The Painted Apron

the Organized Life, a Baby Hideaway

Posted by the Painted Apron on January 13, 2013 · 3 Comments 

I HATE CLUTTER! It’s a constant battle I wage with myself because artists tend to leave a trail behind them or around them wherever we go…and I am certainly NOT the Martha Stewart of housewives…BUT things have to be neat everywhere, with the exception of my studio, or I go kinda nuts.

Look carefully at this photo.  This is the view from my living room across the foyer into the music room.  Notice anything out of place or odd? Look by the piano…

I recently purchased a pack and play/crib/changing table for my house.  With the 3rd grandchild on the way I guess it’s about time! My grandchildren live here in town so they rarely spend the night or nap here, but New Baby is about to crawl and I decided to see if he would play in a play yard every now and then so he would be a little easier to contain.  Since I want to use this for playing and diaper changing more often than sleeping, I wanted to keep it handy.

But, I couldn’t stand seeing it in the middle of the music room, and HH was not fond of it being in front of his piano. Hmmmmmmmm…..

Wait!! What about this? This black decorative wooden screen has been in the living room since we moved into this house 20 years ago.  We used it too hide a spiderweb of cords when we had several computers on the desk, but we use lap tops now.  What if I actually used it for its purpose, a screen to partition an area of the room off?

There is plenty of space in the living room, we don’t use it for anything much except for the desk with the printer and an overflow area from the dining room where we set up additional dining space for parties.

A little rearranging and I had a cozy corner to put the crib in

I brought over the screen

and look at that! You can hardly tell anything is there!

It is still easily accessible for diaper changes or for rolling out into the other room for playtime, or I can close the living room doors to make it a quiet space for nap time.

But in the meantime, it’s out of sight and everything looks neat and tidy

Now when you look from the living room across the foyer to the music room, all you see is what you should see, the piano!

The view from the foyer into the living room is great too!

While I’m giving away all the family secret’s I will show you another little child friendly area that is hidden in plain sight…

Behind this innocent looking sofa in the family room, there is quite a hidden treasure stash…

Yep, that’s where the toys live!  They are out of sight but readily available!

I have several cloth storage bins for the smaller loose toys and the larger toys just sit happily against the wall.  When Super Boy comes over he just walks behind the sofa and gets out what he wants.

If only I would put away my toys like he does!

My goal this year is to keep my studio cleaned up when I’m not working…so far so good, but it’s only mid-January!

LOOK around your house and re-purpose something.  Pretend you are a visitor and rearrange things, move things from one room to another. Give your decor a fresh new look for 2013!

The painted glassware and the paintings are from JMdesigns Gallery

I’m joining

the Tablescaper for SEASONAL SUNDAY

Between Naps on the Porch for METAMORPHIS MONDAY & TABLESCAPE THURSDAY

Stone Gable for ON THE MENU MONDAY and TUTORIALS, TIPS & TIDBITS THURSDAY

The Gunny Sack for WHAT’S IN THE GUNNY SACK?

Savvy Southern Style for WOW US WEDNESDAY

Rattlebridge Farms for FOODIE FRIDAY

Alderberry Hill for Make the Scene Monday

The Dedicated House for Make it Pretty Monday

No Minimalist Here for Open House Thursday

check out these amazing blogs!