Kitchen Renovation

Last weekend I renovated the kitchen — not my real kitchen. This renovation was really just a minor change to the housekeeping area of the playroom. Since much of the playroom is ‘built-in’ even a small room rearrangement requires tools and at least a few hours.

Now first I’d like to say that I was happy with the way the housekeeping area looked originally;

But we were having a few ongoing issues with functionality and traffic flow due layout of the housekeeping area in relation to the other play areas.  Here’s the old floor plan;

I just quictly sketched and scanned the floorplan — I really wanted to use my home design program to draw a ‘pretty’ plan but that program is addictive and so sometimes it is dangerous to let me use it.
Now you may notice the * that I drew in the center of the room — that is the point at which all traffic routes cross.  This is the ‘confusion corner’ of the playroom.  No matter where the children are playing or where they want to go they will pass here.

Also, because there are toys in baskets located under those tables there is invariably an least one child sitting on the floor (sometimes on purpose) blocking traffic.  When there are several children in the block area under the loft they sometimes overflow into the walkway too.

So, I did this;

Now, the entrance to the housekeeping area is not adjacent to any of the other play areas and the table by the entrance to the nature area provides a pass through for the cooks to send food to the picnic without necessarily running back and forth (I hope).

The half wall that houses the sink and stove is also a favorite to use as the ‘drive through window’ or as the divider between the puppeteers and the audience when there is a puppet show.  I think the new room arrangement will enhance both those activities and I’ll have fewer children playing in my office.
Some pictures of the new arrangement;

I’m thinking of adding some things to the divider wall like I used to have on the old ‘activity wall’ — mirrors, textures etc, maybe the felt board or some kind of writing surface but it has to be baby friendly.

The children seem to approve of the changes but there was one four-year-old that sighed and said “Oh Cheryl, you’re going to have to stop measuring things.”