Living Room Toy Organization - Toybox makeover

For quite some time, we've had a real eye sore in the living room. Every parent's dreaded nightmare : toy clutter. I'm not the type of mom that minds toys in the living room, I just don't want to see them all the time, especially when they're not being played with.

I knew I wanted a nice, simple toy box for our living room but when I started looking for one, everything I found looked so plain and cheap. There were several particle board options but they were nearly a hundred bucks and I didn't love the idea of spending $100 on fake furniture that I didn't even really like the look of. Of course, I did find a few nice, real wood options that would have worked perfectly if I had a spare $500 to spend on a toy receptacle.

So, after doing a little Craigslist hunting, I found the perfect piece of furniture. I found this nice, sturdy, solid wooden chest for forty bucks!

It's a nice chest but the flowers weren't exactly my cup of tea so we knew we'd have to refinish it. We bought a small container of paint and color-matched it to our furniture and it turned out really, really well! We decided not to paint the inside of the box so that we can see down inside of it easier than if we painted it all black.

I had a hard time capturing a good photo of the toy box once we finished it but this gives you an idea of how it turned out. I promise you, it looks so much better in person! The finished product:

                             

For a little under fifty bucks, I'd say we did well for ourselves! Having a place for all the living room toys has been so nice. Piper does really well with picking up her toys before bed each night and it's so nice to wake up to a clutter-free living room each day! I know this toy box will serve us well for many years to come. :)