Switching It Up!

Hiya!  How are you?  I finally feel like I'm coming out of the cloud of tissues and orange juice that surrounded me all weekend :)  Even my poor hubs has ended up sick!  But after a morning spent hitting everythinginthehouse with disinfectant spray, I feel like the germs are finally leaving us :)

Its the end of no spend month, so how about a little no spend makeover?!  This is part one, I'll show you the rest of our little transformation tomorrow. 

Do you ever have a space that just makes you feel itchy?  That's how our 'dining room' made me feel.  I put it in quotes because its really just a part of the living room, that happens to have an overhead light fixture in it.  Have I mentioned that the house we are renting has some serious layout issues?  Like the breakfast nook and dining room are basically the same size, and in the same space?!  Bizarre.

Anywho, back to my itch.  Our dining room (pictured above)  was completely unused and nonfunctional.  It pretty much ended up being a dumping ground.  Oh, and another area to decorate during the holidays :)  But I think something important about making a home work, is using spaces how you see fit, not necessarily how they were designed to function.

So after being over the gigantic round table, that just doesn't work in this house, I decided to do a great furniture shuffle.   And turn our dining area into a play area!  Oh, did I also mention that we got a bunch of furniture with the rental?  So lame.  You should see our garage /shudder.

But the name of the game is work with what you've got, right?

So I moved bean's little Ikea shelf out of the corner by the couch, and brought it over to the dining area.  I pulled out a rug I've had sitting in the spare room doing nothing, and set up his little table and chairs.  It didn't take two minutes for Gage to come over and claim his space.  So at least he will find the area more functional :)

 

I also moved the painting I made a while back, to hang over his toy storage area.  It helps the space feel more complete, instead of feeling like 'hey this is where we dump the toys'.  The room has been like this for about two weeks, and its been a total 'why didn't we do this sooner' moment!!  It gives Gage so much more room to play, and our tv area is much more relaxing now that it isn't covered in toys.  

Its really fun to see how a little rearranging can make something work soooo much better!  So what have you shuffled in your house lately?  Anyone else with a room that makes them itchy?