Name: Matt, Spencer (2 homes covered in one post)
Location: Massachusetts
Size: both about 2000 sqft.
I have yet to bring up any children, and couldn't tell you the proper way to live with them, but this past week I spent 5 days in 5 different households with a total of 8 people under the age of 7!
During that time, I took notes on how it all goes down. How DO you live well in a comforting home while children run circles around you?
Do you have an idea for a house tour? Let me know! jill@apartmenttherapy.com
The answer: faster and more efficiently. Households with children necessitate serious apartment therapy, and the examples I show here, more than rise to the occasion.
The first home's pics are almost exclusively in the basement just because I was so impressed with the categorization of items. Hundreds and hundreds of items that all found a place to live....
My favorite destination for stuff, has to be, hands down, the coffee can sitting on the shelf built into the underside of a stairway. I know there aren't a lot of basements in apartments--but there are the occasional stairways. These cans are filled with hardware of all sorts, labeled and easily accessible.
The second home is a 2000 sqft loft space in a converted elementary school. Three children and two adults dwell here and thrive. Note the crawl space that connects office to bedroom, the silver "box" that contains a guest room upstairs and a play room downstairs.
That huge cardboard tube is going to be an access route through which the kids will crawl to reach a plexiglass floating playhouse that their father will build them this year. The playhouse will hang somewhere above the main living room. If only we all had parents who did this for us when we were kids...
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Comments (9)
This post is new to me. And I've seen plenty of recycled posts.
But you're still funny, snot.
Okay, I just have to ask it - organized parent or homicidal maniac? Are the little darlings trained to walk around the saws hanging in picture 2 or 3?
Yep. Great space and great ideas, but just feels depressing and gray. Maybe they need fun furniture and colors, something to make it great family home.
did they ever build the suspended plexiglass playhouse?
I have a six year old and we live in a medium size rowhouse in downtown DC. Huge by NY standards but on the smallish size for DC (2 floors, not 3, and rented out b'ment). I am of the "less is more" philosophy on toys. I feel we are DELUGED with toys from others, between birthdays and winter holidays, so we rarely buy any toys for her. We don't have toys everywhere, and my best best best purchase was two blu dot Modulicious cabinets http://www.bludot.com/Browse_Products/Storage/product/Modu-licious_3 . We splurged and got a 3 and a 6 in coordinating grays and it serves as our TV stand/toy storage in the LR. It fits ALL her toys that are downstairs, except for her little table and art drawers. The rest of her toys are in her room.
I have to say that most of our friends have entire basements filled with toys as playrooms and it kind of freaks me out. Massive amounts of crap that their kids play with a couple of days and then disregard. Yes, I admit to being a bit judgmental but I think its overwhelming to the kids AND the parents, and not necessarily teaching them any good lessons about how much stuff you do or don't need to have fun. And I know it's different with lots of kids, but i have also seen it with lots of friends who have only one kid.
But if I could fit a swing in our house i would do it in a second! Whee!
Kids will play with and enjoy as much as you give them - give them loads and they'll expect loads - give them little and they'll expect little - after all they are brand new people and don't have pre-conceived notions - how many times have you seena child playing more happily with the cardboard box the toy came in than with the toy itself
My 6 year old girl fits in a 6' x 12' size room with all her toys, books etc. I custom made an armoire, a small desk, and built-in bed with drawers. If it does not fit in the room, it will stay in the store. Her clothes fit in a two small Ikea cabinets that are in my bedroom. Small NYC apartments teach you compacting and leaving the store without buying.
I totally agree with Krisse. A sea of gray is institutional, no matter how many zippy toys the parents allow. It reminds me of a school gym.
Can anyone point out a good example of an AT tour of a family home that is warm, cozy, and traditional?
Agreed on the comments about too many toys. I have two pre-school children and a moderate expectation that kids' stuff should not fully take over the house. You don't see my shoes, jewelry, books and CDs (my "toys") lying around on the living room floor; why should I have to step over kid toys all day? Both my kids fit -- along with all their stuff (except bikes) -- into their two small, colorful bedrooms. We don't have a playroom, which is unfortunate, because there are some larger toys I'd love to buy for them such as a train table and a play kitchen. But we've outfitted both their rooms with wall units for books and toys, and also they have good-sized closets that are organized from floor to ceiling in order to stow it all. They're allowed to bring their toys into the living room for play, just as long as they clean up at the end of the day or before company comes. To keep the toy volume in check, each fall we clean out their closets and make a big deal of donating forgotten toys and old coats and clothes to Goodwill. It teaches them giving, prevents spill-over from their rooms and keeps me sane!