Basement Redo: Playroom Reveal!

Oh man I am excited to share this post with you today! If you read my blog, you know I’ve been slowly but surely working on my basement to get it to a place I’m proud of it. For too long it has been a dark and drab space (except for my daughter’s bright and creative Dr. Seuss bedroom). First, I tackled the office which I showcased a couple weeks ago. Now I’m ready to reveal the main living area downstairs which I turned into a playroom for the kids. It took a lot of thought, DIY, and hot glue to make this room happen. Let’s check out what this room looked like before I redesigned it.

Yep. It was basically just a huge ping pong table. My hubby and I obviously have too much space in our house. Just kidding. Those skinny white bookshelves I threw up one year to give some visual height and interest in the long and boring room. I don’t love them, but I’m working with them for now.

The room was cluttered and certainly not being used to it’s full potential. Here’s what our playroom looks like now:

Colorful, organized, and fun! The perfect playroom for our kids. I hope you are loving the DIY toy storage as much as I am. I made these stools out of old milk crates and they work wonderfully to hold all my kids’ toys!

My son just turned two and he loves to play with the lids. He’ll just waltz into the room and take them all off.

Usually the playroom looks something like this:

But for now, let’s pretend it’s still perfect and I’ll walk you through all the crafty projects I completed in the room. First, get a load of these pillows!

I am not kidding you I MADE these pillow covers out of leftover fabric from the crates and HOT GLUE! I found a really easy to follow tutorial and just used hot glue for the seams one would typically sew.

It took me all of fifteen minutes. You need to check out how to make these pillow covers for yourself – it’s amazing! And the best part is, they are envelope cases, so they’re removable!

I think they look awesome on my newly relocated bench. Remember when this baby was living forgotten in the office? It gets WAY more use out in the play room. I still can’t believe it used to be a dresser. Check out my dresser to bench furniture makeover here.

So on the opposite side of the room, I found a home for my other white painted dresser. This mid-century beauty didn’t have a home, but I purchased and refurbished it anyway because I was too in love. Now it has the perfect spot. I keep my craft supplies in there and my old lime green craft supply dresser got demoted.

That beautiful mirror above the dresser is another recent DIY. I picked it up off Craigslist and the gold frame made it look a little antiquated.

I covered the mirror using painters tape and newspaper and spray painted the frame silver.

Last but not least, I’m sure you noticed this adorable wall decor upon entering the playroom.

This is what you see right when you walk downstairs into our basement.

The installation for the letters was a fun DIY. I cut all the letters out of card stock, matting material my sister gave me from when she worked at a framing shop. Then I painted them with acrylic paint (by the way, the “R” is dark plum like the walls, not black as it appears in the photo). Lastly, I figured out a way to attach them to the wall without any nail holes or damage!

It’s super easy and clever! You just hot glue painters tape onto the wall decor, then stick it on the drywall! Since painters tape is easy on the walls, you can even remove the letters and re-position them to get the right spacing as you go! This wall decor reminds me of my “Very Merry” Christmas gallery wall from the holidays last year. It’s fun to put bold sayings on the walls!

Now it’s time for some before and afters! My basement went from dark and dull to bright and beautiful.

It went from cluttered and cranky to organized and optimistic.

It went from ugly and unused to playful and practical.

I hope you enjoyed this makeover! Here’s my breakdown of costs:

DIY Toy Storage Crates: $18
Pair of green IKEA lamps from CL: $10
Pair of multi-color modern lamps from CL: $20
White bench: $20
Throw pillows from various garage sales: $3
White dresser: $45

Everything else I’ve had so long I can’t remember what it costs (picture frames, books, etc) or was free.

My total for this room makeover comes to $116.

Thank you for reading! I’d be so honored if you pinned and shared this room redo. Come back next Monday for a rather opinionated parenting article you don’t want to miss!