Better by Design: A Stylish Playroom
Repurposing transforms a toy sty into a room with toy style
In this stylish playroom transformation, interior designer (and mom of three) Michelle Meyers found this pair of antique Staffordshire dogs on eBay and gave the yard-sale shelf new life with gold spray paint. Cuckoo clocks are painted white to match the decor.
A Stylish Playroom Transformation
If you’re a parent, you know how quickly the family room can become the toy-dump room. Sometimes though, enough is enough, and for Michelle Meyers, interior designer and mother of three, the time had come. She revamped her Carlsbad home’s catch-all room—a muddle of toys and hand-me-down furniture—into what she calls a “cute and stylish TV room” that still doubles as a toy room without being disheveled. Plus, Michelle updated the space inexpensively by repurposing as many pieces as possible.
“I love scouring thrift stores and yard sales for unique and vintage pieces, so a lot of things in this room were items I already had in my home,” Michelle says. “This room got its identity by me piecing together items that I loved but didn’t have another spot for in my home.”
A treasured antique chair with damask fabric was a Craigslist purchase a few years back. Michelle reupholstered the room’s other chair with fabric remnants and she painted its dated, cherry frame black. She also gave new life to an old wardrobe by painting its mahogany finish with Rust-Oleum chalked paint.
“The wardrobe was an old TV console that my husband and I purchased when we first got married,” Michelle says. “Gone are the days of TV cabinets, but I couldn’t part with the piece so I use it to house all of my kids’ toys and gaming systems along with the TV. It’s perfect because I simply close up the cabinet to hide the mess of wires and toys.”
New pieces include pink ottomans—“inexpensive purchases from Wayfair”—that add a pop of color to the eclectic space and offset the heaviness of the just-bought Chesterfield-style couch. “I knew that distressed-leather couch would be comfortable and indestructible from the romping of my three kids and their friends,” Michelle explains.
Black-and-white striped walls and gold accents make this room bold and playful. “I wanted to steer clear of the typical toy room decor of cube storage bins, foam rugs and bean bag chairs,” she says. “And I wanted to create a space that would still function as my kids got older.”
Designer Michelle Meyers’ cool, glam and fun family-toy room includes a mobile she made from her button collection and fishing wire.
