dimensions 134x228x144x163 (window wall, blue wall across, office wall, closet wall)

KidKraft Bookcase With Reading Nook, White · More Info

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or instead just add to large white bookcases, add the office in between and on top add the TV

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really nice idea for the ''office wall''

Riverside Drive Pre-War Residence · More Info

this is the kind of bookcase i was talking about

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Don't know the style you're going for- I'm more of a classic-transitional one but this is a modern-contemporary one-great idea though

the desk could also start on the closet wall and-forming a L shape-end on the ''office wall''

Wow, lots of ideas. I like a blend of traditional and modern. For this room, basic bright materials that are fun. I like the idea of starting an L-shaped desk on the closet wall but how do I end it on the current wall then? What should I put in place of the current desk there? I could put a t.v. on the wall there and leave the space below bare with some large toy baskets? Also any ideas of what L-shaped desks I can use?

Also how would I use the ida farmhouse bookcase on the office wall with the book display shelves below? Do they come apart?

I really want to add a small swing somewhere or some climbing rope for the kids as well.

Can you post a measured floor plan that shows where windows and doors are, and any closets?

Sina Sadeddin: good idea but either way these are the things I need this room to function as. I will still need an office space, toy space and seating with a tv. I need to get the layout in my head.

tsudhonimh: did you see the video above? Does that help?

https://www.houzz.com/product would this work? It's modern but has the keyboard in the corner just as I wanted.

Otherwise I was looking at the L shaped bush desks

You have some received some great suggestions. Here are several floor plans to help you visualize the space:

1.

2

3.

All those room sketches w furniture look REALLY cramped; there is absolutely no room for kids to play. Try to not have that much furniture in that room.
And...do you really need a TV in this space?


My thoughts, from a strictly organizing perspective (not so much aesthetic, though I hope this isn't ugly!)

You seriously need storage infrastructure, and I hate to say it, but your current shelves are not going to help you much; the ones by the desk are much more for display--they really don't let you neatly store the stuff you have on them.

Be like a New Yorker--build UP UP UP.

In all of your pics, you have short, squat storage/shelves. Not only do they simply not hold much, but they make the room look cramped and low-ceiling-ed. Notice how many of the room ideas people shared have the shelves going to the ceiling, and how much better it looks (artistically/visually--SO much less cramped!) and how much more stuff it can store (you can keep the kids' stuff low down so they can reach it, but other things can go up). And I mean, go UP--all the way to the ceiling.

If there were money to tackle this:
I would suggest you pick a wall to completely cover with some sort of storage or shelving. Almost make it a fake wall.
The blue wall would be nice and long, but that window is very close to the wall; you'd have to leave a gap at that end. Otherwise, I'd go with the wall opposite the windows.

Price out frameless kitchen cabinets from Ikea, or the Home Depot store brand:
Stack them in an array, floor to ceiling, all the same size, at whatever will give you the most cost-efficient way to cover the wall. Consider using all uppers,
or maybe lowers with uppers sitting directly on them.
Get plain, flat (slab) doors for the uppermost row, and for the cornermost columns, minimum. Maybe get a row of coordinating ones w/ glass (or all glass, if they have them) for some as well, sort of in the middle, wherever would be good for display.
(I knew someone who did something like this, but she left a gap in the middle at counter height for a display area; it became a sort of sideboard; for you it could be a gap that holds the TV if you wanted.)
Leave the lowermost ones open for kids' toys, so they can reach them easily.

Now, take that concept to a local cabinet maker, and see what he'd charge you for a bookcase (not individual boxes) with doors in those spots.

If there isn't money: Go with Billy bookcases, but get the absolute tallest you can. (Or, check a local woodworker/unfinished furniture place, and see what they have, but also talk to them about putting doors on the top parts.) Consider getting skinny ones for the outside, w/ doors, and wider ones toward the center.


The closet wall is sort of short and choppy; that would be a good place to start the office.

Rawketgrl: thanks for doing the layout but I think that is too much furniture in the room because the kids need room to run around.

Talley sue, yes I like the idea of building up as well. I just can't decide which wall to build up on.

So far it makes most sense to start the office desk on the closet wall, but I like to spread projects out so I need more desk space than a long desk along that wall would provide. Or should I do a long desk along the closet wall only and add shelves above to get more storage, then make the white short wall the tv wall?

I do need a tv because the kids do watch tv up here but was considering a projector instead. Any ideas for online room designing software that I could play with? I think I really need to play with furniture and the layout to get a best picture in my head.

I agree it is too much furn in the room, I was trying to add all the items you said you wanted in there to give you an idea of what kind of space you had. A couch/ seating area take up too much space...maybe you can scale back to a TV with a soft rug and floor pillows with couple of kid sized chairs, then with a few folding chairs in the closet for the occ adult. Homestyler is the program I use. Good luck, it is a lovely bonus space.

Some quick thoughts:

-I HATE wading through my kids' sea of toys to get to my workspaces. Were I you, I would put the desk on the wall where Rawket Girl shows your toy shelf (the window wall), pushed into the corner. That way if you need to grab something or send a quick email you don't need to go through the whole room.

-Float a sofa with its back to the desk.

-Put the tv across from the sofa with shelves completely surrounding it. Even above it, which will be great for storing games and puzzles with smaller pieces that your kids will grow into.

