DIY: Playroom Storage Hack

Do you struggle with playroom storage?

We do too.

We’ve had this list of projects we’ve wanted to finish in our home.  It’s displayed on the wall right when you walk into the house through the garage.  You cannot miss it entering or exiting the house.  This list included things like: Remodel Kitchen.  Gut & Renovate every single bathroom in the house.  Redo front walkway/stairs (which a mason should do…not you).  And finally two very important pieces: finish ceiling and bookcases in the big room.

In fact, we’ve struggled with our playroom (lovingly called the “Big Room”…creative, we know) for some time now.  In fact, we spend the greatest amount of time in this space between work, play and lounging, yet we’ve put the least amount of work into it.  Weird, we know.

Here’s what we were dealing with…SINCE 2014!

We opened up a wall in this space, to extend the room an additional 8 feet.  It may not sound like much, but it definitely added some critical square footage to our space.  It also created a special spot where some custom built-ins would be amazing.  However, they were not in our budget, especially since we just had our first child (see her in the pic?).

Enter, the Target version of cube storage.

They don’t even make the flimsier version that we own.  These are much bulkier, like the Ikea version.  Ours are thinner, and a bit wonky.  But, they serve a crucial purpose for us: STORAGE.  Having 3 kids, being an interior designer, storage is of utmost importance.  Living with a budget, and having undergone a 1.5 year long renovation kind of took all additional funds away from other areas: like built-ins.  (P. S. Don’t even ask what we’ve done since 2014!  I’m even shocked we’ve lived like this for so long!).

Here’s what we did:

1. Built a “box” frame to set the book cases on top of, and added a base board moulding.

We lived with this for a while:

2. Spread out the bookcases to fill the wall equally.  Since these are pre-built bookcases, and we have a 16 foot long wall, we had to get a little creative in how they were put together.  So, we added MDF between each unit.

3. Add an MDF “cap” piece, and trim with chair rail moulding for a formal, built-in bookcase look.

The final look! And it took 2 days (spread over a few months)!

(Well, we took some breaks, it could be completed in a day, like the paneled ceiling!  Another DIY that only took 4 years!)

And here it is this evening.

Gosh, it came out so nicely, we are loving it!  We’ve added some baskets from the container store to hide all the kids toys inside.  We’re embarrassed that its taken us 4 years, and 3 kids to finally kick our rears into gear, but we truly are happy.

Now, we want to bring that feeling to others, which is why we are sharing this post.  We are working with Building on Hope to create a playroom for women and children at the Crisis Center of Central New Hampshire.  Our goal is to create a functional, and creative space for children with lots of STORAGE.  Inspired by our little DIY, we hope to bring this to this space.  If you want to help, check out this post.

I shared a pic of all three kids to show you all that we really lived like this for so long.  Ugh, we totally identify with our clients sometimes…it can be hard to get out of your own way, or sometimes you just choose to spend your money on other areas of your life.  We get it, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get creative.