How we turned a small north-facing space into a colourful toy room with storage
Our recent project is without a doubt the smallest but potentially the most trickiest area of our home. The room is part of the original house which dates back about 400 years. It has a low ceiling, exposed beams and extremely uneven walls to go with the two doors coming off it, plus an ugly loft hatch to add into the mix. It does have a very small window, but being north-facing (and with the deep overhang from the thatch) the room gets minimal daylight even on the sunniest of days.
To add to the rooms limitations, in one corner it has rather large pipeworks which protrude from the floor and go up the wall, as well as an electric meter on the wall which are always a bit of an eyesore, aren’t they?
However, the room offers an amazing space to store toys just off our main living area and the kids use it as a play room sometimes too. Therefore I was determined to get the space working for us, however awkward an area it may be, plus giving it some love so it felt happier and more welcoming. You have to walk through the room to access our only downstairs toilet after all, so it is a space that people see, even if only just passing through.
First up, we had the beams sandblasted as this is an extremely messy job and the process often causes damage to surrounding walls. This brought the black beams back to their original colour which helped to lighten the room just a little bit as the black always felt so oppressive.
I designed a cupboard which incorporated a storage bench (slightly taller than standard) to fit over the pipework, with cupboards either side to fit, on the right, the electric meter box, and on the left, some storage for card games, dice, Boggle, Dobble etc.
In the alcove to the left, I designed a simple cupboard to house all our board games and puzzles which we made more interesting by using moulding from Orac Decor to create a ribbed wood effect. Our carpenter worked to my design (with a little of his own interpretation 😬) and I primed and prepped them for painting.
Because the room often feels cold and dark, I felt using a light colour could look a bit grim and dingy. So instead, I stepped out of my comfort zone and went with a darker colour, but ensuring I kept to a warmer palette with an earthy brown and rust tones which feel warm and comforting rather than colours on the colder spectrum like blue or grey.
To truly embrace the small proportions and low ceiling, I painted the ceiling in the same colour as the walls (Mid Umber by Dulux Heritage) and to make everything look cohesive (which is important in a small space) I painted the radiator, loft hatch, storage bench and light switches in the same colour as well. This helps my favourite part of the room, the ribbed wood cupboard (painted in Red Sand by Dulux Heritage), really stand out as nothing is fighting it for attention.
To add another colour and a bit more warmth, I made a mustard seat cushion and shopped the rest of my home for some spare cushions to go on the bench too. The seat lifts up and we have heaps of toys underneath which aren’t particularly easy for the kids to get to, but it actually works well, as we use the storage as part of a loose toy rotation system so toys will get stored in here for a few weeks and then we will swap them over. You won’t be surprised that when it was time to shoot these photos the Paw Patrol toys were conveniently rotated back into the toy bench storage and the more aesthetically pleasing train track rotated out!
The carpet I got on the cheap as it was an off-cut, and despite intending to fit it ourselves, once we took the cost of the tools we’d need to buy into consideration, hiring someone else to do the job wasn’t that more expensive.
The room may evolve further as I consider more artwork, shelving or even a custom made shelf for our daughter’s keyboard which I am mulling over at the moment. Despite how small and awkward it is, it is such a useful space and painting it dark has really improved how it feels. When the kids are older, it may be transformed again into a laundry room of sorts, but for now, at this stage in our lives toy storage is where it’s at for sure!