A Quick Change

Hi all!

I want to share with you a quick change I did a few weeks ago to an area in the main part of our home. It's the pass through between the kitchen and the formal dining room and the powder room is off of it (I'm standing in the powder room to take this picture). We call it the Butler's pantry and it houses the kitchen appliances we don't use everyday, our china and crystal, vases, serving trays, and table linens.

Here is what it looked like until this fall:

When M came in June we had a pack n play downstairs with a changing area attached to it. However, in about October we got rid of the pnp since she was taking all of her naps in her crib and we were just using it for diaper changes.

My plan all along was to use the Butler's pantry as our changing area downstairs (rather than walking up the stairs to her room each time or buying another piece of furniture and sticking it somewhere). So, for a few months this is what our changing area looked like:

I decided something a bit more kid friendly would be nice. She is getting old enough to look around (and that is only going to intensify) so I wanted some things for her to be entertained with, without going overboard. I wanted to space to say kid.....not SCREAM it (without spending much money). Get it?! :)

For $10 this is what I came up with:

Now I realize this isn't that exciting but it was an easy change that defines the space. I had both baskets, one holds toys and the other holds the wipes, hand sanitizer, desitin, etc. The books, changing pad, frames, and the cards in the frames (they are flashcards we were sent for free from Similac when M was born) we already had. I cut out butterflies and stuck them to the sides of the frames and up under the cabinets so M has something to distract her.

I bought the lamp at a thrift store for $3 and spray painted it red with spray paint I already had. The shade was $7 and I made the paper garland out of scrapbook paper I had lying around.

All and all it was a good change for $10

Emily