When A Home Office and A Playroom Marry

After living in this house for the past four years, we realized some things just weren’t working for us as a family.

My kids have really small bedrooms, so there’s no place to do things when their friends are over, except hog the entire living room.  That’s ok, sometimes, but my son has this vintage Nintendo everybody loves playing.  (We’re super-modern, only about twenty years behind X-Box.)  This vintage gaming system needs a vintage television to work.  Go figure.

Now if you remember anything about old TV’s, they weight a hundred pounds and take up more space than a baby dinosaur.  All that to say, we did a little room juggling and gave up our big bedroom for the sake of a little office/playroom space.

When A Home Office and A Playroom Marry

No sane parent combines an office with a playroom, but I did.  No comments please.  I already know I’m crazy.

Here’s one of my Facebook status updates from about a month ago.

A mess of boys have invaded my office/playroom space. One of them told me they want to hang a sign on the wall – “The Guy Shack” – in big neon letters. When I reminded them that this really is my office space, they said, “Ok, underneath in teeny-tiny letters we’ll add And Mrs. Gillespie’s Office.”
I think maybe we need more rooms in this house.

So now you know what I’m dealing with.

I just used all those words to say, I’m reworking the office/playroom space, because it’s in desperate need of some personality.

Here are the “Before” pictures.

This side of the room is my “office” with my newly repainted desk..

I didn’t clean for you.  Sorry.

Notice how my office houses my dresser?

I’m afraid that has to stay as is, because of limited space.

See the two corner walls directly behind my desk chair?

I want to turn them into a floor to ceiling gallery wall.  Won’t that be fun?

Here’s an inspiration picture I found on Pinterest.

Source:  Laura Winslow Photography

I’m moving the “For Sale” sign, so it will hang over that yellow cart where the “Two are better than One” canvas hangs (that’s going in our bedroom), so I’ll have lots of room for my new pictures.

I’m going with yellows, golds, blacks, and whatever else strikes my fancy.  The budget is as near to nothing as possible, so expect a lot of DIY.

This mini-painting I snagged at a yard sale will be my first addition.

It’s amazing how a little glass cleaner and dish soap perked that frame right up.  Unfortunately this is a picture of before I cleaned it.

*Bad Blogger.  Bad, bad, Blogger.*

Now to the other side of the room…

I need a new place for that keyboard, because I just painted that entire wall with black chalkboard paint.  It’s still wet and I’m getting a little loopy on the fumes.

I’m moving that Noah’s Ark painting onto a small wall directly across from desk.

If you haven’t read the story behind that painting, I wrote When Going Means Walking in The Rain for Flower Patch Farmgirl and you can hop over to read the story, but not before you finish reading this post.  *wink, wink*  (I did that just to be creepy.  It’s the fumes.)

Here’s my inspiration for the chalkboard wall.

Source:  East Coast Creative

I’ve been looking everywhere for a bicycle wheel and I can’t find one, but I will search on.  Isn’t this super-cool?

Here’s where I need your help.

I know some of you are decorating geniuses, so I’d love your input.

What would you do or not do in this space?

I’m thinking we need a fun area rug…maybe zebra stripes or fake cow hide.

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Tricia Gillespie