New House: Kids' Room

We are BEYOND lucky that this house comes with TWO living rooms.  I can make one for the kids and one for me.  With real bookshelves and books.  And when people come over, they don't have to hold conversations over Dora or sit in juice stains!!!

But, I digress, this is about the kids.  Typical.  Here is their room (aka our second living room)

A few problems right off.  The fleshy walls I've complained about before.  There's a fireplace (which I think is very cute) that we won't use because of the kids (wish it was in the OTHER living room) and need to cover somehow.  The yucky ugly carpet.  But, it's got great light, lots of space, opens right to the kitchen, and has a cute little coat closet inside that might be a great future toy storage area OR a place to hang clothes for the week, since we tend to get dressed downstairs in the mornings.

So my list is as follows:

• Paint walls
• Paint ceiling
• Cover fireplace (maybe a book rack here?)
• Turn closet into some great toy storage/clothes prep area
• Make a chalkboard area on one of the walls (see inspiration below)
• Curtains and art
• Find a cheap but good looking rug that can be thrown away after a year

Here's some inspiration I had:

I love the idea of a chalkboard under the chair rail!  I know that there will be chalk dust all over, but this IS a playroom.  This might be perfect for one of the walls.

I'm obsessed with this craft I found on youaremyfave.com

This place will be high traffic for kids and it's where our television will be to start, so it needs a lot of attention.  Can't wait to get started!