Room thoughts

[guster]

It looks like our closing could be as early as next Friday.
I had an interesting conversation with my best friend about the purpose of each room in the house today and I'd love some other thoughts.
The kitchen is in the center of the main level. It has an very wide doorframe to a family room. This family room is large, but has very little wall space. The wall opposite the opening to the kitchen has French doors to an atrium, and one longer wall has a pellet stove and two large window and the wall opposite that has built-ins for a TV and some very narrow shelving.
I was hoping to make the family room the makeshift playroom while we are working with an unfinished basement, but the only way for me to manage that is to limit to the number of toys that are being used and nothing that can't fit in a piece of furniture. We have two buffet style cabinets that hold toys and plenty of those wooden shelves with canvas or wicker baskets to hold smaller things, but I can't really fit those in the room without it looking very crowded.
I can put one of the cabinets in the atrium and two of the other storage containers in the family room, but I'm even worried about that looking over done with our large sectional that will be in there.
All this to say that on the opposite side of the kitchen is a pocket door that leads to the formal dining room. We do have a dining room set, but I am not in love with it, and we rarely use it. We could easily put it in basement as storage or even donate it,
So, would it be weird to make the dining room an official playroom?
I could still see the kids from the kitchen and it would only be temporary.
Eta: there is still a formal living room and the kitchen has very large eat in area.

[mwhip]

I don't think it would be weird. It's your house, you do what you want with each room.

I'm assuming you have another room you could eat in, maybe a dine in kitchen?

I know when we were house hunting, we saw quite a few houses where dining rooms or 2nd living areas were play rooms. Our DCP used to her her formal dining room as a play space, but since she's dropped down to 2 kids, she did put a formal dining table back in the space and the kids sit there for crafts/school work.

In a few years, you can transform the space back to a formal dining area, when the kids play in their own rooms.

[vino]

Ok, I've read this a couple times and I think that I can picture it.

Do you need all the toys? Do you know that they will take up that much room? Could you put some toys in the basement and do a rotation? What about some toys in the kids room?

So the family room you said has little wall space, but would part of the sectional become a 'half wall'? Could you put like a KALLAX with cubbies and drawers for some toys?



with drawers

[lfig]

I don't think that would be weird at all. Having a dedicated play room is amazing! We turned our office, which we never used, into the play room a few years ago and I love it! When we do work from home we just set up camp at the kitchen table. And it is right off of the living room and in a central location in the house so we can keep an eye on her and peek in on her easily. I think that you would make the best use of your space by making the dining room a play room.

[guster]

mwhip, I just didn't know if I would regret not having a formal dining room.
vino, those are the systems I have, but just not IKEA.
I don't think it'll fit easily behind the couch because of the bottom of the fireplace, but it is an option.
It's not even just toys, it's mostly art supplies, puzzles, legos, trains. I did think about putting things in rotation, but I didn't realize until just now that there are things like the play workbench, the train table, the play kitchen that would also need to be out.

Maybe I have to rethink my idea of not finishing the basement for a year!

[vino]

I see, it sounds like it would be a bit cramped. In that case I would use the formal dining room as a playroom to house everything, especially because you can easily switch it out when the kids have less large items like the kitchen, workbench etc

[guster]

Thanks everyone!
I guess I was torn on the idea of possibly losing a formal dining that we never really used anyway.

[wineallthetime]

We use our formal living room as our playroom. It's a slight eyesore, but it's SO convenient! As the kids get bigger we'll make our finished basement our primary playroom, but for now I like to see them playing while I'm cooking, cleaning, ect. We were going to use our formal dining room, but we actually do use it. We don't have formal living room furniture anyway. Plus, does anyone actually use their formal living room???

[guster]

Mar 19, 2018 17:19:29 GMT -6 wineallthetime said:

We use our formal living room as our playroom. It's a slight eyesore, but it's SO convenient! As the kids get bigger we'll make our finished basement our primary playroom, but for now I like to see them playing while I'm cooking, cleaning, ect. We were going to use our formal dining room, but we actually do use it. We don't have formal living room furniture anyway. Plus, does anyone actually use their formal living room???

I can totally understand that you use your formal dining room. I don't think YH would have it any other way. I'm surprised he doesn't protest about the formal living room. 😃

[wedding]

I am a bit anal about stuff (haha) and wouldn’t want to use the dining room as a playroom but since it’s temporary I don’t see why not. Down the line you might want to use the formal dining. We used ours every Sunday growing up and I kind of loved it.