-Consider a different wall colour. The blue is quite cool and dramatic for a more grown up room, maybe when your kids are tweens or so, but for little ones they might feel a bit oppressed by the darkness. I chose dark teal for my playroom and my kids gravitate toward the rooms with lighter walls. Maybe you could consider pink? It's not just for girls anymore and it has been shown to uplift moods and increase positivity. I think it would be a good choice for a naturally darker room where you want your kids to get along :)

You have a lot of different needs to be met in that room.

I think you would be best off hiring a professional for that space, either an interior designer who has a lot of experience with organizing, or a professional organizer with a lot of experience with interior design.

with either person, they would know about all kinds of furniture and organizational products that would meet your needs for work and storage products, and your children's needs and what works best for their needs.

Is everything in the room going to stay? For example, are those mattresses or bedding on the floor in front of the closet and along the closet wall? Can some of the items in the filing cabinet be scanned, so you don't need to keep the paper itself?

Can you better utilize the closet for storing some things? It looks as if it could hold more things, leaving more room for play. For example, add a high shelf in the closet.

You say "it keeps accumulating clutter". It's very hard to organize storage until you know exactly what you will be storing.

Are you looking to establish one desk each for 2 adults? Or one for adults and one for kids?

Not a Pro.

When my children were little, my husband built a walk in toy closet.

It was a dream come true!

Lots of space for the children to play and then toys got put away on shelves and floor of the toy closet.

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Partim, no everything will not be staying. The bedding and mattress is for a temporary guest. I do have space in the hallway where I can put a settee or two chairs that can allow for some adult seating upstairs. Will send a pic of that soon.

Njmomma the walk in closet is really nice, but I don't have space to build something like that since it's an open space.

Does depth of the bookcases matter? Billy bookcases from ikea are about 11" deep which is not much. The kallax collection (cube organizers) are about 15", but then you're limited to cubes, not free size. Is there a way to incorporate both or which should I chose for toys and our stuff?

Yes, the depth matters.

Some toys, like craft supplies, will be fine in smaller boxes that will fit on a shallow shelf. But larger items or the big boxes need a deeper shelf. And of course some items such as the ride-on cars won't fit on a shelf at all.

The adult things could also go on shelves, for example, printers. Some of those things may also need a deeper shelf.

To get the most floor space, it's best for shelves or closed storage to go all the way to the ceiling, but if you want the children to be able to reach stuff themselves, they'll only be able to reach the lower half or so.

For my grandchildren's toys, we use an armoire that is about the size of the deep entertainment centers that the old-style TV's used to fit into. It's deep and tall, and holds an incredible amount of stuff. I use a mixture of boxes and bags to make the best use of space. The bags are the kind you'd take to the beach - big canvas bags with handles. Some have a zip top. One bag for stuffed animals, one for building blocks etc. It was easier than trying to find boxes that exactly fit into the shelves, and you can just stuff them on the shelf any old way.

What I like about the armoire is that it is all closed storage. You can find these very inexpensively on Craigslist since nobody uses them for TVs any more. Some people paint them, or use chalkboard paint on the inside doors for fun, but we just left it as it was. It's heavy so you need to attach it to the wall at the top so the kids don't tip it over. Hardware stores have strap kits to do that.

Closed storage is OK for grandkids who don't come that often, but if this is where the kids play all the time, open storage will encourage them to put things away more easily, and it will allow them to be enticed into a different game.

You can use different depth of shelves (and if Billy doesn't work for you, seriously ask around to find someone who can help you make bookcases; someone who has a Kreg jig could probably do it easily; I just don't know if you have someone near you who'd be willing to do it, either for money or for barter)

You can combine depths in a single unit; it sometimes look nice to have shallow on the outside, deeper in the center. (You see lots of china cabinets designed that way.)

You could try putting the wall of shelves on the wall with the windows; that would definitely need a custom solution, bcs you'd want shelves that go up beside and then over the windows. Though, if you used a basic ready-made bookcase that was at least as tall as the window, you could lay a plank across to support cubes above (You'd probably have to attach L-brackets to the blue wall.

There are online room planners, if you google "online room planner."

But to be honest, I almost always prefer to just get out the graph paper.

(I'd measure an actual sofa or two; the preset diagrams used above confuse me, bcs all the sofas have sofa tables behind them, which make them huge.)

A thought about sofas and chairs: Some of the pre-set template places may use chair dimensions that are much huger than you need. If you're going to work w/ existing pieces of furniture, you'll want those real dimensions. But if you can afford to buy new, do some googling for things like "small recliner" or "small armchair"--some can be pretty streamlined!

I also might consider folding chairs there, or maybe instead of a sofa, just do two chairs, so you can shove them against the wall (or the kids can turn them back-to-back to support a sheet for a tent).

Smaller pieces are more flexible in a multi-purpose room (someone could pull a chair close to the screen or desk, but not a sofa!).

You could also put a flat-screen TV in front of a section of storage (if you did custom, you could have your person make the center section of the bookcase be behind one big door, and mount the TV on that door).

My experience is that if younger children can see and reach all the toys, they dump everything out and it's harder for them to focus on playing/pretending/building with the distraction of the mess. I prefer to have them choose something, and get them to put it away in its bag or box before choosing something else. @skyaja24 , only you know which works best for your situation.But whether the storage is closed or open, the children won't be able to reach the taller shelves without your help.

We all have been down with a virus. My son has a tonsillectomy next week. I will be back on in July and hope to get the engines rolling again. Thank you!

Get well soon! Thoughts are with your son as he heals :)