Trash to Treasure: Our Sunroom

I'm ready to reveal my latest "trash to treasure" accomplishment with you folks. This time I tackled our sunroom, which was doing triple duty as our kids' playroom, as our office, and where we stored the piano. It was jumbly, crowded, and unfocused, and I was getting sick of the lack of continuity. My primary complaint was that it wasn't kid-friendly, and what kind of playroom isn't kid-friendly? So I kept my eye out for a few keys furniture pieces (remember the bookshelves and chest of drawers from this post?), stashed the desk and hope chest in the basement (for now), and got to work painting, reorganizing, and moving furniture.

Voila! A playroom fit for three busy children!

So I painted the bookshelves white, stacked them on top of one another horizontally (I got rid of the actual shelves), and bought some neat green fabric baskets to keep the toys more organized. I painted the chest the same antique white, with the exception of the drawers, which I painted with black chalkboard paint, so I can easily label what is in each drawer. I painted its knobs green to match the baskets. The dresser is where we keep office supplies, computer supplies, phone books, and art supplies.

So yes, this chest is still missing one drawer. I plan on having Steve build a platform in its place so that I can slide an appropriately-fitting basket in that space to use for the paperclips and other sundries that are, for the time being, simply chilling on top of the chest.

Putting both bookshelves underneath the window really opened up space on the other side of the room:

Ten points if you can spot a shot of Captain Picard,

a portrait of Audrey Hepburn, and a picture of me 

in front of C.S. Lewis' house

on this bulletin board. Oh, and I believe

Stephen is up there at King Arthur's grave.

I'll mess with the bulletin boards eventually. I even have a wall-mounted dry erase board I'd like to hang eventually; perhaps I'll wait to do that until my kids understand that dry erase markers are for dry erase boards only. I'd like to find an easel, too, for an unused corner in this room.

Here's another view of the bookshelves:

I'm so glad I was able to find shelves this long, as I need a place to store my potted plants once it gets too cold for them to be outside. It's going to get crowded and humid in there, but truth be told, that's what I'm going for. I wanted this room to feel more organic, more natural, which I why I went with white paint and green accents.

Raechel asked if I was planning on painting the paneling. No, I'm not, simply because I want to keep with the integrity of my home as much as possible. Our home was built in the 1940s and still features the original, unpainted woodwork and hardwood floors. This sunroom is a later addition (the drop ceiling suggests late 1960s), and the paneling, while dated, is a true wood paneling with a pretty honey color. (I'm just thankful it's not the dark, 1970s faux-wood crap that has haunted us in homes past.) Anyway, I like the knotty wood, and it helps contribute to the organic feel of this room.

Here's a view of the windows from the doorway:

You can't really see from this, but the piano is up against the back wall of the sunroom--it fits perfectly and, for such a big piece of furniture, manages to stay out of the way until we need it.

My crowning piece for this room can be seen poking out from behind the chest of drawers:

Yes, that is a tree limb. I have a really good story about this limb. (At least I think it's good. Humor me.) I got this idea from one of our local libraries when we visited it a couple weeks ago. They had a couple large tree limbs balanced behind a big display case, and kids' artwork had been hung from the branches. I thought something like that would be the perfect addition to our sunroom, and I've been on the lookout for the perfect limb ever since. Well, we went back to that particular library just a few days ago, and the first thing I spotted was a large limb at the curb, waiting to be taken with the trash. Hmmm. Sure enough, the limbs were gone from the library! So on our way out I snagged the exact limb that had originally inspired me, and it's now waiting for artwork, pretty fall leaves, and any other treasures we deem worthy of display.

Fun times!

The only other things I have planned for this room are, as mentioned, an easel, some window treatments (I'm thinking natural-looking roller shades with white-with-green-accents valances), some canvases painted green for color on the walls, and a cute lampshade for my Eiffel Tower lamp, which will hang out on the piano.

Let me know what you think! I hope this has inspired you onto bigger and better trash-seeking ventures.