My youngest's toys are still in her room. My oldest (7) had his toys in his room until he turned 4. Then they went to a dedicated playroom. (It's also a library and office, so not dedicated to JUST being a playroom.) Until then, he took out individual toys and mostly played in whatever room I was in, but since we moved to where he has tons of friends, he's matured more, and his sister has gotten old enough to really play with, he's really benefited from the larger space. Only fragile toys stay in the bedroom now. The playroom's nice because there are frequently up to 5 kids in it. They play, in order of frequency: 1) Outside; 2) Playroom; 3) Basement ballroom, which is treated by them as a kind of gym, too; 4) His bedroom Inside toys are NOT allowed to be taken outside. When his friends sneak them out, I have them doing push ups and laps around the house in punishment, as they always ruin or lose his toys. He's learned to say "no " firmly, finally. The last place is my least favorite place, since the other kids have a tendency to break things. :-( My son builds models, etc., so someone can wreak a lot of havoc in a short period of time, and not all children are very well behaved. Plus, with the books, there really isn't room for all the toys even in a fairly large room--it's floorspace more than wall space that's the problem, because by the time the 4th kid gets in there, they're hanging from the bunks. A LOW bin system has been the most effective here--two bins high is as high as littles can reach. My eldest could now reach to 3 bins, if he need to. We used to use open baskets for storage, but as he got more dexterous and the youngest got more troublesome, we switched to modular plastic containers that work very well. They also do not collect dust the way open baskets, even ones that fit pretty well into a case, do. Colleen--"not a good idea in this day and age" as opposed to WHEN, exactly? Do you have any idea what the rate of non-familial abductions actually is? You are exposing her to thousands of times the risk with every car ride. And childhood obesity will kill hundreds of thousands more kids prematurely as they age, and it's rooted in the sedentary lifestyles of the new "outside is a SCARY PLACE, children!" generation. (As an amusing aside.... What's the chance that a child could get injured at home unsupervised versus injured or killed in a car accident? Looking at it from a simple standpoint of risk calculation, it'd be safer to leave a *TWO-year-old* locked in a childproofed bedroom than to take him anywhere in a car. The real basis for these kinds of laws isn't to make people safe but to make them FEEL safe, which are two very, very different things. I may follow such laws, but it's with a knowledge that they are stupid.)

Hi, thanks - I see your point. Walking into the empty, paneled room, it's gorgeous but dark and overpowering. Feels like an English study. Then your eye hits the brick fireplace. For the past year during our relocation, I actually had a pair of leather, tobacco-colored sofas in there, and it was an absolute cave - although I liked the wood. It does have lots of recessed lighting, and the light from the windows - thank goodness! Appreciate the lamp comment, and am considering a floor lamp with cream shade). About the room - it's so hard to describe it from photos, eh? The ivory leather sectional anchors the room with it's u-shaped dimensions and sheer size. Like a large, soft, curvy cloud in a dark forest. It works, but it wants breaking up somehow. - pillows, throws?? The wood is not exactly smothered, but it's substantial, and it's a fair comment, it's what I'm looking to break up somehow. Current setup makes me yearn for movement in artwork, scaled floor vases, etc. The comment about artwork not being correct scale is very dead-on. There were two large framed pieces in staged version which worked. I've never lived with library style custom paneling, so I guess I'm a bit afraid to stick pictures up, but I need to experiment with that. I've considered mirrored wall piece arrangmements (a la Z-Gallerie), but perhaps too modern? Or does it want an oil painting..

A short lesson on construction lumber. Lumber is cut from trees at a sawmill, stacked(with spaces between boards) and either air dried(6+ months or more) or kiln dried(in a huge heated oven for several hours) to remove most of the moisture in the wood. That stabilizes the wood so it does not warp as it dries. Untreated construction lumber is the same color all the way through a piece where a cross section is visible. Treatment is done to better protect the wood from moisture damage, insect infestation, or mold formation. The treatment consists of stacking the lumber on rail cars(usually specially built) and placing the rail cars in huge pressure chambers where the treatment liquid is introduced and the chamber pressurized to force the liquid into the wood fibers. Then the treated lumber is again dried to reduce the moisture from the treatment liquid. Often, due to demand, this second drying is shorter(and sometimes eliminated) in order to ship. That is why some treated lumber is heavier than standard. Properly dried treated lumber is virtually the same weight as untreated lumber. I've picked up treated boards that were dripping liquid. As long as I did not get that liquid in my mouth, on my face, or in my eyes, there were no bad effects---but I did wash. I also never used treated lumber that was that wet, since the probability of it warping was high. Treated lumber is generally only used where framing contacts concrete, dirt, or in wet areas. Treated lumber generally shows a different color in the center of a cross cut section. Newer treatment colors are yellow and light green. The previous treatments were copper, chromium, and arsenic(CCA) compounds. Those chemicals protected from moisture(the CC's) and insect(the A) infestation. Newer treatments are chemicals that offer similar protection without arsenic. (ACQ--Alkaline copper quaternary) There are external treatments that coat lumber in blue or pink colors, which are obvious. That coating is anti fungicide or fire retardant treatments.Those can be used as wall studs or ceiling/floor joists. Probably not a good idea to let kids play with scraps of those. So, standard, untreated construction lumber is simply trees made into boards and completely harmless(unless an allergy is present). Treated lumber is treated with chemicals and usually fairly recognizable. Best to dispose properly(DO NOT BURN!) and keep away from kids.

Pottery Barn has sofas with indoor-outdoor Sunbrella fabric, https://www.potterybarn.com/shop/new/sunbrella-feature I second those who've suggested starting good habits while kids are young -- teach them from the start how to treat furniture and the family belongings properly. And this is the time to start with rules like "no food or drinks in the living/family room"; and yes, it's perfectly fair to have one rule for the adults and another for the kids. Or you can limit what kind of food and drinks to allow kids -- when mine were young, it was water or apple juice only for them in the living room, no milk or grape/orange juice. Also, they grow fast : ) , so you don't really have to decorate around them too much (round ottomans vs. wood rectangular coffee table). I'd decorate for the room and with what you like. Buy quality the first time around. The arched fronts might be fairly easily removable. And I'd almost be tempted to have the builder drywall over the shelving above the arches.