A new play space for Little Miss in our open plan living / dining room

I recently flung my hands in the air and declared “we have to move house!” Why? The way the living / dining room was set up was just not working for me, for our family or for Little Miss. I couldn’t see her when she played, the space felt cramped and I was doing all my work on the dining table. So, in that moment, I decided moving house was our only solution – despite loving our house, our street and our gorgeous neighbours!

Thankfully, the next morning, sanity prevailed and I decided a simple rearrangement of furniture could also be a viable solution. After a few weeks of slowly swapping Little Miss’ play space for a study nook and moving the dining room and storage units around, the room now works.  Little Miss seems very happy with her new play space and I now have a quiet nook to myself {which will be up on the blog a bit later on}.Little Miss is definitely a pink pink girl, however I wanted to soften the look and allow the play area to blend into the adult part of the living / dining space. I chose a palette of blush pink, grey and gold {Instagram followers are now thinking “no surprises here”!} and pulled pieces we already owned, some reworked and some as-is, as well as a few new items to surprise my little one. We decided to retire the teepee so I needed some extra storage solutions {a teepee is great for stashing all the toys, at the end of the day!} A super cheap toy box was painted in quarter strength Dulux Hugo to provide storage for Little Miss’ very large assortment of tea party accoutrement {where does it all come from!} I also purchased another 4 x 2 Expedit unit from Ikea to fill with storage boxes – which now contain both toys {in the unit closest to the play space} and my styling props {in the adjourning unit}.White Ikea picture ledges were installed to use as forward facing bookshelves, providing storage and showing off the gorgeous covers that adorn childrens’ stories. Underneath, Little Miss likes to perch herself on the beautiful handmade stool, a market find from the Southern Highlands, and draw on her little chalk board “laptop”.One of my favourite additions to the space allows Little Miss to draw on the walls! The chalkboard sticker from The Wall Sticker Company was easy to install and a less permanent option than painting the wall in chalkboard paint… and she LOVES it!.

The Wall Sticker Company obviously likes it too as I just noticed that my photo is now on their website. I always want to be completely transparent with my readers, so I want to note that I did not receive the blackboard sticker or any other product for free nor any payment for this post or for allowing The Wall Sticker Company to use my photo on their website – I simply asked them to credit the photo as mine.An old table provides a great work surface for drawings and playing house, as well as storing bits and pieces in Uashmama bags of all sizes. Prior to the space swap I had a little nail installed on the wall to hold my Love Star heart vase; it was just the perfect spot for a pop of colour. Not wanting to change the positioning of the vase I added some of Little Miss’ art and a Seventy Tree heart print, tying the play space to the adult area.And the best bit? Watching her play!