Am I the only one for which the playroom concept hasn't worked well? In our last house, we had a daylight basement and I painted murals on the walls, made a castle playhouse in a corner and put a swing up in the beam. They did love the swing, but if I wasn't down there, the toys just migrated right upstairs and they were with me. For flooring, I would look at some of Tarkett's no glue vinyl. It has a cushion and has the roads for driving cars. I put the glow in the dark stars floor in my youngest's bedroom. Spills wipe easily and it is easy to change as they grow. I chose this for my oldest two son's bedrooms and it looks like punched metal. Very cool. Remember that if the toys are all over the house (basement, other rooms for games) you will end up chasing them all over the house. I would want to consolidate storage. I really prefer laundry baskets for most toy storage. It allows for easy change and the dump factor is good, while not being deep like a tradional toy chest. My youngest is now 6, but when they were smaller I kept on of those bigger Little Tyke climbing things in the room. See if you can hang a swing from a ceiling beam. By far the best indoor toy. You just have to keep "stuff" out of the swing zone. The blackboard paint sounds fun. You can also leave the windows bare and use glass markers which just wash off. I have found child sized tables don't always allow for enough room for projects. I have a round coffee table which has small chairs I've picked up different places. If I was going to do it again, I would buy a kitchen table at the thrift store and cut down the legs to use as a craft table. It would wipe easier than my coffee table. If you do use any type of bookcases, I wouldn't have them project out from the wall. Be sure and attach them to the wall with L brackets to eliminate the tip factor if someone decides to climb. And mine always have climbed. I made our inside playhouse out of a 4' x 8' piece of plywood. Cut in half and put at a 90 degree angle with L bracket, it went right into a corner. Since I had 2 boys at that time, I cut it so it was shaped like a castle and painted the wall corner to match. They would crawl in there with pillows. At two, I can't think your child will spend much time in there alone, so be prepared to make a corner for yourself with a rocker or comfortable chair. I would also just pick an easy decorating theme. Primary colors is the easiest. So much stuff is really cute, but they grow very fast. A four year old just isn't thrilled with those bunnies like they are at two. I've seen the splattered paint floor idea. You have to leave the plywood subfloor bare and paint in and seal. I wouldn't care for it unless the paint splatters were planned. As part of the decorating, I would pick a spot for a growth chart. Put in on a board or something, so in case you do end up moving you don't have to cut a chunck of the drywall out. I knew someone who actually ended up having to do that because she couldn't leave the pencil marks behind. I had to paint over ours when we moved. Sigh. Have fun! Gloria

Funny this thread popped back up! Ever since I commented on it I had been debating on ordering those bins from land of nod. I looked in to the ones from the company store, and they are cheaper. The company store also has sales. The difference though is that the ones from land of nod come with hardware to mount them to the wall. I was just about ready to order them. I had sample chips of the colors and had navy blue picked out. Then I came across this ridiculously long farm work table thing on ebay.... It was close to my house and the price was right. I also like that it can stay when he grows up and I can put other things on it someday. I just have to find some bins now and get my son to start cleaning up with me. He has just started doing that. I like the canvas box type things shown above, but it seems like kids can't see in them too well. That isn't a problem? I thought I would need either plastic bins or bins that have a lower front so it is more obvious what is inside. For now I have been just stacking his toys on the shelves and on the floor underneath.

My tall oven cabinet came with a shelf, so I just put it high enough to fit my griddle and extra long platters and then placed the dividers on top of the shelf. The dividers can be screwed down, but I didn't bother as they don't move much without the screws and it also meant I didn't have to drill holes in my shelf! Even if the cabinet had not come w/the shelf, I was going to ask for one since I already had planned for this storage based on what I had seen here in the thread linked below. I think I got the idea from Gizmonike and Sail-Away. BTW...I was originally going to get the Rev-A-Shelf dividers but put these from Walmart in temporarily. The Walmart ones worked so well that I didn't bother to replace them...besides, I would have needed 6 packs of 2-dividers each and at $14.95 per 2-pack, this was much cheaper! I used 3 dividers from Walmart at $5.95 each, so $18 vs $90...easy decision! I also bought two more of those dividers and put them under my corner prep sink...one in each deep corner One holds cutting boards, the other holds my pizza stones & cast iron frying pan. Here is a link that might be useful: Thread: tray cabinets - top 1/2 wasted space

Buehl, thanks so much for the link to the pantry thread. I'd read before, but forgotten about. I read with pleasure again this morning. Loved seeing your pantry again - the 15" shelves look perfect. nancyjwb - Thank you too. I had not seen those. eam - But the pricey inserts will be half the fun :) I do love gadgets. All I'll be storing in here are canned, dry goods, cereal, soda and the like. I've always like the apothecary/multiple drawers look. Here's a first stab. If I place this in the space between the two walls, I have 52.5 inches. Here's something that size, with three 48" wide lower drawers, and two upper doors. This breaks down to a face frame, three drawer fronts, two doors. Lighted top. Handy DH:) Doors and drawers would open with 'Tip-On' - press to open. It could be black with ORB handles on every square... This design takes it from floor to 8' ceiling, without a lot of room for trim work. Regarding storage, I spent some time on the Blum website this morning and am considering their Legrabox drawers. I can add an interior rollout and an inner drawer, and fit ~50 cans laying horizontally (so I can see labels) like this, per layer/drawer, for a total of 100 cans in a 12" tall/48" wide drawer:) Thoughts/comments? Please be frank; my feelings won't be hurt.