Creating a Playroom in a Closet {Organizing our Home}

Closets don’t always need to be closets. I’m sharing with you today a closet in our last home that we converted to a playroom, under our stairs! Before we purchased our current home, we lived in a smaller home with no playroom and no spare living space at all; I had to be creative. Though this project was something we did in our old home it is something that I really wanted to share with you today.

In our old home, I had a small, long, low closet under our stairs which was home to a rotation of random bins, trash, bags, various cleaning supplies, and all around clutter. It really wasn’t functional, and definitely was not a good use of the space. Then one day it occurred to me that I have a garage 5 feet from that closet that I use for storage, which is actually very well organized (and by no means will it ever hold a car, it is a giant storage unit). Why was I using this really awkward space for storage at all? I have complained to myself numerous times that I didn’t have a fun play space for the kids- So I enlisted my husband for a weekend project and headed to one of my favorite decor stores, Target, and let the fun begin. I spent under $100 at Target and came home with a rug, curtain and rod, cubbie unit, and twinkle lights. I made a banner from paper and reused some spare fabric bins from my closet.

Here are the before and after photos. What do you think?

BEFORE:

Why is the wall patched? I cut it open to see if I could remove it to add height. NOPE. That is the landing support. OOPS.

AFTER:

We removed the door and added a curtain so the space was easily accessible for the kids and felt open (not making them feel trapped in).

Twinkle lights made it nice and bright in here. There was no power source in here, so we ran an extension cord around the corner behind my desk in the living room. I had some hooks and a spice rack laying around from Ikea (which I painted blue) and used for dress-up supplies. The bulk of the closet is in the back, under a low ceiling (just a few feet tall), the perfect spot for a secret cozy book nook.

A few cute papers and some twine made for a cute decoration that also hid the power cords and made the tall space in the front of the closet flow into the lower space.

We did run into a few issues, the biggest was the cubbie. The room is exactly 36″ wide a the baseboard, and 37″ wide at the walls. The cubbie is 36.5″ wide, which I didn’t think to measure from the baseboards of course, so it wouldn’t fit on the floor. We also assembled it than realized there was no way to get it way back into the closet and turn it into position. It was impossible. So we had to disassemble and reassemble it so that it would face the correct direction. Once pushed into place, we cut some spare wood from the garage into legs which held it just above the baseboards so that it would fit.

Overall it was a quick and easy project that made for a great little play space in a small house. You can easily DIY a similar space in your house with a few crafts, pretty decor, and some imagination!