Balance: Kid stuff ~ Anything not plastic

I struggle with creating a relaxing, indestructable, and attactive family room.

Last week, my almost two year-old saw a bowl like the one above, filled with wooden balls, like above, in Restoration Hardware. Before I could stop her, she heaved the largestone  into the air and upon its hitting the floor kicked it like Pele shouting, "Yay, I did it!"

Luckily, the staff thought it was adorable.

My TV room is not a formal entertaining space and won't be setup as such but

I despise throw away furniture and kid plastic.

In an effort to be interesting and practical, I "refinished" this old coffee table.

I say "refinished" because I distressed an already distressed from abuse table. Call it controlled distressing.

I stained it black then removed much of the black stain and added a gunstock over it leaving every gouge, crack and scratch intact.

The result looks like a reclaimed wood floor or shop counter and there are no fights about it because I don't care what happens to it, its already messed up.

I never want this in my house but a kid's got to play, right?

This shelf was a toy hiding solution at our old house and I am planning on a similar one here.

In an effort to save my coffee table from Mattel I should probably get a few of these...