[lfig]

Mar 19, 2018 17:19:29 GMT -6 wineallthetime said:

We use our formal living room as our playroom. It's a slight eyesore, but it's SO convenient! As the kids get bigger we'll make our finished basement our primary playroom, but for now I like to see them playing while I'm cooking, cleaning, ect. We were going to use our formal dining room, but we actually do use it. We don't have formal living room furniture anyway. Plus, does anyone actually use their formal living room???

I’d be willing to bet flamingo uses her formal living room!

[flamingo]

Mar 19, 2018 18:57:31 GMT -6 lfig said:

Mar 19, 2018 17:19:29 GMT -6 wineallthetime said:

We use our formal living room as our playroom. It's a slight eyesore, but it's SO convenient! As the kids get bigger we'll make our finished basement our primary playroom, but for now I like to see them playing while I'm cooking, cleaning, ect. We were going to use our formal dining room, but we actually do use it. We don't have formal living room furniture anyway. Plus, does anyone actually use their formal living room???

I’d be willing to bet flamingo uses her formal living room!

Ha! we actually just switched things around this past week, so that our family room furniture (which is actually fairly dressy/nice) is now in the front room (formal living room) and the family room--which is on the back of the house by the kitchen--is now the playroom. We'd like to get a sofa for in there but right now it's my H's desk and bookcase, a pair of wing chairs, secondary TV for the kids, and all their stuff. 

In our future/long-term home, yes, we would like a FLR and FDR and yes, we will use both! I just like dedicated spaces for kid-free entertaining. But we're basically old people, so. 

[wineallthetime]

Mar 19, 2018 18:57:31 GMT -6 lfig said:

Mar 19, 2018 17:19:29 GMT -6 wineallthetime said:

We use our formal living room as our playroom. It's a slight eyesore, but it's SO convenient! As the kids get bigger we'll make our finished basement our primary playroom, but for now I like to see them playing while I'm cooking, cleaning, ect. We were going to use our formal dining room, but we actually do use it. We don't have formal living room furniture anyway. Plus, does anyone actually use their formal living room???

I’d be willing to bet flamingo uses her formal living room!

Lol! I thought that exact same thing as I typed that!

[guster]

Mar 19, 2018 18:10:39 GMT -6 wedding said:

I am a bit anal about stuff (haha) and wouldn’t want to use the dining room as a playroom but since it’s temporary I don’t see why not. Down the line you might want to use the formal dining. We used ours every Sunday growing up and I kind of loved it.

Me too. Total type A over here, so while it makes sense, I don't know if it something I can go for without feeling uneasy.
The only good thing about it being a play room to start is that I might hate it and it's an easy thing to disassemble that kind of room and move it down into the basement for storage and toy rotation.

[flamingo]

Mar 19, 2018 19:26:41 GMT -6 guster said:

Mar 19, 2018 18:10:39 GMT -6 wedding said:

I am a bit anal about stuff (haha) and wouldn’t want to use the dining room as a playroom but since it’s temporary I don’t see why not. Down the line you might want to use the formal dining. We used ours every Sunday growing up and I kind of loved it.

Me too. Total type A over here, so while it makes sense, I don't know if it something I can go for without feeling uneasy.
The only good thing about it being a play room to start is that I might hate it and it's an easy thing to disassemble that kind of room and move it down into the basement for storage and toy rotation.

Yeah, I'm kind of the same way. 

Question, is your formal living room large enough to incorporate a dining area into it, if you wanted to keep your current table/chairs? Could you off-set it and create a small sitting area at one end? Just a thought, I've seen this done and it can look great but obviously it requires a good-sized room.

We're in kind of the opposite of your situation in that we *only* have a formal dining room--no eat-in kitchen. We stored our kitchen table/chairs in the attic. Obviously for 95% of the time, it's fine, but even in the few months we've been here, there have been a few times when I would have preferred 2 separate eating spaces. This house is temporary so that wasn't a deal-breaker. And like you said, if you do decide to use it as a playroom and hate it, you can always switch it back fairly easily. 

[guster]

Mar 19, 2018 20:40:48 GMT -6 flamingo said:

Mar 19, 2018 19:26:41 GMT -6 guster said:

Me too. Total type A over here, so while it makes sense, I don't know if it something I can go for without feeling uneasy.
The only good thing about it being a play room to start is that I might hate it and it's an easy thing to disassemble that kind of room and move it down into the basement for storage and toy rotation.

Yeah, I'm kind of the same way. 

Question, is your formal living room large enough to incorporate a dining area into it, if you wanted to keep your current table/chairs? Could you off-set it and create a small sitting area at one end? Just a thought, I've seen this done and it can look great but obviously it requires a good-sized room.

