Home Projects

Before & After: Garage Turned Playroom

published Sep 16, 2011
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(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

Spaces in our homes serve different needs at different times in our lives and this family decided that instead of a traditional car garage, they needed a playroom. See how they made that happen:

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After!

Tracy, her husband and their son Harrison live in Seattle and she told us about this terrific project:

We live in a small townhouse with a rather small shared driveway making it almost impossible to park in our driveway. Rather than letting that valuable garage space go to waste, I turned it into both a storage and playroom for our son and the occasional friend or neighbor coming over to play.

I wanted the space to bright and colorful without having those normal primary colors for the playroom toys, furniture, and walls. It is designed to be a daycare like space with a daily activity calendar, cubbies for friend’s things, and a diaper changing station to avoid having to trek up to the third floor for diaper changes.

In terms of renovations, we added a sink with cabinets, created a half wall to separate our storage space and water heater, and installed a wall heater.

Paint (all Benjamin Moore):
Stripes: Olive Moss 2147-20, Gray Shower 2125-30 and True Blue 2066-50
Below chair rail: Twilight 2058-10

Products:
Toy shelves: Ikea
Cabinets and Sink: Ikea
Wall heater: Home Depot
Kids table and chairs: Home Depot
Cubby/lockers: DIY
Play kitchen: DIY (re-purposed bedside table from Goodwill)
Dollhouse: Craigslist (wallpapered walls with scrapbooking paper and did floors with contact paper)
Reading nook canopy: Ikea
Book baskets: Fred Meyer kitchen storage department
Carpet Tiles: Free samples from interior design company

Fantastic job – thanks Tracy!

(Images Tracy H.)