A Patterned Toyroom
Adding Candy-colored Fabric Backing to the Toyroom Shelves
Hoping that a little punch of color might be a fun addition to the downstairs toyroom, Liliana and I selected bright pastel fabrics to line the back of each shelf. Liliana tended to select poka dot fabrics while I loved any of the candy-colored ones-- especially those with vintage childrens' scenes, fairies, roses, or fleur-de-lis.
Since we'll probably take down and reuse the fabric someday, I simply used a staple gun to connect the cloth (which had been ironed with edges folded behind) to the wooden boards at the rear of each shelf.
I tend to like monochrome, minimalist white when I decorate rooms so this toyroom was a fun chance to fully embrace the "clutter" of all the toys and to see lots of pattern.
This toyroom is located in the walk-out basement floor of our home and the room had been painted dark grey and used as a pantry by previous owners. The shelves were handmade from old fruit crates and boards a long time ago. Once we moved in, our very first project was to clean this room and paint it white so that the girls had a playroom immediately. Thank you, Mom, for all those hours of painting! Now, as we continue to unpack toys from storage and as toys rotate in Liliana's interest, the toyroom continues to evolve.
The opposite wall of the toyroom contains an equal amount of shelving but we've used it for our library of picture books.
Hanging in the center of the toy shelving are two hand-painted colonial-style portraits of a little boy and girl. I found the paintings at an antiquing festival last year. I love their naive, folk style! My hope is that they will watch over many happy tea parties, dolly feedings, robot stackings, and all the playtimes that occur in this room during the years to come!
I love the robot/spaceship/alien shelf!
ReplyDeleteWho wouldn't? :)
ReplyDeleteSome of the Comments from Facebook:
ReplyDeleteErika Hardee Roberts: So well written Laura. I love the tepee and Indian set you had in the playroom. Is that an antique or could I purchase it somewhere easily?
Laura Wingard-Plank: Thanks, Erika! So glad you read it; I miss you and love seeing pictures of your kids. The set you mentioned was made by Plan Toys and we purchased it from amazon.com back when Darius and Tierney lived with us so it is not an antique. I'm not sure if it's still made, though, because I didn't see it on amazon and a google search brought up kaboodle with the set but when I went into the individual shops, the item was no longer available--but maybe you can still find it out there somewhere, perhaps used. Good luck and thanks!
Laura Wingard-Plank: Erika, I just looked at the toy shelf photo again and noticed that although the teepee and the items to the left of it are the Plan Toy set, the running horse, the riding Native American and the little girl are all Holztiger figures and those are readily available (as are many, many other figures and animals) either on amazon or at Padilly.com which has the most extensive collection of Holztiger. They are handmade in Europe and hand-painted and are worth every penny! Hope that helps!
Erika Hardee Roberts: Perfect -- thank you! McLain is very into all things Native American right now, so it would make a perfect Christmas gift for her. Thank you! And your girls are beautiful, by the way. The blue eyes are to die for :)