Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Toy Room Makeover -- Thanks, Ikea!

I would love to tell you that I am an extremely organized person and that I have all of these wonderful ideas for home organization.  But I'm not.  I do have ideas, they're just usually not ones I've thunk up on my own.

Back in "the day"  (y'know, BEFORE {{Pinterest}} ) I used to find my ideas from magazines, catalogs, and the free Ad circulars.  I had a file in my filing cabinet labeled Home Improvement and that's where I'd store all of the pages I had ripped free.  Pinterest (e-filing "cabinet", if you will) is SOOO much easier.  See an idea online you like?  "Pin it" to your "Board" (e-file folder) to refer back to at a later time.  I just love it.  I'm definitely not a "Pin-Head" that spends time on Pinterest every day, but I hear it can become quite addicting.  Moving on.

First, to show you the problem. Actually, it's not MY problem.  It was The Man's problem with Little B's toys.





The "FROG" (Finished Room Over Garage) is a multi-purpose space.  In one corner is an "office" set-up, another corner is a digital piano, in the main space is a huge sectional for prime TV watching and Wii playing, and THIS corner is the play area.  Did you notice the underused toy sorter bin system they already have?  We'll put that to use in the makeover too.  Basically, Little B just has a lot of toys and we ended up purging a TON.  However, there were still a lot left and as you can see -- the space needed help.  

My solution came from 2 Sisters 2 Cities blog {{Click Here}} where they used Ikea's Expedit shelving products.  I scoured other possibilities and came back to this one because it was the cheapest, I knew I could put Ikea stuff together (each unit took me 30 minutes and I did it by myself), and it was the best fit for the space. We used Fabric baskets/bins instead of the wicker ones because the bottoms zipped up (instead of being removable like the wicker), AND they were $10 cheaper a piece.  We got 8 baskets for $5 each and 2 shelving units for $70 each. So, $180 total.  

Here are the AFTER shots. 


I love it, don't you?

7 comments:

kanaboke said...

Loooove it!! What a difference good storage makes...I gotta get a move on with that....my kids rooms are a hot mess of toys and papers and toys and more papers... ai yai yai!

Debbi said...

It looks soooo good! I can't believe how much I love organizing. I kinda have started to think it's a bit of a sickness how I will organize, then REorganize the organized stuff and organize that too. :) But a FROG sounds friggen awesome! I want one.

okeydokeyifine said...

The key is to put the toy away after playing. Mom's gotta be the tough-guy to keep reminding the child.

Meaghan said...

Thanks so much for linking back to my playroom post at 2 Sisters 2 Cities! Your shelves look great!

-m

KiennaP said...

Great, now you can do this to my horribly messy room since I never have time to keep it clean!

I wish we could move JUST so I had an excuse to paint and decorate a room. I've always wanted to give somebody's room a makeover!!

Deborah said...

Wow, what a difference a few shelves and baskets can make! Great job!

Rhonda said...

Looks great!