i don't know about you but i loveeeee me a good before and after. but do you know what i love even more then a good before and after?! one that i'm apart of!
i absolutely love designing spaces but i have to admit that i love organizing them even more. there's something so satisfying about seeing a space organized in a matter that will bring so much functionality, joy and use of the space to the person who is using it.
recently, a dear friend of mine moved into a new home and asked if i would help her with designing her new home school room. of course, needless to say... i jumped right on board!
with projects like these the most important questions to ask are:
- how do you want this space to function?
- what will you being doing in this space?
- who will be using this space?
- what is your overall goal/ vision for this space?
answers to those questions will help so much when planning and executing a project like this one.
for my friends home school however, i pretty much already had the answers to those questions as i am a fellow homeschooling mama as well. she needed a space that would work for her and her three kiddos. a space that would allow her to teach two children while a toddler was also in the space. and lastly, she needed a space that would be organized in a manner where she could grab and go! when you're teaching a 2nd grader, a preschooler and have a super active toddler running around every second counts, lol.. so making sure that she had a space with complete functionality and that was toddler proof was key!
i began this project by asking what we already had to work with. one thing i like to always do, even in my own home is shop what we already have. reuse, recycle, repurpose!! you'd be surprised how much money you could save yourself by sticking to that rule. luckily for this project my friend had lots of storage options available to us. bookcases, cube storage, baskets, etc. it was a great place to start!
after i knew what storage we had, next was having my friend shop for baskets and other types of small storage containers that we could use on those bookcases, cube storage, etc. when it comes to shopping for these types of things i always say get more then you think you will need and just keep the receipts. if you don't use it, you can simply return it. it's better to have lots of different options available to you when setting things up so that you can choose something that fits your need best. another really important tip to remember is that you don't have to spend a fortune on baskets and containers. there are lots of really affordable options out there. shop stores like the dollar tree, target, marshalls, michaels, walmart, hobby lobby, etc.
once we had everything we needed, we went to work!!
first up was setting up the furniture pieces in the space. once we did that we pulled in the boxes and started pulling things out. fair warning, this step can be very overwhelming to some. seeing all the things you own laying all over a room can get very scary. however, here's my advice for that. start by making like minded piles. what i mean by that for example is if you're pulling out books make piles of similar topics. pile all your picture books in one stack, all of your nature books in another stack, all of your chapter books in another stack and so on. once you're done stacking all of your books you can simply grab that pile and place them on the bookcase. i personally like to begin organizing bookcases with the books first because books typically take up the most space. i also don't like piling books all together on a shelf. i like separating topics and placing decorative items or baskets that are holding necessitates to separate the topics. my reason for this is because i feel that it makes a space look less cluttered and more open. however, if you don't have that extra space on your shelves i recommend color coordinating your book spines. it adds so much appeal to your shelves and also tricks to the eye to concentrating on the colors instead of all the books.
once all the books were on the shelves we started pulling out small items such as manipulatives, wood learning boards, flash cards, etc. for storing small manipulatives i always recommend small mason jars, clear containers that have divided spaces, clear bins, etc. small baskets are really useful also. for wood learning boards i love using these wooden dish racks. they hold the boards really well and allow you to see all you have. they're even great for storing books, file folders, puzzles, etc. also, just as i mentioned with the books, keep like minded objects together. for example, keep all of your math manipulitives and anything you would typically use for teaching math on the same shelf. this will not only make things easier to find but you won't forget about the things you have. we don't want to use the "out of sight out of mind" option when it comes to all of the learning materials you have. you want to see what you have and use it! that's another reason why clear bins are so beneficial in this type of space.
another really important factor in this space that i mentioned above was making it toddler friendly. what that meant was that we had to make sure we were storing things that we didn't want little fingers on in either high places or in a closet. so we decided to store all art supplies in the closet. we used a lots of clear bins to store loose supplies and put things like paints, pipe cleaners, paper, etc in these trofast ikea storage drawers. anything else we didn't want readily available to the little one we just stored high on the shelves. we also made it a point to create a special space for her little one. just because she's not quite old enough to sit at a table to learn doesn't mean that she shouldn't have a space of her own to learn through play. as maria montessori once said "play is the work of the child". so we painted a small wall under the window in the room with chalk paint and added this flisat sensory table in front of it. the table can easily be pulled out when she wants to use the chalkboard wall or left against the window. right next to the table on a small bookcase in the corner we placed things to keep her busy as well such as small puzzles and in two floor baskets we stored chunky wood beads, large puzzles and board books.
on the walls we wanted to add some touches of nature so i made her a bunting banner using cavalini posters, wood beads and twine and on the other walls we hung cavalini posters using these magnetic poster hangers. we also added a wall grid where she'll be able to hang learning materials and picture ledges where she can place books.
on the wall opposite to the cavalini posters we created a learning wall for the gentle and classical preschool program she will be using with her preschooler. for this i simply painted a square on the wall using wall paint and then added twinkle lights to frame it out. we hung the learning materials with velcro dots and these cloth push pins. we also added hooks to the wall and placed baskets for each child on them.
to finish up the room she'll be adding this white table and chairs from ikea. it will be the center of the room and when she needs floor space she can easily push the table against the wall where the grid and cavalini posters are located because we hung the picture ledges at just the right height so that the table will slide right in under them.
there are no words to describe how happy i am with the way this room turned out! to see the joy in my friends face and the weight that was lifted from her shoulders just by helping her bring her vision to life is incredible. it truly means so much to me. i cannot wait to see and hear all about the beauty and magic of learning that will happen in this new space for this much deserving family.
i've shared some of the "after" pictures through out this post... but here are the before and after photos together...
before:
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