Kids Corner - flea market style

So I'm always looking for creative ways to contain the kid clutter. Throwing toys out or giving them away would be one option, although my kids would totally disagree. So, we have to work with it. I fashioned this kid corner into my family room using some pieces I already had. Nothing was bought specifically for this purpose.

When we rearranged our family and dining rooms {read about it here} our family room lost our seating area and gained a casual table and chairs, formerly in our dining room. This sort of pushed the "kid-centricness" of the room aside. Determined to give them a place to play near the kitchen, I took the coffee table from the former seating area and stuck a junky little bookshelf I had painted black and distressed on top of it. This way their books are up at their height and they're not tempted to empty it all out onto the floor. Now they also have a place to play and draw and eat, but it's still compact.

By the way, this coffee table was a $19 Salvation Army find which I sanded down and painted cottage white and then distressed. Very affordable if you want to replicate this or make your own kid station.

Next I added a little crocheted lace cafe curtain on a tension rod {both of which I already had} to hide the bright clutter of the books. It's a little too short which has ended up being a good thing because it reminds them there are books under there.


Lastly I added some buckets for toy storage, a vintage chalkboard and little old enamel colander for toy odds-and-ends and a vintage enamel french coffeepot just to tie it in with the rest of the room. Done and done.

So what do you think?