This Viral Playroom Looks Just Like a Target Store (Complete With a Mini Starbucks)
For many of us, a trip to Target is way more fun than it should be—and perusing the aisles with your giant red cart is so much better with your favorite Starbucks drink in hand. One mom was so inspired by her Target trips with her three-year-old daughter that she redesigned her entire playroom to look like a Target with the requisite in-store Starbucks, and the photos are sure to make you smile.
Earlier this month, Renèe Doby-Becht of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, shared a series of photos on Facebook, showing her daughter, Ariah, in her brand new playroom, which looks just like the big box retailer—down to the tiny details like cake pops, mini Frappuccinos, and even a chip reader for those treat cravings, and Target clearance signs, mock gift cards, and an employee of the month photo, featuring Ariah herself.
Doby-Becht enlisted the help of a few loved ones, including her sister, Brigette Doby, a graphic designer, to create a seriously realistic model playroom for her mini Target lover. The project took her a few months to plan, as she told Apartment Therapy, because not only did she keep getting new ideas, but as she says, it’s understandably “hard to get any work done with a 3-year-old.”
She was inspired, of course, while standing on line at Target. She says she initially only planned to include the mock Target checkout line, but added, “when I was looking for ideas I realized that Target wouldn’t be the same without Starbucks,” so she brewed up the idea for both.
She looked around the store itself and did some research online first, before beginning her project by transforming Ariah’s first Christmas gift, a Melissa & Doug play store set into Target’s signature red checkout line. To create the mock Starbucks counter, she transformed a cube storage unit that Ariah already had in her playroom, with a family friend named Robert Mueller assisting by adding wood and flooring to the storage unit, where Doby-Becht painted the rest in Starbucks’ signature shade of green.
Doby-Becht says the most fun part was putting it all together for Ariah, because she loves to decorate. And the gift was an instant hit with Ariah—the toddler “likes the Starbucks stand and the cake pops the most,” according to her mama, which she says surprised her because “I know how much she loves Target. I thought she would say the Target shopping cart [was her favorite part]. She loves pushing it around and putting groceries and of course her baby doll in it.”
Ariah got to see the project come together, and Doby-Becht says she was “really excited about it.” She added, “She’s been playing a lot with her friend Josiah. They love pretending to work as a cashier or customer and it’s very entertaining to watch them.”
The adorable photos of Ariah enjoying her Christmas gift have since been shared nearly 10,000 times on Facebook, something Doby-Becht was not expecting. She said she was “very surprised” by the response. “I had no idea that it would go viral. I originally just posted to a Target group on Facebook and mostly women were commenting and sharing the photo.”
Ariah loves the retailer for a pretty understandable reason: “She loves Target because of the toys. There aren’t a lot of toy stores anymore, so I feel that’s why kids love Target so much.”
As her favorite Starbucks sweet treat? “She loves cake pops, especially the ones from Target, because they make a Target dog cake pop.” Obviously.