How do you create an awesome homeschool room? All you need is a large space and a lot of money. I’m just kidding. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
I have seen many beautiful homeschool rooms on Pinterest. I looked them up when I was planning mine. Some people have large, gorgeous homeschool rooms with creative rugs, cute shelves, spacious desks, lounge chairs in reading nooks, along with color-coordinated curtains, throw pillows and accessories. I think that’s great. I’m sure they really enjoy those spaces. However, for most of us, that kind of homeschool room just isn’t going to happen. Either we don’t have that much space to dedicate to a school area, we don’t have enough room in our budget for creating something outlandish, or we’re just crazy frugal (which is the truth in my case).
Fear not, my friend! I have some solutions for you.
It’s not necessary to have an empty and humongous room just waiting for you to fill it with cute “schoolish” decorations. Not only that, you don’t need a budget the size of Texas to create a useful space that you and your children will love.
So, now, let’s talk about my homeschool room. It’s my favorite room in our house!
My homeschool room is actually part of my laundry room. You’ll find a table at one end where my kids color and work on school work/projects. The washer and dryer is at the other end. The space that is actually dedicated to schooling is only 5.5 ft. X 8.5 ft. That is large compared to the space I had at our previous house, but small compared to what I’ve seen on Pinterest.
Let me tell you, it’s all the space we need. Now, I know my kids are small, but I have PLENTY of space in there for tons of school books and materials.
If they need a little more space to spread out something that they are working on as they grow, they will be old enough and responsible enough to work in their rooms. For now, all crayons, markers, paints, and play-doh need to stay in the School Room!
Let’s get started.
Here is what you need to have an AWESOME homeschool room/ space:
1. You need a room or space (kind of obvious, right?)
Now, this requirement is very flexible. Like I said previously, it’s not necessary to have a huge, finished basement calling to you to fill it with skoolish things. What you need is any room or nook that you can transform. Do you have a spare bedroom that never gets used? Excellent! Make it useful! However, maybe you’re like me and all your rooms already have a purpose. So, can you clean out half of your laundry room to use as a school space? Do you have an out-of-the-way corner in your living room or den that you can transform? Be creative! If necessary, have a friend come over and help you look for a space. Sometimes it’s hard to see our own homes with new eyes.
2. A desk or table
Our “school table” gets SO much use. This is where the kids spread out (and leave) coloring pages, crafts, crayons, paint, etc. Let me tell you why I like that table so much.
First: It means that all of the kids’ projects don’t end up all over the kitchen table (with me reminding them to clean it up so we can actually EAT there). I like that the kids can spread out what they’re on working on, then pause (if need be) to eat or do chores without having to clean up the school table.
Second: We got it off the side of the road. At the time, we were just about to build our Big House in the Woods and we were still living in our previous neighborhood.
One day, when Miss G was about 4, we went for our usual walk. As we turned the corner, I spotted a small kitchen table and two chairs on the side of the road. (I have eagle eyes when it comes to free stuff on the side of the road.) I knew I wanted a table for our School Room when we built our new house and this one looked like the perfect size. We raced home (good, free stuff never stays on the side of the road long) and got in the truck. We drove over there, loaded it up, and brought it home.
When we got the table home, it was clear that it needed some love. The underside of it looked like someone’s kids had gotten refried beans on their fingertips and smudged them all on the bottom of the table…for years. I’m not kidding. I stood it up on end in the driveway and spent an hour scraping all that gunk off with a razor blade. (That’s determination!) Then, I rubbed the whole table down with bleach. Twice.
The chairs had some of the same refried beans on the bottom but not as bad. They mostly just needed to be screwed back together. And, BOOM! Just like that, we had a perfectly usable school table. The best part is that I don’t fret when the kids get markers and paint on it because it was FREE.
3. A small (or large, if you have room) bookshelf
So, we were driving along one day and right there, on the side of the road, was this awesome cubbie-like bookshelf! (Are you noticing a pattern here? We like free stuff.) We pulled over and loaded it up. I like the cubbie design because the kids can pull books out and an entire shelf width of books doesn’t start leaning. Also, I think it’s important to have books where the kids can reach them themselves. If they can’t reach them, they won’t read them.
Here is our exact bookshelf on Amazon. I like the size of these cubbies because they accommodate just about all sizes of books we have (except for two Winnie the Pooh books that we have to lay down).
Whitmor 9 Cube Organizer, Espresso
4. Rug
Ok, ok. I’ll just go ahead and say that someone gave us our School Room rug. (Free, again.) I laid it out on our drive-way, soaked it with the water hose, and scrubbed it with soap. Rinse. Repeat.
After it dried in the sun and fresh air, it was as good as new.
It’s only 4.5 ft. X 6 ft., but it creates a comfortable space (we have tile floors) right in front of the bookshelf for the kids to spread out books and read. Maybe you have carpet, so you don’t have to worry about comfort. However, a little rug will protect your carpet from falling markers or dripping paint (or smashed play-doh. Ask me how I know).
If I was going to buy a rug, it would be this one:
How cute is that?! It’s colorful AND educational!
5. Lots of shelves for storage
You will need lots of shelves for your teaching materials, workbooks, art supplies, binders, etc. You don’t have to get really technical with this. Since my home-school room is part of the laundry room, I just used cheap L-brackets and 1×12 boards to create inexpensive shelves. If your home-school space is in an area that will be more prominent, you can spend a few more dollars and get prettier brackets and paint for your shelves.
The key here is to go UP with your storage. If your ceilings are 8 ft. tall then that means you have plenty of room for about three shelves over your table. My ceilings are 9 ft tall so I have four shelves above the school table.
These are 12 inch brackets to accommodate a 1×12 board:
Ultra Hardware 96121 Shelf Brackets Grey, Pack Of 20
6. Finishing touches to make it special
Here are some of my favorite finishing touches that aren’t necessary but make our space extra special:
First, I put a small lamp on top of the bookshelf. Our bookshelf is only three feet tall so the top of it is a perfect space for a lamp. When the lamp is on in there (instead of the overhead light) it creates a soft, cozy space that the kids flock to. I often find them in there reading books or playing with magnetic letters on the dryer (another perk to having a combined school room and laundry room).
Second, a bulletin board. My husband got this from work because they were giving it away (free…again). It creates a great space to display school work or coloring pages, so not EVERYTHING has to end up on the front of your fridge.
Finally, my favorite finishing touch is white Christmas lights (or “fairy lights” as they call them across the pond). I used simple tacks and secured a string of these to the front of my homemade shelves. I just snaked them along the fronts until the string rang out. This creates a nice, soft glow on the table when the kids are in there working. Plus, it reminds me of Christmas (my favorite holiday!).
Now, wasn’t that easy?! You don’t need a large space or a lot of money to create a truly beautiful and useful space for your homeschoolers. A lot of the main items in our school room were free. So, I would like to encourage you to keep your eyes open for items you can repurpose, rehab or reuse to make your homeschool room/space.
It doesn’t take much to create a unique space with “zones” for reading, creating, working, and playing.
To be completely transparent here, our homeschool room is rarely tidy or picture perfect. I spent an hour getting it picture worthy for you but that’s ok with me. That means it gets used EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. That’s the point.
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All the best,
Lindsey
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