The changes to the living room gave us more space. Well, it gave P more space. I did some changes/additions to her craft area. It was looking like the picture above which was nice but it wasn't a useful space. Every piece of furniture had stuff on it. The fridge had her sewing machine and materials. The art kit had all her brushes, scissors, paints and ribbons on it. The table always had a current project or a combination of projects that were drying or something. I felt we were always short on work space. All the art materials were in the rolling art kit but there weren't enough drawers to separate them properly.
So, I got a few things at Ikea and for about $120 I made the "studio" less cluttered and more user friendly. And, I should say "user friendly" for kids is a HUGE advantage when you want them occupied without supervision. Ie, I'd rather P do art projects than watch TV while I'm making dinner.
I got the Trofast frame for $39.99 and 7 drawers. I wanted this particular unit instead of one with the capacity for more drawers because I needed a "drying" space at P's height. I needed more counter space essentially for her. It's interesting how her creative needs have changed as she's gotten older. This same corner use to look like this.
Often she'll finish a painting but isn't finished working so she needs a place to put the wet pieces of paper as she continues creating more. The table is usually covered with paints, water, brushes and other materials as she works. This wasn't the case about a year ago. Painting meant creating one piece and we were done. Now she evolves from project to project.
Today for example she was working on Valentine's Day cards and they needed a place to dry. They were covered in glitter and glue. Previously, we made heart and star shaped crayons. They also needed a place to fully cool. This space was perfect! Also, with this new configuration of drawers I have a separate drawer for paper, paints, stamps, play dough, misc art materials and her sewing machine. Nothing is on top of anything else.
The second item I got was the Grundtal rail with 6 of the cutlery caddy cups. Now there is a clear, clean, defined, useful space for her crayons, pencils, scissors, brushes, ribbons and smocks! And the kicker is that having all this stuff on display makes it more useful to her. She's colored more in the last two days than she has in months! Of course having a clear table to work on is also conducive to sitting down and getting creative!
The peace of mind for me is divine! I love to see her space organized and useful to her. She asked me to label her drawers so she knew for sure what was in them. This cracks me up because she can't read yet. But she wants them labeled with words not pictures so that's a good sign I think!
As you can see our living room is predominantly her space. But we like it that way. I can cook, do laundry, read, etc and she is in eye sight doing her things. It feels nice to be integrated but separate.
I still have to finish her toy sink and oven. That's next on the list.
Labels: kid space, living room
