A Spare Room????? Not Any More!

File this under duh.

We have three bedrooms in our home. Two are downstairs are are a fairly good size. In fact they are probably too big and we should have divided them into three, but there isn't much we can do about that now. These rooms are the Little Man and our bedrooms. Upstairs we have our living area with an attached open kitchen. Also upstairs we have the third bedroom. I use the term "bedroom" loosely. Yes you could fit a bed in it, and yes it is a room, but really that's about all that make it in the small space. 

While it might not be a perfect full size bedroom, the space screams nursery. Seriously, it's upstairs, away from where all the noise would be and easily accessible from the living room. It's small enough to be cozy, but large enough to fit a changing table, crib, and rocker. It's what we envisioned when we bought the place, and it is certainly what we envisioned when we moved in and I was pregnant with baby number two. Well, we all know how that went and since we weren't putting a nursery in there any time soon, we were kind of at a loss with what to do with the space. We didn't want to furnish it as a guest room or an office because we wouldn't have anywhere for that furniture to go when we actually needed to use the nursery. So basically we did nothing. 

We had an old pull out couch that we bought off some friends and a TV and stand that we really didn't want to throw away, so we just stuck them in the room and figured that when we did have guests this would be an easy space to house them until we needed the room for something else. Besides, we thought, we'll get pregnant soon enough so we won't really even notice. Yeah, well now it is over a year later and the room is still the same. Sad and unfurnished. 

For a year now I have pretty much kept the door shut. All the while I have been lusting after a playroom with the same fervor that I used to lust after a Birkin bag. Yes, I want one that bad. The fact is that all of the LM'S toys live in our living room, and most the time it looks like one big mess. How great would it be to have a room that you can just shut to door too? You can see where I am going with this. 

A few rubbermaid bins, a switching of the train table and viola!

Before: Sad Room

After: Awesome Playroom.

The best part? My living room now looks like this: 

An actual living room! I kept a few toys out, but I have a feeling they will be going in the new space soon enough.

The second best part is that the LM loves having his own space. This morning he watched his favorite Blue's Clues in there while playing with his trains. I sat on the couch and watched the news and drank a cup of coffee. I know, I could hardly believe it myself! 

I'd like to get rid of all the furniture in there, but the husband insists on keeping it a semi functional guest room. That is until I finally get my nursery. For now I'm just happy living in a toy free zone! Why I didn't think of this sooner is beyond me.

For those of you out there with a "real" playroom...oh how I envy you!!