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January 30, 2015 By Abby Lawson 16 Comments

A Storage Solution for Big Toys {and an IKEA hack!}

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A Storage Solution for Big Toys and an IKEA Hack | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

If you have been reading this blog for long, you know that we do not live in the biggest house on the planet. Our home is a 3 bedroom townhouse, and it may not be the fanciest thing ever, but it's ours and we love it. 🙂

Though we don't have a dedicated toy room, we have a large living room area, so one side houses the couch, coffee table, and TV, and the other half is toy heaven. When the Cs started accumulating a lot of toys, we purchased an EXPEDIT (which has since been replaced by the KALLAX) from IKEA, labeled some bins, and called it a day.

A Storage Solution for Big Toys and an IKEA Hack | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

But then something started to happen. As the Cs got bigger, so did their toys. Things that didn't fit in the EXPEDIT were put in the "toy corner," and eventually, we ended up with this:

A Storage Solution for Big Toys and an IKEA Hack | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

It was a big hot mess of toy clutter that was driving this mama crazy. And this was a good day-- sometimes it was all just thrown in a pile! Eeek! So when Christmas happened and was closely followed by Connor's birthday which meant that even more big toys made their way into our house, it was time to do something about the toy situation. {I got rid of a bunch of toys, I promise! They just really like the big ones! 😉 }

I went on a search for some sort of storage something that would tame this craziness, and I stumbled upon the perfect thing at my oh-so-trusty IKEA. I should have known they would have a solution! We ended up bringing home two GORM shelving units, which were technically from the pantry section but were a great size for the toys we had as well. (And at $30 each, you can't beat the price!)

A Storage Solution for Big Toys and an IKEA Hack | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

Donnie put them together for me and we were in business! Except... the raw wood wasn't really doing it for me. Around here anything that can be painted usually does get painted at some point, and these little babies were no exception.

Because they are in our main living area that we use all the time, I didn't want any crazy colors or kid-themed designs even though they were going to hold toys. I also knew that with as much as I change things around, I would want to be able to use them for something else if I needed to. I ultimately decided to whitewash them and {spoiler alert!} I really love how they came out!

I had done a little whitewashing before, but I wanted to make sure I was doing it the right way, so I checked out several different tutorials before I got started and each one recommended something different! One said use two parts water to one part paint. Another said use two parts paint to one part water. A third one said that I should stain before I whitewashed. And yet another one recommended glaze. I think I ended my research more confused than when I started! Fortunately, I found this process pretty forgiving and after trying several different methods, I found that what worked for me was to do a mixture of about 60% paint and 40% water. I painted it on my surface and then used a rag to wipe off some of the excess.

A Storage Solution for Big Toys and an IKEA Hack | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

The result was the exact look I was going for: softer and lighter than the plain wood but still allowing some of the wood grain to show through. I snapped this photo when one of the units was painted and the other wasn't-- you can see the difference:

A Storage Solution for Big Toys and an IKEA Hack | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

{Just ignore the fact that there are toys everywhere and some of my Christmas decorations are still up in the background, mmmk? 😉 }

I finished painting GORM #2 and I had two beautifully whitewashed toy shelves! Yippee!!

A Storage Solution for Big Toys and an IKEA Hack | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

These truly ended up being the perfect pieces to hold all of those big, bulky toys. Everything is super easy to find and there is no more toy explosion in the corner of my house, so that's a plus.

A Storage Solution for Big Toys and an IKEA Hack | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com
A Storage Solution for Big Toys and an IKEA Hack | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

Oh and that's not all. Since my shelves are white, that means they qualify as a neutral, which makes them the perfect submission for this month's Get Your DIY On theme: Neutral Decor Projects We Love! My lovely co-hostesses have been hard at work on their neutral projects as well:

A Storage Solution for Big Toys and an IKEA Hack | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

Neutral Gallery Wall by Mandy, The Hankful House

Gold and White Herringbone Decorative Flower Pot by Krista, The Happy Housie

DIY Antiques Sign by April, House by Hoff

Rosette-Framed Mirror by Christy, Confessions of a Serial DIYer

[Psssttt… You can find ideas for organizing every single room of the house in this post!]

What is your system for storing big toys?