We're in kind of the opposite of your situation in that we *only* have a formal dining room--no eat-in kitchen. We stored our kitchen table/chairs in the attic. Obviously for 95% of the time, it's fine, but even in the few months we've been here, there have been a few times when I would have preferred 2 separate eating spaces. This house is temporary so that wasn't a deal-breaker. And like you said, if you do decide to use it as a playroom and hate it, you can always switch it back fairly easily. 

I think it would be a tight squeeze to have a dining room table in the living room. It's an interesting idea, though.
The kitchen has a couple of barstools and a large space for a table and chairs. We probably would only use the formal dining room if we were hosting a holiday or if we wanted to do something special -- a birthday or anniversary dinner --for the four of us.

[nam2013]

I would loooooove to have a playroom! So for sure I would sacrifice my dinning room. Plus playrooms can be so pretty, I have a whole Pinterest board with ideas for my non existing play room.

[tgrimes]

My formal living room & my formal dining room has been turned into the play area. My next door neighbors have the same floor plan as us and they turned their formal living room into the play area but still kept the formal dining room.

[trtlcrzy]

What if you did something like this in the center of your family room?
www.walmart.com/ip/Counter-Height-Craft-Table-Multiple-Colors/23847862?action=product_interest&action_type=title&beacon_version=1.0.2&bucket_id=irsbucketdefault&client_guid=d4ea7749-6a16-4ddd-8480-27b14a121d56&config_id=106&customer_id_enc&findingMethod=p13n&guid=d4ea7749-6a16-4ddd-8480-27b14a121d56&item_id=23847862&parent_anchor_item_id=23847861&parent_item_id=23847861&placement_id=irs-106-t1&reporter=recommendations&source=new_site&strategy=PWVUB&visitor_id=VZGF3xGl_SHCNKm6s7XUto

You could store all of your craft supplies in the cubbies and the kids would have a place to color or do projects. Then you could keep the other things like the kitchen and workbench next to the walls. Maybe a tall bookcase on one wall to utilize vertical space. I’d anchor it to the wall and keep a stool next to it so the kids could reach the things up high (or you could put things you don’t want them to have without supervision up high instead).

[trtlcrzy]

To me it sounds like you really don’t want to have to sacrifice your formal dining room, so I think there are ways to make the other room work.

[guster]

That's very cute, trtlcrzy!!
It wouldn't fit in that room, but I definitely like it.
You're totally right, I don't really want to sacrifice the dining room, but I don't have furniture that I love for it right now, and I think having a designated space for their toys while we're waiting to finish the basement might, ultimately, be less stressful for my type a ways.

[dapostrophe]

I think as long as it's temporary, you are probably fine. I personally can't stand having a million toys on the main floor, they just end up all over the place. We have two baskets total that go under the tv, and whatever can fit in there can stay upstairs and has to be put away at the end of the night.

We are going to paint and redo the floors in the basement soon, so we will be in the same boat. I have most of the toys in bins that we will probably rotate out in the meantime.

[jewels]

I’m not sure if you answered this or not, but why not make the formal living room the playroom instead of the dining room? I think I saw someone upthread mention it

Our eat in kitchen is small (difficult if we only have my parents over) so whenever anyone comes to dinner we use our dining room, not just holidays. We use the table for crafts, school work, etc too.

I guess I’m saying I personally would rather have a dining room than a formal living room. But we have people over for dinner pretty often so that might be coloring my opinion

[guster]

Mar 20, 2018 12:12:53 GMT -6 jewels said:

I’m not sure if you answered this or not, but why not make the formal living room the playroom instead of the dining room? I think I saw someone upthread mention it

Our eat in kitchen is small (difficult if we only have my parents over) so whenever anyone comes to dinner we use our dining room, not just holidays. We use the table for crafts, school work, etc too.

I guess I’m saying I personally would rather have a dining room than a formal living room. But we have people over for dinner pretty often so that might be coloring my opinion

I was leaning to the dining room simply out of convenience. The kitchen is open to the family room on one side and open to the dining room on the other, so I thought I could keep my eyes on the kids when I'm in the kitchen (if's really where I spend most of my time)

[jewels]

Gotchya. I’d do it then, like you said, you can always change it if you don’t like it!

[dapostrophe]

Congrats on your upcoming closing, btw. Exciting!

[guster]

Mar 20, 2018 12:54:05 GMT -6 dapostrophe said:

Congrats on your upcoming closing, btw. Exciting!

Thank you! I'm super excited, but very anxious.