toys and (my favorite!) stuff from the dollar bin at Target. I used some old scrapbooking letter stickers to give each pocket a letter (XYZ share, of course) and then we find stuff to stick in the pockets.
Here you can see Avatar guy in the letter A, a ball in letter B, a cat in letter C...you get the idea. I think this is something that Clementine will grow with as we ad more to it later. Right now she can only reach "/p/ /p/ Pumpkin."
I also hung up some of her art work we recently brought home from preschool
And this canvas thing I made for her ages ago.

I am still toying with the idea (get it??? TOY-ing??) of painting the whole playroom yellow w/ maybe a square of chalkboard paint. I don't know, it's a work in progress!