before and after

Inspired by a new school year, we refurbished our school room at the beginning of September. I'm just now posting the pictures as I was waiting to get everything hung on the walls. Here are the messy, unorganized before pictures (you know it makes such a greater impact if the before pictures are messy ones...!)

Following a trip to Lowes, my perfectionist husband left the painting to me. We chose a pale blue and I had a relatively quiet morning trying to quickly paint while Troy was home to occupy the girls. After seeing this picture and following the tutorial on the Raising Olives blog (and again confirming to myself that you can find anything online!), we actually created very amazing bookshelves. I thought it would add a literary feel to the room as well as give us more space for the weekly change of books and projects during school days. If you are interested, this article is also a convincing article of the why's to face books forward. And at the end of the day, I love the way they look too!

Inspired by this blog post and Madelyn's prolific art folder, we decorated the walls with artwork. Instead of buying new white frames for over $25 each, I went to the thrift store on the half-off day. I gathered a stack of nice wooden frames, brought them home and painted them with some leftover white paint we had in the basement. I selected several pieces from Maddie's kindergarten year and a special few from Ellie's notebook too. They love having their artwork on display and now I'm more on the outlook for new things to add to the collection.

The loft area upstairs had always been a hard space to functionally use. But after some decluttering, fresh coats of paint on tables and chairs, and moving around some furniture, we now have a play space for the little ones. They each have their own little table and chair to independently have tea parties or play school and build Indus valley towns.