First off, my kids must have their basic art supplies (coloring books and paper, crayons, pencils, scissors, markers, colored pencils) downstairs, near the table, at all times. The table is the center of our home, in many ways, and that's where you can find them for many happy minutes every day, working hard at creations that their heartless mother will first gush over and display on the boys' art wall before surreptitiously recycling a few days later.
For many months the art supplies have just been hanging out, semi-organized, in a canvas box on the floor of our dining room. We neeeded this stuff close at hand, but there isn't a lot of space in our dining room--so on the floor it went.
Not ideal, obviously. I've been trying to think of a pretty and functional way to both organize and display their supplies which will satisfy everyone. Enter this picture, found during a random internet search:
This is apparently a DIY cupcake stand you can make with candle sticks and round cake pans, and I liked it a lot. I decided I'd try my hand at it in the next couple weeks, since the art supplies were really getting ridiculous at this point. Then, a few days after first seeing it, I walked into my sewing room and noticed something that had been relegated to the piano for a few months: a nice, pewter (or something that wants to be pewter) cupcake stand. It had been used for holding various things over the last couple years, including skeins of yarn and actual cupcakes, but had been sitting empty for quite some time.
I just love it when something like this happens.
I knew the lips of the round tray parts weren't actually high enough to keep stuff from falling off; plus I figured the jumbly mess would make me crazy. So when I was at Target today I picked up four small galvanized buckets from the dollar bins, brought them home, stuffed them with supplies, and brought out the cake stand.
Behold! Organized art!
A closer view:
As usual, I am asking myself why I took so long to make something like this happen. It works perfectly. All of the buckets fit on the bottom portion of the stand, and the top is open for scissors, erasers, and other random bits. Plus I could probably hang a couple more buckets from the upper "branches" for more storage.
Obviously this doesn't organize absolutely everything. I still need to find a good place for paper and coloring books, and things like stamps and paint, which we don't use every day, will go back in the canvas box and then in the upstairs closet where they belong. But the most important supplies are right where they need them, and Mama is happy with how it all looks.
Plus King Peter is happy just to color with her happy Mama.
She is drawing unicorns. Naturally.
5 comments:
Where does it go when we eat?
In your lap. Hey-oh!
I have a red canvas bin that could easily hold the coloring books, paper, etc. and fit on a lower bookshelf. You want it? It's yours. I may even have two.
Our art supplies overflowith. Seriously. We have a cabinent dedicated to art supplies. An entire cabinent.
That's pretty cool. It looks great in any setting either. At least you got the job done, organizing the materials.
Post a Comment