Delightful Sign Off

Filed Under: Decorating, Organization Tagged With: gorm, IKEA, organizing, storage solutions, toy storage, toys, whitewash

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Comments

  1. Emily, Our house now a home says

    January 30, 2015 at 10:48 am

    This is a great solution to the big toy problem. I am really spoiled. Living in the mid west our home has a full basement. We have a play room, game room, spare bedroom, and office down stairs. Along with our kids bedrooms. We have been toy free in the living room and study since my youngest mastered stairs. It is glorious. So I am not needing to organize them a ton. In their rooms we have shelves to put their toys on, and some hang out on the floor. BTW my boys have almost identical groups of toys, thought that was funny.

    Reply
  2. Heidi says

    January 30, 2015 at 10:53 am

    What a brilliant idea! We have the same issue in our house right now and I have been struggling with what to do about it...I just might need to make a trip to IKEA now 🙂

    Reply
  3. Kim says

    January 30, 2015 at 12:00 pm

    My kids have many of the same toys. Those Imaginext toys can take up a lot of room. My husband had to hang a shelving unit in my youngest son closet after his birthday and Christmas this year to store all the new huge Imaginext toys he received.

    Reply
  4. [email protected] of a Serial Do-it-Yourselfer says

    January 30, 2015 at 3:40 pm

    My youngest would love coming to play at your house! Love this inexpensive solution for the big toys! XO

    Reply
  5. [email protected] says

    January 30, 2015 at 4:19 pm

    The big toys really are the hardest - and any solution that gets them off the ground is a winner in my book. This looks great!

    I've been toying with the idea of building a little outdoor toy "garage" for all the big outdoor toys this summer.

    Reply
  6. Jillian says

    February 01, 2015 at 8:11 am

    My son has every one of those toys and they are currently spread across my living room floor. Apparently Imagnext is popular 🙂 Great storage solution.

    Reply
  7. Karina says

    February 13, 2015 at 9:34 am

    A Toy storage is something that I really need! I have two boys and believe me, there are toys everywhere on the ground! I need some place where the toys will be nicely stored! Thanks for the ideas! Greets, Storage Noakhill Ltd.

    Reply
  8. Amber Slocum says

    February 20, 2015 at 11:30 pm

    LOVE how these came out Abby. I have been in serious need of a solution for our large toy situation and this looks like it could be the ticket. Can you buy additional shelves for the unit? Or is 4 the max?

    Reply
  9. Rene says

    May 13, 2015 at 4:00 pm

    Hi, may I know if it is a must to mount them to the wall? The Ikea instruction says that it has to be mounted but I am just wondering if it is stable enough on its own. My landlord does not allow any drilling so I am having trouble finding a cheap shelf as I am only staying for a few months.

    Reply
  10. Tammy says

    September 17, 2016 at 3:24 pm

    Thank you for this!!

    Reply
  11. Paula Appleton says

    September 24, 2017 at 7:49 pm

    This IKEA storage solution is a great idea Abby! It gives you a lot of flexibility for the larger toys. I believe IKEA has a standard size toy box as well that could compliment this for some of the smaller toys! Great ideas! Thanks!

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      September 25, 2017 at 10:49 am

      So true, Paula! Thanks so much and have a great week!

      ~Abby =)

      Reply
  12. Lauren says

    October 01, 2017 at 4:33 pm

    I found your blog while searching for the same kind of solution! Then I went on a wild goose chase. They changed the name to HEJNE for this shelf. I’m so excited to have found it, bc this is exactly what I needed! Thanks for the idea! I couldn’t deal with all of these on the floor either. I have girls, so white the toys are different, we still have the same issue. Planning to get the same size Kallax, too!

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      October 03, 2017 at 2:17 pm

      Oh, good! So glad you found it, Lauren!

      ~Abby =)

      Reply
  13. Giselle says

    March 09, 2019 at 1:45 am

    What are the dementions?

    Reply
    • justagirlabby says

      March 12, 2019 at 9:36 am

      This system is now called the IVAR system and comes in many different sizes. This is the closest to the one we have: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S39896371/ . It is 35" wide x 11.75" deep x 70.5" high.

      ~Abby =)

      Reply

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