Home School Room Tour

Several weeks ago I shared ideas and asked for suggestions for making over our school room. (You can see what our old school room looked like here.) We are blessed with 4th bedroom to use as our school room,  but our room is small (about 8.5'x11') so maximizing our space was a must.  I knew we needed to make some changes after last year because we were squished and the kids were distracted by all of the visual clutter. 

This summer we sold almost all of the furniture that had been in there, repainted, re-purposed and rearranged.  Now that's it's finally finished, well, all except a door for the closet, we are very happy with how it turned out!!  

So take a left down the hallway, and come on in the school room!  

It took me a while to decide to do a chalkboard wall.  I didn't want the room to look like a cave!  I ended up doing DIY chalkboard paint out of some charcoal color paint and plaster of paris and it turned out great! 

The curtains are just striped top sheets I stole from the boys' room. Yay for free!  And the other walls, although they appear to be white, are actually a very, very light gray.  It has really helped this room feel more spacious. 

One thing I really wanted for our school room was a nice map of the world and the USA, but I wasn't thrilled about all of the wall space it would take up. ( What's the point of a chalkboard wall if it's all covered up, you know?)  My children also LOVE maps and I knew they would really enjoy them. So I began to pray for a map, and God answered exceeding abundantly!  On Craiglist I was able to purchase a set of pulldown wall maps from another homeschool mom.  We now have South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Post Soviet Russia, and Africa.  A few of them are vintage and are just beautiful!  And then a few weeks later we found the United States, Alaska, Central America, and the World from another man.  It was amazing how God provided because we bought all of them for less than it would cost to even buy cheap paper ones.  

This just makes me giddy because finally, mom has a desk!  Yay!  It's thrilling I tell you. The desk is very spacious, 60" long and 30" deep.  It's a vintage wooden desk that was given to us years ago and my hubby painted it white for me.  He's the best. =)  The kids do use this area for math, typing, and Spanish, but mostly it's my space.  (I've got to do something about those cords under there, though!  And that bottom right drawer...it doesn't want to shut all the way!)

Can I just tell you how much I love my chair?  I found it at an estate sale up in the attic.  The orange leather is in awesome shape and the chair is extremely comfortable.  I also found the desk lamp at Goodwill a few weeks ago and it's perfect for this space also since it can be turned and adjusted.  In the base there is an extra plug which really comes in handy, too!  

Mounting the workbox on the wall has made a huge difference in this room!  More than anything, we needed to free up floor space and this was a perfect solution. The big kids are tall enough to reach it and the littles cannot. Yay!

The black cabinet holds most of our books and things.  I'm considering painting it a fun color. We'll see!  The suitcases on top of the cabinet and the workbox cabinet are Goodwill finds that are used to store away some forgotten toys for the preschooler and toddler for days when they need something "new" to occupy them.

The turquoise ikea cart was my one splurge purchase for this room!  It is SO nice for holding all of our supplies. Hubby thought I was crazy for wanting it, but this cart is very functional and perfect for a small space. 

I do want to add some art and things to the walls, but I know that this room, just like the rest of the house will evolve over time.  No need to rush it!  

And eventually I will have a door on the closet where you see the sheet.  Hopefully sooner than later. :)  

After my post pleading for suggestions from you all about how to set up this room, my sister in law Ruth left a comment about how they had used school desks and how functional it had been for them.  Why hadn't I thought of that before?!

So a few minutes after I read her comment I decided to check Craigslist and you know, see if perhaps there were any school desks for sale. That same afternoon we were able to pick up these vintage, all wood desks...for $5 a piece!  I was beyond thrilled.  And the kids were SO happy about the desks!  The tops are a little on the small side but for now they are working fine until hubby gets the chance to make larger ones.

  

Many of you suggested desks along the wall which was a great idea, but because of cost reasons, this was a better solution for us.  Also, the desks allow us to easily clear out this room for guests to stay!

We all love this room and it's neat to see how God met our needs (and wants) for this space. We spent little money and it turned out better than we had hoped!

Hope you all have enjoyed our school room tour! Also, don't forget that today is the last day for the giveaway for the earrings from One Crafty Daisy.  Go here and enter!

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend, friends!