For us, the Activity Room is kind of like a 1950’s game room or den.  We’re breaking some rules here.  Architecturally speaking, the room is a formal living room.  Before the remodel, it was the master bedroom.  But with three children and one on the way, it is the true heart of the house.  Well, okay, it is the heart of the house AFTER the kitchen.

This is the room where all of the real activity happens (especially in the hot Texas summer when it is too uncomfortable to go outside and we are bored with the pool).  We need this space partly because the children have small bedrooms.  We kept them true to the original home — a modest 9-ft by 11-ft each — and they share with a sibling, so there isn’t a lot of room for play or toys in their rooms.

I’ve struggled with decorating this room.  It needs to be wreckable.  I mean, four kids, they are going to trash it daily!  But it is also one of the first rooms you see when you come into the house, so it needs to be presentable to a certain extent.

The decor has gone through a natural evolution.  The 50’s diner table has been the centerpiece from the start.  It is an indestructible butcher block with a solid iron base.  My father found it for me at a garage sale almost 20 years ago.  It had been in the guy’s garage, was covered in oil, he bargained and got it for $25, and brought it home and refinished the top, spray painted the base a gloss black.

The chairs are from IKEA as are the wall shelves.  The cabinet behind the table is an old purchase from Target, back when they first started carrying furniture and when it was still fairly well made and not just pin nails and particle board.  I would love to replace it with a vintage sideboard, but I know the kids will destroy it, so the cabinet does the job for now.

The blinds are 2-in faux wood.  I’ve searched for the “perfect” vintage curtains for years.  A friend reminded me of ReproDepot.com where I might be able to find something that could easily be made into tab tops.  I will take more pictures later, but for now suffice to say that we have a closet to the right out of view that we will be hanging new doors in soon… and of course with this will launch a new line of interior doors and millwork over at Crestview Doors!

The amazing thing is that the vintage Moe lamp really ties the whole room together.  In fact, I felt like I never knew what I was doing with this room until I found that lamp.  It never ceases to amaze me how one item can make a room.

We’ve been tending to the garden unceremoniously with mixed results.  I lost 8 of the 12 tomato plants I originally hoped would yield a tomato fiest, but I’ve since planted new ones.  Try, try again.  The bed of greens has been moving very slowly with the lettuce, broccoli, carrots, spinach, bok choy and leeks inching along.

Everything else has done quite well.  In fact, we’ve already harvested our first golden squash!

But the majority of the hard labor has gone into landscaping the front fence where we have tried to launch a maintenance-free, draught-resistant variety including rosemary and provence lavender.

The bigger my belly gets, the more difficult it gets to weed, so let’s hope the mulch helps reduce the amount of time I spend bent over!  And many thanks to Mr. Erwin who did the majority of the back-breaking work to remove the grass.  Along the inside of the fence, we are planting a hedge of wintergreen boxwoods, so there is more work to be done.

What do you think, should we paint the fence white?