This was dubbed the “circus room” when we moved in, for obvious reasons. Originally there was a multi-colored wallpaper border which we removed and toned down just a little with a blue stripe…but it didn’t take away from the “circusness” of the room.

At one point, I had big plans to turn this into a workout room, and we even set up a TV so I could do my Jillian Michaels workout in it. But since I go to the gym in the mornings and ride my bike regularly (when I’m not pregnant), I didn’t really need to add any extra workouts to my schedule.

Now that we’re starting to accumulate toys and baby gear, we have all the motivation we need to turn the “circus room” into a playroom. And it will definitely NOT be circus-themed!

From the start, I had a clear vision of what I want this room to look like. Normally I shy away from really bold colors, but since this is going to be a playroom and it’s in the basement, I’m feeling a little braver than usual. Which is why I chose this color (Bayside by Valspar) for the walls:

It will probably look a little darker on the walls, especially since there aren’t any windows in the room, but I think it’s going to be perfect! The accent color in the room will be bright red, so we’ll keep the existing fan/light fixture…but the red floor must go! We haven’t picked out the new flooring yet, but we’re thinking of something fairly neutral that will complement the bright colors.

The nursery is our #1 priority right now, but the playroom is next on our list. The painter will be here in a few weeks, so I’ll update with pictures once he’s finished!

This is what our basement storage room has looked like since the great flood of 2010. Almost three years later, after living in denial that this room even existed, the nesting urge kicked in hard and I decided it was time to tackle it.

Zach wasn’t quite as excited as I was about whipping this room into shape, but he was a great sport. He took every single thing off of those shelves, and we went through all the boxes to decide what was worth keeping and what we’d be trashing. We filled the next room (our little boy’s future playroom!) with all the stuff that didn’t make the “keep” pile, and soon were left with a fairly empty storage room and a GIGANTIC trash heap.

Guess who then made about 12 trips to the dumpster? Zach was a trooper once again, hauling everything upstairs and out of my sight forever. While he did that, I organized the rest of the shelves in the basement and wiped down all the tile dust that still remained from the post-flood basement renovation. After all that work, we were finally left with a room that looked like this:

I can hardly even believe it’s the same room as the one in the “before” photo. It’s no longer a safety hazard to walk in, and I actually know where everything is! A miracle after three years of disaster zone status. Everyone keeps telling me we’ll accumulate TONS of stuff once the baby arrives, so now we have a nice organized storage space to put everything that gets displaced by baby gear.

The nesting bug bit me hard, because I didn’t stop after finishing the basement. Next, we tackled the future nursery, which meant dismantling the daybed in there (and laundering/putting away all the linens and pillows) and completely clearing everything else out. Then I moved on to the laundry room, for which I bought matching storage bins and organized everything that had been cluttering up the shelves in there. The next day, I did a clean sweep of the master bedroom, closet and bathroom.

So what’s next? I have a huge list of all the projects I want to pursue now that the spring cleaning is mostly done, starting with the nursery. I can’t wait to get to work setting it up!