We have a closet in our livingroom which was filled with board games and art supplies. We never play board games. I would like to be one of those families who sits down together and enjoys a game or two, but nobody really likes them much. We are more of a videogaming family. Sorry to say it! This fact, however, hasn't stopped us from accumulating over 40 board and card games. My 8-year-old says they are called "bored games" for a reason, Mom! He understands that it is board... but he liked the witty play on words he came up with.
Anyway, I weeded through the games, gave some away, threw some away and stored the rest in my kids' playroom in the basement. Now they won't get played with for sure. I should have just given them all away!
This is what the closet looked like after I removed all of the games, paper, crayons and markers. We live in a house that was built in the 70's and some of the decor which still exists makes that obvious. Like this lovely panelled closet. I was told it was once a wet bar... this is made obvious by the lovely pipe sticking out of the wall. LOL! Perhaps some day we will turn it back into a wet bar?
These shelves were all wonky and some of them were chipboard and were bowing. They are held up by those little tracks that you put the clips in. I went to Lowes looking for some new shelving, but really didn't want to spend much money. Shelving for a large closet like this is EXPENSIVE! So, I took the tracks down from this closet, took them outside and spray painted them black. I also threw out the chipboard shelves and used the plywood ones again. They were cut to the right size and in pretty good shape. I asked my husband to buy some half-round edging and added that to the edges of these boards and it made them look awesome. I painted each shelf black and pained one with black chalkboard paint. I used that one for the desk in this room! The boys can write on it with chalk.
I painted the walls yellow because I wanted to keep it nice and bright in there. It also goes nicely with colors in the livingroom.
Here you can see where it is.
Here you can see the chalkboard desk. Perfect for doing your homework! Also, I bought 9 bins at Walmart to create a unifom look on the shelves. These are labeled and hold all of our notebooks, folders, book covers, Mom's homework, etc!
Here you can see the other side. I asked my husband to build a bench so the boys can sit in there and read their books in peace and quiet if they would like to. I made the cushion and the pillow case. I searched for a cushion form and they were so expensive! So, one day I was at Walmart and noticed the bed egg-crate toppers were only $10! I bought a twin-sized one, cut it into the size I needed, doubled it, and stitched them together. I then made a plaid cover for it. It is just what I needed! The pillow forms were also more than I wanted to spend, so I went to the bedding department and found that the pillows were only $2.50! So, I took one of those and made a cover for it. It is nicer and fluffier than the pillow forms anyway!
The shelf below the bench fits both backpacks perfectly!
With the extra twin egg crate pieces, I made padding for a chair I had in the basement. My husband also put a light on the wall above the desk. The electric box was already there, so we were able to connect easily.
This was a picture frame with glass that I had sitting around in the basement. I used some shelf liner I had (the yellow stripe) and some black cardstock to create a background inside the glass. I also put the photos under the glass. We can now use white board markers and jot notes each night so we remember what we need to take/do the next day. My son's schedule is also taped to the glass.
See those backpacks! Yeah! Much better than in my kitchen every night!
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