If your kids are anything like mine, they love to make stuff. Like… all. the. time. Whether it’s playdoh or coloring or painting or taping cardboard together, we are always making things. And then cleaning those things up because we don’t have dedicated floor space for this stuff to stay out. Last week I was over at The Land of Nod blog, Honest to Nod sharing my tips on creating a wall mounted art station (and WHY it’s so amazing for us). I’m using their products in this post which are totally rad, but I’m sure you creative people could DIY up something rad too. But before you hop over and check it out- or walk away and think it’s not that useful… can I tell you that it’s the best thing I’ve put on my walls in a long time? My kids use this station every. single. day. now. Which is huge! And I don’t every have to get them paper or markers or even paint. Seriously… they love this thing.
One thing I didn’t mention over there is that I gave my kids one of my Pentel Aquash Water Brushes and HOLY COW- I should have done that forever ago. Don’t get me wrong- I will never use this Aquash again- it’s now theirs to keep. But I just refill the tank on the pen and then they don’t need a cup of water (that they can spill) to do watercolor painting and they don’t need to remember to wash their brushes out (or ask me to!) since it’s self cleaning. You can see it there below- I added a little stool to tuck under their hanging caddy and they use it to rest their paints on while they’re painting. They’re about $7 which is more expensive than a paint brush- but I feel like your (and my!) sanity is worth it ;) Especially if your art area (like ours!) is downstairs and your only running water is upstairs. To give a bit of reference (if you’ve been following on in our renovations!), this station is mounted in the playroom half of our rec room.
Anyways! Check out all my tips on the wall mounted art station over on Honest to Nod!
And because I’m a mom, I had to throw in a photo of them smiling. They were so excited about this- this is the first time they used it. It was near impossible to get them to turn around and stop what they were doing to smile!
sandy
Wow!!!! Your whole house looks amazing colleen&shane. There isn’t a room or wall lol that you two haven’t tackled! Congratulations on all that you’ve done to make your house a home!!!
Colleen Pastoor
Thanks so much! You’ll have to come over for coffee and check it out for yourself :)
Michelle
The links advice are not working, and I have to know how you did this!!! We are working with little space, and I feel like this setup would encourage my little artists to keep the dream alive.
Tan
I LOVE this! Squirrelly babe is just getting to the age where he’ll colour and paint for a bit. I totally want to do something like this!
Colleen Pastoor
That’s suuuch a fun age! I used to do edible finger paint with the twins when they were little- they loved it (more the getting messy, but still ;))