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You are here: Home / Room Reveals / Turn a Dining Room into a Playroom

Turn a Dining Room into a Playroom

April 17, 2012 By Karen Cooper 2 Comments

Our finished basement was our playroom, but there was a problem: my kids didn’t want to play in the basement!  A friend, who is converting her dining room into an art/craft/homework room, gave me an idea…why not turn our seldom-used dining room into a playroom?  Genius.  Pure genius. Here’s how to turn a dining room into a playroom and finally put a lonely room to good use!

Now, I have to say: I loved our dining room.  I put the whole thing together – paint, rug, table, chairs … the whole shebang.  And I loved it.  But, you know, we aren’t formal dining people.  We used our dining room maybe once or twice a year, and otherwise it was just used as a storage room.

Here are the “before” pictures:

Dining Room before it became a playroom - thediybungalow.com

(You can even see that I have put stuff in here for storage – in this case, to put in my office.)

We have a big living room.  It’s really two rooms, but, when we moved in, we knocked down the wall between them to make one big room.  But there’s definitely enough room for the dining table in there.  Before I decided to move everything around, we had a small table in here for the kids to do puzzles or play games on.  Here’s what the living room looked like:

Living room before I added the dining room table - thediybungalow.com
Living room before I added the dining room table - thediybungalow.com

After thinking and measuring and thinking some more, I decided to do it – put the dining room in the living room and put the playroom in the dining room.  The kids and Dear Husband were out of town, and I was brain dead from a weekend at our retreat for work, so this seemed like a good thing to do.

And here’s the result…

First, the playroom:

Turn the dining room into a playroom - thediybungalow.com

I changed the curtains – the dining room had rust-colored silk tone-on-tone curtains.  The playroom now has curtains I had bought (a while ago) in the as-is room at Ikea for $10 each.  I’m going to tie them back with some green ribbon.

Turn the dining room into a playroom - thediybungalow.com

This is the view from the living room.  I moved the rug from the guest room/my office in there, as well as the Ikea Expedit toy storage from the living room, M’s doll house (formerly my doll house), the art table and art supplies from the basement, plus most of the toys.  Oh, and two beanbags and a lamp for a reading nook (I love nooks).

Turn the dining room into a playroom - thediybungalow.com

The art table is on the left, with two chairs (one for each kid), plus Ikea white ceramic planters holding pencils, colored pencils, scissors and markers.

Turn the dining room into a playroom - thediybungalow.com

The reading nook in the corner.

Turn the dining room into a playroom - thediybungalow.com

And here’s what the living room looks like now…

Living room with dining room - thediybungalow.com

View from the kitchen

 

Living room with dining room - thediybungalow.com

View from adjacent corner (dining room entrance).

Living room with dining room - thediybungalow.com

View from front hall.

Not too bad, right?  I actually really like it, and we’ve already used our dining room table more in the last week than we did all last year!  Double win!
And, most importantly, the kids love their new play space.  They got home today and went right in there and started playing – giving me time to make banana bread and dinner with nary a peep from them.  It was, well, awesome.
Thank you for listening and for your ideas that helped inspire me.  I’d love to know what you think!

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Filed Under: Decorating, Organizing, Room Reveals Tagged With: Dining Rooms 2 Comments

About Karen Cooper

Hi! I'm Karen. I call myself a “recovering lawyer” - I traded in my power suits for power tools and a life of DIY adventures. Join me for DIY, home decorating, repurposing and upcycling, and organizing projects and tips as I transform a 1929 Tudor bungalow into our home. I believe in merging old and new to make a house a home.

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Comments

  1. Elizabeth says

    April 17, 2012 at 12:40 am

    It think it looks really good! Also, i think that formal dining rooms are sort of over-rated. We don’t have one in our new house and instead use the parlor as a playroom for Daisy and Elliot–best use of space ever. They feel like they are close enough to whatever else is going on and I feel like they are safe and contained(ish). You guys should come over!

    Reply
  2. Karen says

    April 17, 2012 at 12:51 am

    Thanks!!!

    Reply

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Hi! I’m Karen. I call myself a “recovering lawyer,” because I turned in my power suits for power tools and a life of DIY. This blog is all about DIY, home decorating, repurposing and upcycling, and organization. I believe in merging old and new to make a house a home.




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About Karen

A "recovering lawyer," I turned in my power suits for power tools and a life of DIY. I believe in merging old and new to make a house a home. Read More…

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