Quick note: Tonight we’ll be at the West Elm in Minneapolis (3879 Gallagher Drive) for cookies, cocoa, and a book signing at 6pm. The parking lot at West Elm is small, but there’s a larger lot at a nearby Macy’s and a ramp that leads to a parking garage — arriving early, carpooling, or getting dropped off can help. More info on the Facebook event. We’d love to see you there!
You asked for photos of the playroom that had become a “holy-cow-that’s-crazy” staging area full of secret book projects, yard sale items, and things destined for future makeovers. Now that the book projects are out of the bag, we can finally show you the chaos — and the relief of clearing it out.
Yep — that was the room. It looks wild, but it’s more exciting than stressful now that those projects are no longer surprises. You can spot partially stenciled sections, gray trim around the window, a green planter, a wooden headboard, a yellow branch wreath, and other pieces you might recognize from the book.
Here’s a vertical view of the same madness. Still intense, right?
When my mom came to visit we decided to tackle the mess together — me plus mom equals full-on organizing mode. The minute Clara went down for her nap, we sprang into action and cleared the room. With so many items to sort (some for charity auctions, some for the yard sale, and some slated for future rooms like the sunroom, Clara’s big-girl room, and the guest room), the first step was emptying the playroom and creating space in the entryway to sort everything.
- One zone for yard sale items
- One zone for book auction pieces
- One zone for things returning to the playroom for future projects
Most of what you see in the picture was destined to go back into the room — luggage into the closet, shelving for a future project, and so on. My mom took on the closet-duty, lovingly sorting gift bags, tissue paper, and ribbon while I handled yard sale and auction piles.
About an hour and a half later we could actually see most of the room again. It felt like discovering a hidden room — a nice reminder that you don’t have to let clutter build up to this level if you don’t want to feel that relief later.
Of course, emptying the playroom moved the mess into the entryway and hallway. This became our yard sale pillow pile — not exactly elegant, but effective. (You can read more about how our yard sale went on the blog.)
After we reloaded the room with the items that belonged there, it looked a lot less chaotic. Smaller auction items that we didn’t want left in the sunroom went under the window (they’re gone now), and the yard sale stuff was moved to the sunroom to keep it separate. We even hung the old bedroom curtains temporarily so they wouldn’t be wadded in a closet — they still need a pressing and some coaxing to hang straight, but at least they’re up.
It may still look cluttered in spots, but compared to a few hours earlier it felt peaceful. Huge thanks to my mom for all her help!
Here’s the view back toward the daybed, which will become Clara’s big-girl bed. The daybed is currently piled with pillows (yes, I admit to having a pillow problem), but we’ll use many of them in the sunroom and the new bedroom, so they’re not wasted.
That big blue rectangle on the wall was another backdrop we painted for book photos. Some walls were painted multiple times for different projects — navy for a headboard backdrop, paprika red for cloud shelves, and then blue when we demonstrated a painting tip. It’s funny to remember how many surfaces we repainted in January. The green chair and twig mirror in the corner were auction items and are no longer in the room.
Speaking of the auction: we raised $500 for charity thanks to generous local bidders at the R. Home for the Holidays silent auction. We’re so grateful that those pieces found good homes. We limited bidding to local buyers because shipping large, heavy items from across the country would have been complicated and reduced the funds for charity, but we’d love to see photos from anyone who repurposes or recreates projects from the book.
My mom’s closet handiwork deserves a shout-out — she sorted gift bags, ribbon, tissue paper, and everything else with gusto. It was one of her visit highlights (aside from spending time with sweet Clara, of course).
Another little relic of all the painting we did: a faint line of paint to the left of the closet where we used different colors for photo backdrops. We were definitely in full book-production mode.
Finally, the entryway and hallway were cleared. Can I get a what-what?
I hope these long-awaited before-and-after snapshots of the playroom were fun to see. The original “before” gave me the willies — it’s reassuring to know this can happen to anyone and also reassuring to know it can be fixed with some focused time and teamwork.
Tell me I’m not the only one with a messy closet or junk drawer — I’d love to hear if you’ve had similar projects. Clearing the playroom is a step toward converting it into Clara’s big-girl room, but we still have the hall bathroom, basement, sunroom, carport, and guest bathroom on our to-do list. We hop around projects a lot, so it’s only a matter of time before we tackle those too. Bring on the paint, the fabric, and the moose lamp!
Update: Nope, I’m not pregnant. Just to clarify — I, Sherry, am definitely not with child. Haha. Spread the word!