And now, without further ado, I give you... the Playroom!

First of all, I have to say, pictures don't do it justice :). I will admit I am actually happy with how it turned out (that's rare, since I am a perfectionist!), and since this project has been my 'baby' from the beginning, I will also admit that I am quite proud of it. :) The day that we chose our floor plan (June 2005), I went home and drew up the 'plans' for the someday finished basement. In November we decided to finish the basement, we had hoped to be completely done by Christmas. It is now August, but I can now say that the Playroom is officially done! I have had people comment 'well, it helps that her husband does this for a living,' and I couldn't agree more! Matt was able to take my design, add to it, and make it real. However, ultimately it doesn't hurt that I have crazy ideas and when I get something in my head, NO ONE can convince me that I can't do it (unfortunately for Matt)! Sorry for the mass photos, but I can't really explain it in words, pictures do it better!

In case you can't read it, the quote says "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world" - Albert Einstein
This was kind of my theme for this project, I wanted a place for my kids to play, imagine, and create, especially during the winter when it's too cold to go outside. Also, I intend to run a preschool someday (as in someday when all of my kids are in school), so this playroom was planned to accommodate that, as well.

The front of the playhouse - and yes, if you have been in the playroom before, this IS a new slide. We went through 3 slides, but this one is here to stay. It holds up to 350 lbs, is SOLID, and it's green (it matches better than the blue one that we had :)

The 'tree' - this was Matt's baby. When I gave him the plans that I had created, he insisted that we needed a climbing wall somewhere. That SOOO did not go with the theme. However, after several ideas, he came up with the idea of a tree, and of course it had to include monkey bars across the ceiling. I will admit that it turned out pretty cool - I was skeptical at first.The inside of the lower floor on the playhouse - the kitchen and tea table (also notice the new safety rail on the right side of the stepladder - we have had some little ones struggle with the stairs, so this has helped :)More of the inside main floor - you can't read it in the picture, but all of the colored circles are labeled with the name of the color - I was going for subliminal exposure to reading :)The second floor of the playhouse - or as McKinley likes to call it 'the dolly's room'The 'book nook' on the upper floor of the playhouse. I painted frames on the walls and let the kids paint inside of them - they thought I was the coolest mom in the world (for the day). We had so much fun with it!

The Stage (with working stage curtains, dress-up 'closet,' full-length mirror, and spotlight - totally tap-dance ready!) and the grocery store (you can't see it, but there is a checkout stand with a little stool and of course shelves for the food inside)The glass door was an afterthought - since the playroom is right next to the theater, we wanted to be able to close the door, but still see what was going on inside, so that was our solution. The quote on the wall inside reads "We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing". That applies to Matt and I, we decided through the course of this project that we are still little kids, we were way more excited about this whole idea than our kids were!Well, our kids love every minute in the playroom! We really enjoyed having an out-of-the-box project (there is not a store that sells playhouse-sized railings, etc, so we had to improvise every step of the way). I am so happy to have a finished product, but secretly a little sad to be done, I want to do another one! Hope you enjoyed the playroom tour!

Come play with us anytime! Our doors are always open!

PS - I am really not that great of an artist, I only did the stenciling and circles, the murals and tree were painted by a hired artist - I WISH I could do that!

Project general contracted and framed by Beehive State Builders, LLC :)