We have a breakfast nook right next to the kitchen. The poor thing is constantly having a bit of an identity crisis.
Back in the day, it was just a plain old breakfast nook. It had a table and chairs. Sometimes it had a rug (when the rug wasn’t traveling around other rooms.) Then, one day, everything changed.
We had a baby.
I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I guess most women do. When Remy got a little older, I realized I needed someplace where he could play while I was working in the kitchen. So, I moved the breakfast table and chairs into the living room, and made the nook into a playroom of sorts.
Then we sold our baby grand piano, and I moved his play area into the huge void it left in the living room. So then the nook-turned-playroom became the place where I put my old digital piano, and there it stayed for a while.
In February, I moved the digital into the dining room (where all the music pictures are, anyway.) and turned the nook-turned-playroom-turned-music-room into a sitting room of sorts, where we usually had breakfast. I loved this incarnation. I still do–but I must use the past tense, because as of today, the nook-turned-playroom-turned-music-room-turned-sitting-room is getting a turn as a playroom again. I have mixed feelings about it; I’ve been contemplating it for at least a month. I really, really didn’t want to give up my sitting room, but I feel like it needs to be done. Here’s why:
1) The only “playroom” Remy has downstairs is a sort of pen we set up with some grey child gates that we have. It suits its use perfectly. The problem? It’s ugly. And it’s in the living room. And it’s big. And in the living room. And he really only spends maybe 1.5 hours in there each day. It was incredibly useful, particularly when I needed a place to put him where he couldn’t get into things. But I hated looking at it. I mean, really, really hated.
2) When we added the bar to our kitchen, we put drawers facing on the nook side for some extra storage. Remy loves those drawers. He’s allowed to get into most of them. So–perfect place for some toy storage.
3) The bookcase-door to the basement is full of kid books and toys, anyway. So we’re halfway to a playroom in there as it is.
4) The nook is easy to block off, so it still gives Remy a place to explore without me worrying what he’s into. A place that’s not a big, ugly eyesore.
With Remy down with a virus, I’ve had ample time today to clear out the nook-turned-playroom-turned-music-room-turned-sitting-room-turned-playroom-once-more.
(Saarinen chair stays. I like it in there.)
Which means the rest of the house looks like this:
Which is all just part of the process of the Perpetual Switch.
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