Design Dilemma

For anyone who's been to my house, you know we have a dining room and piano room as you walk in the front door. I've decided to make the piano room a play area for the girls because, well, there's not much furniture in there and it's far away from Tim's office.

 The dining room in case you need a reminder. There are also red chairs that go at the host seats.

The thing it lacks is storage. Right now, there's one black bookcase. I would like to add three more so they line the back wall. Black bookcases are boring, so I need help. What do you do to dress up some plain inexpensive bookcases that will a) work nicely across from a dining room and b) be playful enough to seem kid friendly.

 Here's the bookcase from Wal-mart. A steal at $25!!

I've already decided to replace the crappy cardboard backing with plywood. The question is what do I do with the plywood. Should I paint it? If so, what color? Should I use wallpaper? Should I use mirror tiles on the top half and do something different with the lower half that's closer to kid height? I definitely want to get baskets to hold toys and prevent little climbers, but what kind of baskets?


I'm a mommy in a design dilemma. Help!