Umm Qais: Playroom Part 1

We're working on making the catch-all room between the kitchen and the screened porch into a playroom. I've finally gone through and stored away most of the baby toys, and started to sort through stuff we have and separate it into separate baskets and themes. Still not really sure what I'm doing, just trying to start somewhere though. There is so much amazing inspiration online for playrooms - it's overwhelming! We just need something functional, simple, and inexpensive! Right now the room has bookcases, our comfy chair and a piano in it - these will stay. It also has some craft supplies that need to get moved out and some various little tables and whatnot that will leave as well.

I'm trying come up with ideas for inexpensive ways to jazz up the room, I think dealing with the floor is priority #1. It's crappy off white wall to wall carpet that's stained and just ick. We've had a rug on it that's been handed down in our family and it needs something more kid friendly. Ideally I would love to have hardwood in there, but that's not an option right now so it's going to be some sort of mat, or kid friendly rug or something. I've been checking Craigslist and I think we'll be able to check out Ikea this week also so maybe we'll have good luck finding something. I'm really wondering if I should paint the room, it sounds time consuming but I think it really would make a big difference.

There are some bigger things I want to get for the room too - a kids table and chair set, I'm thinking this one from Ikea will fit the bill. I also want to get some shelves like we had in our old house, they're from Ikea again and we still have the baskets that we used to store CDs, now we can fill them with toys and art supplies and stuff.

Here are some photos of some of the stuff that we've accumulated that will stay in the room for now...

some musical instruments