Playroom — Blossoming Birds

The girls’ playroom is a space that I really tried to strike the balance between fun and bright for the kids, but also an enjoyable room for Colin and I to spend time in too.

If we were to have built the house we would have ensured the playroom was closer to the kitchen, as it happens, it's at the other end of the house in a room that was originally designed to be a bedroom. Because of this I wanted to ensure that we spend time together as a family, each evening, in the playroom. Although somehow the toys still seem to travel to the living room - especially when the fire is lit.

Like the rest of the house, the play room is yet to be decorated. I am considering painting it dark grey with gold and pink decals, but for now the white is bright and airy and the toys add splashes of colour; Barbie camper van, LOL dolls and the rest. We definitely aren't a 'wooden-toys-only-family'. Lovely if you can do it, as I am sure they last longer, are educational and look great, but my girls are drawn to plastic tat; they are only young once so I am embracing it.

I love great storage to hide it all away - the floor can be covered in two minutes but all cleared up again just as fast.

These baskets from Ikea are great and store a LOT!

We designed our sofa this time last year from Drumbriston the Sofa Maker in Dungannon. (In our previous house we had my Granny's Ercol sofa in the playroom, before we had it restored and recovered it was very hard and not the comfiest.) Our living room sofas were also from Drumbriston and I love that you can pick the shape and fabric, I encouraged Colin to go for 'a wee look' and he also fell in love with this shape.

The pale pink velvet may seem like a crazy choice for the playroom (I let the kids help pick the colour!) but the material I chose is for contract use, meaning bars and clubs also use it as it can be easily cleaned. I just use a wet cloth and a touch of Fairy Liquid, you can even use bleach on the fabric. I have found it so easy to keep clean despite the girls snuggling up together with chocolaty hands and sticky fingers.

Recently we added more storage at the side of the sofa (you can never have too much especially in a playroom).

We furnished the majority of this room from Ikea as not only do I love how practical the items are but the price is great too. The playroom can be changed and adapted easily as the kids’ needs and interests change so Ikea furniture was the perfect solution for us. It only took four trips - Colin loves it really!

I saw this curtain rail idea from Sarah-Jane's blog, all details can be found here. It's a great way to display the amazing works of art that the girls produce from nursery and school.