Finding Inspiration For A Kid’s Media Room

When we moved into our current home 2 years ago, we had to set some priorities about which spaces needed to be setup first.  Once everyone’s bedrooms were in place at least, we had some decisions to make.  The open common areas needed to be done, but in what order?

What’s more important, the media room or my office?  The kids room or the formal dining room?  The patio or the master suite?

In the Fall of 2016, I participated in the One Room Challenge for the 1st time& thought I’d decided to work on our Kid’s Media Room.  I had it all planned out & everything.

And then we went a different direction.  Until recently.

Honestly it was kind of a happy accident that I got back to this project.  I had my ideas about how I wanted the room to function based on the setup we had in our previous home.  But beyond that I was so lost about to do in this room.

I knew I had to paint because the previous owners used a flat grey & did not leave a sample or any info about the color.  So 1 day I started writing on the wall while the kids looked at me like I had completely lost. My. Mind.

Then I gave them all sharpies & let them have at it!  And every kid who came over since got the “sign” the wall – as much as they wanted to.

I didn’t want the same color anyway since we changed the room from formal dining to the kid’s media room.  It needs to be more fun!

When I thought I was going to tackle this room last fall, I talked about how tricky it can be coming up with kids room design ideas that aren’t themey or age or gender specific.  And honestly I was still struggling a little bit with the design.

Until I found this little gem at 80% off at IKEA! Funny thing is I bought this thinking I would find someone who could use it.  For $259 (down from $1299) I could NOT let this beauty sit in the as-is section.  SOMEbody was gonna get this sofa!

Turns out it’s us.  I put it in the front room to “store” & then our littlest fell in love with it.  Finally I sat on it – I hadn’t before because it didn’t matter, not for the price and not since we didn’t plan to keep it – and I knew why.

So this big red beauty became the inspiration for our kid’s media room (although I don’t know if we can still call it that).  Instead of the more calm greens & grays with pops of red that I had planned, it changed to GO BOLD!

Even though “the big red couch” could definitely be the star & centerpiece of the room, I really wanted some unique “art” & to do something that would make the kids feel… well, awesome every time they come in here.

Take a look at the photo gallery below to see where we started & how I solved all three issues of 1) unique “art”, 2) something to make the kids feel awesome, and 3) go bold!  It pretty much tells the whole story.

And guess what… the room is not done yet.  But I’ll be honest with you – I don’t know when it will be.  Originally I wanted to close this room off, but for now I really love seeing it from my office, the front door, the bar/kitchen.  There’s also a very special art installation for the south wall.  And I’m still deciding if I want to hang the blackout curtains.

More on all of that to come when we get to it.  For now, I was just so geeked I had to share the progress of this room.

So tell me… what do you think?  Be honest (but nice). 😉