Back to School Playroom Makeover
Hi friends!
Let’s talk about something that is on every parent’s mind these days… what on earth we do with our kids and the school situation. Bottom line: every parent loves and cares about their kids, and needs to make the best decision for his or her family. We all need to support other parents no matter which avenue they choose. So give your fellow moms and dads a virtual high five for attempting to survive this time in life. We are all doing our best, am I right? I need some Xanax.
Our family has decided to home school my daughter for the time being because we are able to with our current work circumstances. I also have some pre-existing conditions that are causing us to be a bit more cautious. My daughter is only 4, so I feel like I should be able to teach her something? Maybe? Or maybe she will just do a million crafts. I think at the end of the day, as long as our kids know they are loved and supported, they are all going to be alright.
Without further ado, let me show you our new happy playroom home school!
Let’s pause and look at a photo of this room from our real estate listing when we bought the house a little over a year ago. My how it has changed! But I digress…
Here is what our playroom looked like before I transformed it for school. We made this giant bulletin board a few months ago, but I wanted to make it look a bit more finished and school-ready.
Below are the supplies I used to build the bulletin board originally and then the supplies to decorate it for a school environment. This project was pretty easy, and only took a bit of time!
We built the giant bulletin board out of the cork squares I bought above on Amazon. The little stickers that came with them were not the best at adhering to the wall, so we also purchased some stronger mounting tape to make them more secure. Here’s my super tall and handy husband helping me put up the squares. He’s really awesome and goes along with all of my crazy ideas, and I am very grateful he is an engineer who actually knows how to make things. In addition to a tall husband, a laser level is also really helpful to have while doing this!
Next I painted the trim with our house trim paint (Sherwin Williams Eurthane Trim Enamel in Pure White) and let it dry. Here is my super official and organized painting station. My husband always has to yell at me to put down a drop cloth, because I like to live on the edge. Or maybe I’m lazy.
We wanted to put the trim up using a way that wouldn’t put a ton of nail holes in the wall, and would be easy to remove later. We chose to use Command Picture Hanging Strips as a less permanent solution. They hold up to 16 pounds, and the trim was really light weight, so it should be plenty to keep it in place. Then I put the little aqua border around the edge of the bulletin board with thumbtacks.
Ignore the little bits of coral paint showing on the edges of some of the cork squares. PRO TIP: don’t try to paint cork. It warps it and it gets very messy and it won’t work. Chalk that one up to one of my many crafty fails. I thought I would paint the squares fun colors, but alas, the cork did not want to be painted.
Once I had this set up I went ahead and decorated the board with the calendar and weather station graphics. I also found some cute word decorations at the Target Dollar Spot and then added in more of my daughter’s art, leaving space for new pieces. After that, I set out to organize her crafting and school supplies. Here are some great organization tools I purchased to wrangle the mess. As my family knows, I really love a good plastic tub. They are the best, and you can reuse them over and over again!
Finally, I organized all of the supplies and put everything together. I hung a few of my daughter’s favorite creations and we sorted everything by rainbow order because she’s a bit obsessed with rainbows at the moment. Overall, we created a fun area for her to learn and be excited about!
The right side of our playroom holds all of her toys and books. We have two shelf units from Target with some coordinating bins to try to keep everything corralled and it its place. My daughter has a fondness for dumping out everything in the bins all over the floor, but we can all pretend it looks this nice all the time.
I hope these ideas help you create a fun space for your kiddo to learn during this weird time in life. In the end, it’s not about how much money you spend, how cute the room looks, or if you are barely hanging on. We are all barely hanging on, and just trying to find ways to get excited about stuff and not go crazy! So, from one slightly freaked out mom to another, we’ve got this!
Be sure to check out the other blogs below for more great tips to survive school at home!
Back to School (The At-Home Edition!) Blog Hop
TUESDAY
Kate Decorates || The Organized Mama || Blue i Style || The Goat Abode || Sweet Digs
WEDNESDAY
Home on Poplar Creek || Cassie Bustamante || Love and Renovations || Small Stuff Counts
THURSDAY
Natural Born Organizers || Organize Design Create || Making Home Base || Practically Perfect || Casa Watkins Blog || TwoTwentyOne