I am in the middle of trying to cute-ify Emrick’s play room. Nothing fancy, and nothing too permanent, since we will probably want to reclaim this room for grown-ups some day. But I’m trying to add a few touches to make it more homey, less junky, and easier to organize. The room was originally intended as a study (and we used it that way for almost two years, before deciding that the size of our rarely-occupied “bonus room” made it better suited for that purpose), so there is a built-in bookcase with adjustable shelves already in place. The whole thing was white, which was starting to seem too bland for a play room.

The built-ins, after I removed the shelves.

For weeks I was eyeing the white background, and thinking about how I could punch it up. Wallpaper is too permanent (and expensive). Fabric would be cute, but I would have to attach it to something else (like poster board maybe) before attaching it to the back wall there. And besides, a supercute fabric can be pricey, too, and frankly, it just sounded like too much trouble. So I decided to just paint it a bright, fun color.

I taped off the cases with painter's tape, and then I applied a quick coat of primer to ensure my color stuck well, since the white paint that's already there is a latex semi-gloss.

Then I covered it with bright orange paint!

Doesn’t it look more cheerful now? The great thing about it is that I didn’t need to buy a whole gallon of paint… just one quart, actually. And everything else — the primer, the paint rollers and paint tray, the painter’s tape — we already had on hand. Plus, even after applying THREE coats of orange, I still didn’t use the whole quart, so I have some leftover for any dings that may happen. Here are the shelves again, loaded up with toys and books:

On the bottom are six collapsible boxes from Ikea, which are an organizational and aesthetic improvement over the single, giant laundry basket that we had previously been using to house all of Emrick’s toys. Of course, this room gets havoc wreaked on it every day, but it takes five minutes at most in the evening to get everything neat again. For now, books are being kept out of Emrick’s reach because even though he’s gentler with them than he used to be, he’s still a little rough and treats them like any other toy that can take abuse. Once he is old enough to understand the difference between a book and a toy that he can kick and throw around, we’ll put the books within his reach. For now, book time is supervised!

The very top shelves contain toys that Emrick is a bit too young to handle unsupervised. That wagon up there has sharp metal edges, for instance. I don't think it's actually intended as a child's toy, but it sure looks cute in the play room so there it is!

The top shelf here contains books that Emrick won’t be able to appreciate for several more years. For instance, there’s a copy of The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe* on the top shelf. When Marcus first saw that I moved that book from my own collection to Emrick’s, and that I then took a picture of it for this post, he asked, “Did you put that there as a joke??” I don’t know what he’s talking about. It’s never too early, if you ask me, for a child to read his first story about people getting buried alive, or psychologically tortured in the face of certain death. The last thing you want is a complacent or naive baby. Right?

The next steps are to 1.) Put in a small play table. Emrick is learning to color, and we want him to have a reachable surface he can do that on that is NOT our coffee table. I bought one from Ikea today in fact, which I liked because it has a laminate top which is WASHABLE; 2.) Finally make the alphabet wall I’ve been thinking about for months (something along the lines of this, this, or this). I have most of my letters, I just need to get started painting them, etc.; and 3.) Decide on a map to buy. We like the idea of having a map in the play room because they look interesting and you can learn from them, too!

National Geographic makes some beautiful maps, and I am trying to decide between two in particular, one positively enormous blue/green one that’s a STEAL right now at 50% off, and another that is earth-toned and more practical in size.

THIS IS WHERE I WANT INPUT FROM YOU PEOPLE.

The huge, blue and green one on sale is here.

The smaller, earth-toned one is here.

Now, what I REALLY want is a HUGE, EARTH-TONED one, which they DO have, but it is 116″ wide, which is too big for our 112″ play room wall. I do not want to cut it down. But for some reason, their blue and green version of the HUGE map, is just 110″, making for a perfect fit! But I prefer the earth-toned look. So my choice is between a roughly 9’x6′ blue/green map, or a 4’x6′ earth-toned map. One is a a great size, one is a great color. What to do?

Champagne problems, I know (wink at Chris).
PROS of buying the 4×6 earth-toned map: it’s the color I like, its smaller size gives us more options if we ever decide to relocate the map, it’s still pretty big.
CONS of buying the 4×6 earth-toned map: the only con really is that it won’t be as interesting as a map that takes up an entire wall. The customer reviews of the 116″ version of this map all talk about how IMPRESSIVE it looks in person. This smaller map wouldn’t have that same impact. Also, I wonder if it’s insane to spend ten dollars more on the SMALLER of the two maps! Should I be seizing the opportunity to get the huge one (even though I would have to get the BLUE huge one ’cause that’s the only one that will fit) at half price? (We are NOT going to pay full price for the huge one). Once again, here is a link to the 4×6 earth-toned map.

PROS of  buying the 9×6 blue/green map: It is huge and would look so neato taking up nearly an entire wall. Also, maybe the bright blue is better for kids. After all, I want this to be something that our kid(s) are eventually interested in actually looking at and learning about. Maybe blue would make it more interesting to kids. And the price right now is great. $49.95 is no drop in the bucket, but it is half of the usual price and from what I have read, the quality is excellent. This map should be around for decades, which makes it worth the price in my book, especially since this sale price puts it at ten dollars less than the smaller one!
CONS of buying the 9×6 blue/green map: Again, the color. I am afraid that the blue might make the room TOO bright, especially with the bright orange we have going on in there now. I also wonder if the blue would make it look to school-ish. I mean I want the play room to be bright and fun, but also warm and home-like. Another link to this map.

So tell me what you think. I am leaning toward one, but I won’t say which.

Here’s the wall it will go on:

And the other walls, for perspective:

This is the entrance. This wall is small and only has room for the doors that are already there. I spy a Pooks.

Adjacent to the door wall is the diagonal wall, making for an awkard-to-arrange, five-wall room. This is where I will put the alphabet.

And again, next to the diagonal wall is the (future) map wall. This wall is directly opposite the orange built-ins.

And next to the map wall is a wall with a window.

So there you have it.

*The EAP book has Clark’s name in it, printed when he was obviously a kid. So technically, it’s Clark’s. And I would be happy to send it along to him if he would like!