Our Updated Study and Playroom

Happy TUESDAY!!! Ok, today I just wanted to share a fun little update that we made to our space downstairs a few weeks ago. 

This particular room in our home has always stumped me...but a few summers ago, I updated it to become our "study," and it quickly grew to maybe our favorite room in our home. 

Fast forward a few years and with a little one year old running around, a few more toys in our house than before 😂, needing a few more places for storage and an inner need for this room to be a little brighter since I was spending a lot of mornings and afternoons in here with Jane, this update came to be... 

It's not perfect and in my mind still has many things to be done before it's "done," but wanted to show you the progress so far!! Welcome to our little home!! Wish you could sit on the floor in here and play with me and Jane for a while, with some tea and Ellie Holcomb playing in the background! 

I had dreamed of a board and batten wall on this wall since we moved in... In fact, there have been studs marked in pencil and counted out on this wall since summer 2019 hahaha luckily, I don’t think anyone ever looked closely enough to see them!! 

But when I updated it and it came to be this room...we were in love. We read in here, I tutored in here, Pierce worked from home in here for almost a year and a half, we just really loved everything about it... 

But we knew after we had littles that it would probably need to change a little. This mantel wasn't very secured to the wall, the paint on it really needed to be sealed, and the room was pretty dark for a place where we started spending a good majority of our time. 

We had added a board and batten wall to the nursery upstairs before Jane came, you can read a little more about that here, and I always thought that would probably be the only wall in our house where we did that. But...a year and a half later... 

...we added a second, and I love it!! 

Jane helped us get the boards this time hahaha 

Pierce nailed up the boards the night before he left on a work-trip... 

And then I spent my hours during naptime and bedtime caulking, sanding, and painting! 

And I really do feel like it added some brightness to the room... I added some baskets and moved around the bookshelf items to incorporate a few more toys... I still want to get maybe a little plush ottoman/chair for the desk, and add some bright and fun throw pillows. 

These shelves get switched out from time to time, but I wanted to somehow try to balance our "study" with Jane's "play area," but all with keeping some sort of cohesiveness since it's on our main floor and right off of our kitchen. 

It was fun adding some color with some fun toys! 

And this was the behind the scenes as I was snapping some pictures 😂 

The rest of the room stayed relatively the same for now... 

I grabbed this little bulletin board for her little toy bookshelf, and it has been fun trying to find a few simple little things to make for it... 

I've found that paint samples are the perfect little free toys, color swatches, and decorations now haha 

This little one is never far from the action!! Hahaha 

This past weekend when July 4th rolled around, it looked a little like this! 

Already brainstorming our next little project 😉😍

I hung a little higher of curtains... I loved the brown ones, but they had come with the house and a change was fun to think about! 

Her little kitchen area didn't change too much at all... I found this kitchen on Marketplace and was so excited for the little addition it added!! I kept an old frame I had and hung a few pieces of her artwork in it! 

But it feels a little brighter, and we love opening up the door to the porch so we/she can just come and go on cooler days, mornings or evenings. 

And really, that's the main update to share!! I still want to add a few fun things to the room, but on a tight budget, a new wall treatment, paint and curtains were perfect to make it feel a little "new" and "bright." 

My favorite part of any of our rooms though is seeing this little cutie running around loving the space... 

How is she already getting so big?! 

Thanks for following along in this little room update!! If you're interested in Board and Batten, my two favorite resources I used both times were this blogpost from Grace in my Space, and this story series from The Adler House. Top best things we used for both were this caulk, wet wipes for smearing the caulk (the best tip!!!), this paint brush, Pierce and I also borrowed this stud finder and this nail gun. I painted downstairs Sherwin Williams Alabaster and Jane's board and batten wall is Sherwin Williams Pure White. It's definitely a fun little weekend project if you've been thinking about it!! 

Thanks for taking a little look inside our home!! I'm sure this room will be ever-changing as our seasons are always changing too, but I'm learning that change can be good and that loving a space for the reasons it serves our family is the best way to make our space feel like our home! 

If you want to see or read about any other posts about our home, you can find a few here. 

As always, thanks for following along! It's always such a blessing!! I'll plan on seeing you back here tomorrow!!
Blessings, 

❤️Tab