It's a Christmas Miracle: The Playroom is Finished!

If you remember, we've been working on turning our cold, dirty, wasted space of a basement into a playroom for our Bug. 

Here's what it looked like before. 

Well, it took months of literal blood, sweat and tears, and we didn't go to bed until well after midnight last night, but we managed to finish in time (by the skin of our teeth, mind you). It's finally, FINALLY done! 

We needed all new flooring to make the space comfortable and usable, and we bought a few other items, but mostly we begged, borrowed and recycled things we already had. 

The yellow bookshelf and sailboat are from my parents' house. In fact, my dad built the boat from scratch several years ago, and we offered to store it in the off season if he let us fill it with pillows and use it as a reading nook. Win-win.

The oars also came from my parents' old house, and I painted some cheap craft store letters to hang around the walls. 

As much as I love the way the room turned out, I have to admit it's missing a few finishing touches. It's around 900 square feet (roughly the size of our first apartment), and comes complete with LOADS of empty wall space. It definitely needs a little something more, and someday I might get around to tackling it. Right after I get around to cleaning our guest bathroom and folding the constantly expanding pile of mystery laundry in the middle of our bedroom floor (Is it clean? Is it dirty? Does it even belong to us?). So, basically, never. 

Poor, sad little "PLAY" wall. Womp-womp...

The little art table was once our coffee table in our first apartment, and before that it belonged to Justin's dad and step-mom. Justin added casters, and I painted and waxed it. Now Buggy can use it for art, play-doh, puzzles, plotting new ways to keep his poor, exhausted parents from sleeping ever again, etc. 

It's also  a cast-off hand-me-down, so when he inevitably draws on it with a permanent marker his momma absentmindedly left lying around, there's no harm done. 

At some point I'd also like to decorate the bulletin board and use it to display the Bug's art. Right now it's more sad, empty void than gallery wall, but it'll get there. 

I'm kind of in love with our storage system, though. We've already stashed tons of junk in there, and we've barely touched those little fabric cubes. We debated on getting something smaller, but I definitely think we made the right call. Bring on the plastic crap; we've got a place for it!

We added a fun little creation station with a magnetic chalkboard, felt board, and pegboard for hanging art supplies out of reach of little hands. I still need to get some little baskets to hang up there. 

Well, that's it! It wasn't easy, but it was totally worth it to see Buggy Boy's face when he came downstairs this morning and saw a real live boat sitting in his basement. He loves his new room, and so do we. Best. Project. Ever!

Happy holidays, everyone!