Things are happening in the Homeschool Room! Derm Dad finished my plank desk!! I had to stand on it with some very heavy books to level out the boards while he Kreg Jigged from below. I offer you a “during” shot complete with enormous swollen feet and a crazy belly (and no shower, but I didn’t leave the house that day so it’s ok, right?).

Doesn’t my new desk look great? I just need to paint it now. I’m planning to do a graywash technique so that the wood grain stays visible. We’ll see how that goes!

The middle base unit with drawers from Ikea holds a surprising amount of stuff!! I thought all our supplies would go in the armoire, but I have a lot of craft supplies!! I think it will be nice to have certain things right there when we are sitting at the desk.

And the armoire is all set up in here storing craft supplies. It’s pretty big, but it gets kind of dwarfed with the super-high ceilings in here. I kind of wish it was taller, but then it wouldn’t have fit in our car.

 

Want to see the other wall with the real built-ins? This shows how the front room flows into the dining room and then the Living Room/Fireplace Room at the end — and you can see a tiny sliver of the kitchen through the doorway in the dining room. And it also shows all my piles of stuff I don’t have a home for yet (hangs head in shame!), so pretend you don’t see those, ok?

Maybe I’m the only one who likes to see the inside of drawers, so you don’t have to keep reading if you don’t really care about that stuff. But if you are like me, here are my craft supplies in the armoire:

Starting on the left we have 12×12 scrapbook paper in that cardboard box thing, then construction paper and fresh crayons, then scrapbooking paper scraps (separated by size and then more drawing paper as well as chalk and broken crayons. On the far right we have Everett’s medical records and insurance paperwork, Adele’s medical records, and some paper dolls and a craft book.

The yarn drawer. Knitting needles and crochet hooks are in that striped roll thing at the bottom right. A few needles are loose – being used for works in progress.

Next we have the markers and paper stuff (thank you notes, envelopes, etc.). We also have the paper cutter, 3-hole punch, and our embosser (with our address from two houses ago! – it also embosses our monogram, though).

This is the “embellishment drawer” – with feathers, foam hearts, mini clothespins, magnets, glass beads, greeting cards to be used for collage, glue gun, etc. . .

This is the rubber stamp drawer. I don’t really do rubber stamps, but I have four sets of alphabets in foam stamps that I do like to use with paint. And I have all my ink pads (stored upside down) in here too. I figure it’ll be fun for Adele in a year or so — when she can be trusted with non-washable crafts.

 

And here are the insides of the Ikea desk bases:

This one holds all the large papers and my light pad (for calligraphy). I have since found a home for the scissors and other tools in that cup in the middle drawers (with the glues). Originally, I planned to store them on a magnetic knife strip attached to the inside of the door, but for now they are in a drawer.

 

Here are the drawers from the middle base unit:

This one is drawing pencils, colored pencils, watercolor pencils, fancy ultra-fine tip pens for notebook-keeping, as well as a few regular pens and highlighters, some fun washi tape, etc.

calligraphy drawer

 

 

paint and glitter drawer. I also keep plastic lids in here because I use those as paint palettes or just to catch excess glitter.

 

glues

watercolor drawer. My favorite palette is underneath the brushes. I also have lots of extra tubes of watercolor paint as well as gouache.

 

And this is Adele’s base unit on the far right: