Hi there, friends! 
Here is a look at the office-turned-playroom refresh I’ve been working on for the past few months, and, if we are buddies on Instagram and Pinterest already, you’ll immediately notice that this is a bit outside of my normal style…!  I’ve not used lots of high contrast black and white in my own home, but I wanted to challenge myself to create this more modern farmhouse style playroom for my kids while staying on a pretty tight budget.  Let me show you how we did it! 🙌🏻  (I’ll link sources below!)

Okay so…I don’t know about you, but the way I usually approach projects in my home and those of my clients is to determine the focal point piece, the statement wall, or the item that really sort of speaks to the rest of the design for the room, then the rest of the design flows outward from that piece.  So for instance, this GIANT vintage green schoolhouse chalkboard from The Flying Pig Vintage Market was my starting point.  I loved the chippy wood frame and the seasoned green chalkboard…YUM.  💚  

I knew I wanted this space to move towards more of a crafting area for my girls, and the chalkboard wall was a perfect starting point.  While they certainly still play with their dolls and play dress up with costumes, they honestly could (and do) sit for hours on end just drawing, crafting, doodling, etc.  If I leave out the supplies, they will craft forevs.  So!  I used two long wooden organizing caddies from Hobby Lobby, sprayed them black and screwed them together to create one very long and narrow organization system for their markers, crayons, chalk, etc.  I wanted it narrow so they’d still have room to draw and use the table, and this fit the bill!  Metal wall pockets on the sides of the giant chalkboard hold their papers, coloring books and other art supplies, and we installed them down low so they could reach.  😉

To the left of the chalkboard wall, I used white cubbies to store dolls and stuffed animals, and we placed black metal hooks on either side to store costumes.  Up top, we installed open cedar shelves with black and white baskets hiding things like paint supplies (which I keep waaayyyy up top…learned my lesson the hard way there…😳😂), building blocks, train tracks, and other toys with lots of small parts.  And…duh.  There’s a TV in here.  Let’s just be real.  Mama needs a minute errrry now and then.  😉  I love that hand-painted sign from my friend Claire’s shop ...pretty much sums up my motherhood mantra.  ❤️

This is my favorite corner.  ❤️  You guys, if we kept every drawing our kids ever made for us, we’d literally be swimming in construction paper crafts up in hur.  😳  So I try to hang on to the ones that are super special to me (like the one on the very far left entitled “Mommy In Blue Very High Heels”…😍), and I thought it would be fun to fill up this wall with framed creations from our sweet girlies!  My thought was that this gallery wall could grow with them, and we can easily add their works of art in wood or white toned frames moving up and across the wall.  Their pictures make me smile.  AND CRY OMG.  😩😭

I also wanted this space to be sleep-able since we have lots of out of town family, so I added this simple, modern, black metal daybed to the space.  The kids flop here to read or watch movies, and my second born has kind of taken up residence here at night at the moment.  It’s a soft space to land in the midst of a day of play, and I love how the daybed allows the space to be multifunctional.   I layered the back with pillows from The Seafoam Cottage both in black and white buffalo check and modern farmhouse print.  They are so soft and cozy! 

I think the best piece in the whole space (second only to the glorious vintage schoolhouse chalkboard…💚) is this sweet little DIY mini farmhouse table that my husband built for the girlies.  It’s perfect!  The space required a table that was long and pretty narrow, and I wanted benches a little bit shorter than the table so that they can be pushed underneath the table if the spirit moves for a dance party…which is often in this house of four little ladies. 😉  Hubs just whipped this up for me one afternoon, we painted it SW Alabaster (my favorite white ever), and the girls helped me distress it.  A couple coats of polycrillic and it was ready for crafting!!  I know it seems odd to choose white for a messy playroom table, but…what I love about white is that when it does get dinged up and stained, I just slap another coat of Alabaster over top.  Easy peasy!  🙌🏻  

The black iron pendant and fixtures plus the black and white striped rug really add that final pop of modern farmhouse flair to the space, plus the addition of those giant wooden letters from Hobby Lobby sprayed black really spell out the purpose for this room: PLAY!! 💕

There you have it!  A modern farmhouse playroom on a budget!  This little room brings my four baby girls so much joy, and that makes Mommy’s heart pretty darn full, too.  💕  What do you guys think?!  Do you use much black and white in your home?  Or are you drawn to softer, more natural tones?  Oh….and I’d love for you to come chat over on Instagram and Pinterest! 🙌🏻

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