How to Create a Play Area in the Living Room

We have this weird space in our living room.  It dips down with two steps.  It is too small for a couch and too awkward for a TV. It’s a nice area to sit and read by the fireplace…if it was 1987.  We had our bar and a chair there for the last year, but the space rarely got use.  Now that the girls are a good age, we moved the bar out and their toys in.  So, I had to figure out how to create a play area in the living room, plus make it look pretty because it looked like this…

This was killing me. Some days it was worse because a ton of their toys from their room would be all over the place.  My six-year-old daughter would complain because her 11-month-old sister would mess up her dollhouse or steal the little pieces of her board game.

Another thing that bugged me about the space was that it was one of the first things you see when you walked through the front door. So, I buckled down and spent $135.00 at Target on six storage cubes and these cubed shelves. These cubes are awesome because they are 13X3 and hold and hide so much! I put my older daughter’s toys in the top three bins and my youngest daughter’s toys in the bottom three bins.

I pulled pieces of furniture from around the rest of the house including this coral table in my bedroom.  This table is perfect for playing with her dollhouse or cards and board games with a friend.

I also put an old wooden Filipino game called, Sungka over there.  I had this from when I was little.  I placed it next to some suitcases that hold extra things for storage.

I pulled some décor off the bookshelves I our living room and a lamp from my bedroom, and the toy storage bins I made from another room and viola, instant play area in the family room.

Needless to say, it is WAY better, and as a bonus I only spent $135.00!

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