At Least I Solved One Problem Today...

I am in full blown nearly-eating-my-kid mode right now.  Writing this post is what's keeping me from going cannibalistic.  I am not sure exactly how many times I can humanly repeat the same mundane direction before it's done, or not done, and I do it myself with my teeth gritted so hard, I fear I may chip one, ruining my entire painful stint with orthodontia.  I was out all day yesterday doing a school visit, so I would think I'd be all fresh and fun today.  No, actually.  Precisely the opposite.  I am seemingly on a rampage.  Happy Freaking Friday!

We are the proud owners of a built-in storage bench in our living room.  When ER was an infant, we used the bench for a staging area--that's where we kept her carseat, the diaper bag, burp cloths, etc.  Like everything else in the house, this spot has morphed over and over and over since we first brought our baby home.

Here's what it looked like when we first moved in.  This house boasted one of the least-spirited paint jobs we had ever seen.  You can see that we were testing primers above the bench, which had its own lovely whitewash.  See that brown-ish floral thing rolled up on the bench?  That's the original 1-piece cushion that covered the length of the bench.  In the foreground?  That's a barely-pregnant-feeling-utterly-nasty me, and my cousins, solving the problems of the world.  The one in the red shirt?  That's Crabigail.  She's got all the solutions.  

Dada painted the entire house within the first 8-10 months that we lived here.  We really himmed and hawed about what to do with our storage bench.  We considered getting something custom-made, I thought we could order outdoor bench cushions, blah, blah, blah.  Like so many things, I'm thrilled that we never acted on any of our half-developed ideas.  We have many of those.  Just this past fall, I mustered all the courage needed to make new cushions for the bench, and Dada and I are both thrilled that we just waited.  I knew I wanted 2 separate pieces so I could access either lift-up door without moving one huge cushion.  Here is our bench/toy area now, with the paint job & new cushions Dada and I made together:

Paint: Behr Cathedral (#520F-6)
Fabric: Waverly.  I can't remember the pattern, and couldn't find it online.  Helpful.
 We got valances in the same pattern from JCPenney, and I ordered a roll of fabric from
JoAnn.com for these projects.

The cushions are 2" foam wrapped in batting, and stapled around the edges of plywood, and then wrapped in fabric.  We were pretty surprised how great they came out!  They're much studier (and nicer) than what was there.  I got extra fabric and made some really easy envelope pillow cases for new throw pillows.  The big foam sheets, batting, and pillow inserts are often 50% off at JoAnn, or you could use a 40% or 50% a regular-price item coupon.  

So, holy crap, that mess, right?  ER is fairly helpful, but some nights I just don't feel like corralling/coaxing her to clean up, and some nights I don't feel like cleaning up her stuff after she goes to bed.  I saw some round woven baskets, a woven hamper on Target.com and was left feeling kind of "meh" about those choices.  I figured I should just go and see what they had, and accepted the fact that it was OK if I did so.  The two large baskets in the picture above were part of a baby shower gift, and a gift from our realtor, respectively.  It gave myself the OK to buy some toy storage.

One of my college classmates from Etown, has an amazing blog called Domestic Adventure.  Her name is Erin.  This blog is seriously incredible.  Erin's got great suggestions for organization, inspiration for decorating & craft projects, she shares recipes...and she's got a full-time job, a toddler, and now a brand new baby!  When I saw her post from yesterday about living room toy storage, I took that as a sign to go make a great find!

My criteria for toy storage consisted of the following:

• Not tapered (I wanted the same width for storage from top to bottom inside the basket)
• Large (No more small vessels that could only fit some toys)
• Deep (So things could be nestled down and not be sticking out in 50 different directions)
• It would be found at Target (because that's how I roll)

To my surprise, I was drawn to something I had never even considered--a trunk.  

Huh.  Whaddaya know?  A trunk.

While it was a little more than I wanted to spend, it fit all of my criteria and had the added bonus of a lid, so now everything can really be hidden out of sight!  ER and I filled it up before I cut the tag off, but once we did, and saw there was still room to spare, the tag came up and the trunk was officially welcomed into our home.  Things looked a lot nicer once we got 'er filled!

We've got a basket of instruments, the Princess castle, and a couple of baby things out, but everything else--blocks, cars, balls, felt letters--are all tucked neatly away under that lid.  I have it moved out a little from the wall so there's a space to set the lid down behind the trunk when ER is playing.

I anticipate a much smoother clean-up tonight.  That is, if I even let anything come out of the toy trunk :)