Our Farmhouse Playroom Makeover — Tara Vander Dussen

Our playroom is easily one of my favorite rooms in our house. It is colorful and fun, and it keeps all the toys in one room and not all over the house. And an added bonus, our playroom is right off the kitchen so my girls actually play IN the room while I am cooking and making meals! That's because our playroom is actually our dining room. This post is sharing all the details on how we converted our dining room into a functional playroom with a fun farm theme.

The Dilemma

A little background on our house. It has plenty of space, but all the bedrooms are upstairs beside the master bedroom, and the living space is downstairs. When Gwenevere started playing independently, there was no way to keep her upstairs in a playroom or her bedroom while I was downstairs. So inevitably all the toys ended up in the family room. So I started brainstorming. Check out the before of our bare dining room.

The Solution

We had a great-sized dining room that was never being used. We eat all our meals at our kitchen table in the kitchen area which left this unused space. (Who has a formal dining room these days?!) One great feature of this space is the large windows. They give the room so much life and great natural lighting. The two main issues with the dining room were the lack of storage and wood floors. I solved those problems with my first two purchases: two ready-made storage cabinets and an area rug. I also added some additional storage with some fun baskets, shelves, and other easy-to-access cabinets with bins. And we are able to store larger toys above the cabinets.

The End Result

We have had a lot of fun decorating this room and including all sorts of farm stuff. The rug is a giant farm scene. The rocking horse is actually a rocking cow. The pictures on the walls are from around our dairy farm. And the children-sized table and chairs are farm-themed as well.

I tried to incorporate some corrugated tin buckets for legos, blocks, and pencil/crayon storage and some rustic-looking accents like the window frame that we added cork board too, to create an artwork display board. A couple of my favorite pieces include a bookshelf that my sister-in-law built from a pallet, a picture of three cows that we found at a random street vendor in Central Park, and a giant ruler I stained and painted with a Bible verse that we use as our grow chart.

I used the ottoman from our family room to make a little reading nook, complete with a cow-shaped body pillow. And the girls love their play kitchen and workbench with tools.

This space can easily transition as the girls get older and will give them their own area to be creative as they grow.

I hope this post gives you some inspiration for your playroom or converting any room in your house into a playroom.

Udderly, New Mexico Milkmaid

PS. I promise you my playroom has never been as clean as it was in these photos. Don't think for one second this is how my playroom usually looks. This is classic Instagram life vs. real life. I promise you real life is a lot messier, but a lot more fun!

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