Our Entry & Playroom

I have started the dreaded packing process and the first things to get packed up are those little touches that have made this house into our home. The pictures, the accents, and the cheery words. Kind of like the one you find when you first walk in our home- a cheery HELLO that always welcomed you. See the HELLO post here. I decided to finally post pictures of the other areas of our home so that I could reminisce from time to time on our first home. To onto the Entry & Playroom mini tour.

After saying "Hello" you will see my craft room (you can see a sliver of it in this picture.)

There is a long wall in the entryway. A wall so long that it was hard to find something to fit the space.

 I considered a super long bench for a while, but determined that a table would give me more decorating surfaces, and that idea won. Finding a long entry table in the style that I wanted, was proving to be expensive, so I built my own using salvaged balusters, and some wood from the home improvement store. See the full post here. The window is also salvaged, and was originally a window on SMU's campus. I did a post about the lamp here. The heart state prints are ones I made that show where we were all born.

Just beyond the craft room entry way and across from that long wall, is our playroom.

I made the curtains using Premier Prints Suzani print in the Titan Birch color. I was looking for a fabric that helped tie in the hand-me-down chairs that we inherited from my husbands grandmother. It's a heavy weight nubby fabric, and I love it in there.

I had wanted a piano to fill in that big nook, and found this one on craigslist. I wanted one in a dark non-glossy wood, that I wouldn't mind the kids banging around on. This one fit the bill and I love tinkering around on it (and wish I had kept up with lessons in my youth...)

This is the cleanest you'll see the playroom. We live in that room and books, cars, and games are always spread across the floor. The Ikea Expedit bookcase does a great job at wrangling in the toys. I bought the canvas bins at The Container Store, and designed labels for each one. Even my 18 month old helps put the toys away in their proper bins thanks to the pictures on each label. 

The pendant light is from Crate & Barrel and came as a surprise from my husband- I guess he does pay attention when I browse through their catalogs.

Being open to the entry and house, I didn't want the room to be decorated too kid-like. I stuck to a fun print for the curtains, and neutral colors all around to balance our the overload of toys. It's simple and I love the way it turned out.