Playroom Planning- Part Two

If you missed last week's post, we were starting to tidy up the second bedroom to create a playroom space.

When we left off, the playroom looked like this:



Now, it looks like this when you walk into the room.



The left hand side of the room has the two toyboxes, as well as some fun canvas prints and some Winnie The Pooh cross stitch designs I did when I was a girl. The curtains we kept as is, since my mum made them for us when we first moved in and they match the room perfectly.



The large bookcase is now full of books for both of the boys to read, as well as their magazines and some Sesame Street flash cards.



Opposite the bookcase is this tent, where the boys can read in peace and have a rest! That clown cushion is another piece from my childhood that my mother made, which is now being put to good use in the reading tent.



We also grabbed a secondhand whiteboard for the boys to use, and created a mini art area where the boys can draw and paint.The cupboards have paper, crayons, pencils and everything they need to create a masterpiece!



I love this alphabet wall decal we bought when Adam was a baby, which we have left on the wall as a fun addition to the playroom.



All of the artwork created by the boys will hang up on this black frame.



I still wanted to keep our painted bookcase, so that now houses some of the bigger toys and sits by the Lego table.



I love all the bright and cheery primary colours in the playroom, and the mix and match decor.



The best thing about this makeover was that it was done in a weekend and cost us nothing as we used items that we already had. Now we have a bright, sunny space for the boys to play in, where I am also happy to sit and have a coffee and watch them create.



Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Playroom Planning- Part One

My boys decided over Christmas that sharing a room was much more fun than sleeping in separate bedrooms. Lucas started off in with Adam, who was still in the cot, but as Lucas' room is bigger we decided to move Adam into Lucas' room and also put him in a big boy bed at the same time. As you can see, it was a bit cramped with two beds in the smaller room!



This left Adam's room free- I had originally planned to turn it into a craft room but then we decided that a playroom would be much more practical.



This is how the room looked once we had put all the toys in- very messy and unorganised, but I had a plan.

I turned to Pinterest to get some ideas, using my Playroom Perfection board.

Today I am sharing the first part of the process, which was really just a tidy up of the areas and putting all the toys in their place.

The first thing we did was take down the cot, which took up most of the space in the room. Adam loved getting a new big boy bed and sleeping in the same room as his brother!



I used the toy storage along the left hand side of the wall, and the train table is now a Lego table. The brown drawers hold all of the craft supplies, and the Little Shop is at the end as the boys love to roleplay with this currently.

Now my living room is not covered in toys, and the boys will happily spend an hour in the playroom before dinner so that I can get ready for the feeding and bedtime stage of the day. It also means that friends have been able to come and play without having toys strewn in three different places, and I can keep the bedroom for sleep only.

Come back next Monday when I will be sharing the second part of the playroom makeover!

Our Pantry Remodel

Here is the second post of my house mini makeover, and today I am showing you my new pantry.

When we moved into our house, the pantry space was OK but it was rather cramped and messy once I got all my stuff in.



I had some great Tupperware containers, but my pantry was only half-done storage wise and I also had a lot of junk in the pantry that really didn't belong there. The drawers in the pantry were also in an awkward position and I couldn't get into the bottom drawer without moving some of my appliances, which were all shoved down the bottom.



Another of the problematic areas of the pantry was the overlapping shelves. Items would get shoved into the corner and then it was very hard to get them again, and I ended up purchasing things twice because I couldn't see what I had. I also had half a shelf full with random containers and craft supplies that didn't belong in the pantry and were taking up valuable space.



My husband got to work and decided to completely redo the shelving.



We also moved the drawers to the other part of the pantry, so that I could reach them more easily.



Now I have large shelves with more space, more depth and no overlapping corners!



I also finished up my Tupperware storage, and added some extra liners leftover from this project for my oils, dressings and sauces so that I did not have to wipe down the shelves as often.



It is so nice to have a pantry that works, and simply changing the shelving and placement of the drawers has made a huge difference in keeping the pnatry tidy!

Remembering our first home

Compass recently got in touch with me to ask about my first home- such a huge step in anyone's life. Compass makes it easy to find your perfect neighbourhood, something that is important when buying a house. They even have an app so you can search for a new place or sell your house when out and about!

I remember the hunt for our first home very well. We had escaped from a less than ideal rental property and were looking at some apartments- close to the city, not a lot of garden, two storied townhouses were our style. Then I suddenly found out I was pregnant and our priorities changed overnight. Now we wanted a nice neighbourhood to raise our child in, as well as some garden area, at least two bedrooms and lots of storage.

We were both still working in the city at that stage, so something close to the CBD but not too urban was also one of our must haves. A house close to bus routes, local shops and our families was also high on the list.

Amazingly, we found what we were looking for within a few weeks. It needed a bit of work but it was the right price, in the right area, and it was ours!



Our first job was a fresh coat of white paint to make the house brighter.



The kitchen was still original, with a small bench, not enough storage and very outdated cupboards. We called in the kitchen experts and we had a new kitchen put in when I was 35 weeks pregnant. We went from this small storage unit and stainless steel bench....



To modern cupboards, a tiled splashback and a dishwasher.



We also put in more storage space on the other side of the oven, and made units to fit in with our fridge and microwave.



The pride and joy was my walk in pantry- I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and so this pantry was my vision! Even more cupboards and bench area made this kitchen a dream to work in, and the wooden floor and large entry into the dining room meant that I could cook dinner and keep an eye on my son while he played.



Our poor house took a battering on September 4th, 2010, as the city was shaken by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake at 4:35am. Our home sustained some damage during this and the big earthquake on February 22nd 2011. We had paint peeling off the walls, parts of the roof coming down, and our items would fall onto the floor. We learnt to stick everything down and not have breakable items on shelves! We were very lucky, as some people lost their entire homes and others lost loved ones. Throughout these shakes, I was so glad to have a roof over my head and to be near my family.



Outside, we also made a few improvements to our home. My husband built this amazing vegetable planter box, and so we always had an abundance of fresh produce.



We also concreted the path up to the house, and built a new fence so that we could play outside with some privacy.



The new fence made a huge difference and kept our son secure in the front yard.



Our first house saw us through all seasons, including a huge dump of snow!



We were sad to leave our first house, but when we found out that we were expecting our second child it was time to upgrade to a larger property with more bedrooms. I look back fondly at our first house, as we put a lot of time and effort into making it our happy place.

If you are in search of your happy place, be sure to check out Compass!

We have been in our current house for two and a half years, and over the next month I will be bringing you a series of blog posts about the upgrades we have done to our existing house, starting on Monday. In the meantime, you can check out our nursery makeover and bookshelf makeover.