Learning Spaces: Art
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Over the next few weeks I will be giving you a look at our learning spaces and I have decided to start with my favourite, art! The art shelves live at one end of the playroom. First of all, how awesome are these shelves? I love them. My husband made them for us. There is 3 of them down in the play room and art takes up a whole one alone. I give the most space to the things my girls are interested in and they both create art every single day. Some of their art gets displayed above the shelves, and it’s constantly changing. All we did was get some small stick on hooks, string, and mini wooden pegs. Easy! Ok, lets take a closer look at the shelves…
Starting from the top left we have lots of materials for drawing: oil pastels, chalk pastels, charcoal, pencils, watercolour pencils, markers, crayons, eraser, and sharpener. In the blue cup with the charcoal is also some broken candle pieces, they sometimes use them to draw on white paper and then paint over with watercolours to reveal the picture. We also have two art books displayed ‘Usbourne Lift-the-flap Art‘, and ‘Famous Paintings‘. And our little ‘Mannekin‘ there who looks like he’s dancing.
Underneath that we have all of our art books, journals, and paper.
The bottom left shelf is painting! From left to right we have paintbrushes, micador watercolour palletes, liquid watercolours, washable poster paint, and then trays/cups/pallettes for putting paint in which there are more of but they were in use today. You can see that the ice cube trays are currently being used for liquid watercolours, I find that they are best for them because they don’t end up using too much.
Back up to the top, on the right we display any art that can’t be hung up, or work in progress. At the moment it’s filled with clay sculptures.
Underneath that is all of our crafty bits and pieces. In the tray on the left there is felt, foam, and tissue paper. The bowl in the middle is the ‘scrap’ bowl. All of the loose bits and pieces that end up everywhere get put into this bowl for later use. There’s ribbons, wool, wooden pegs, recycled materials, and who knows what else! On the right there is jars of small things like rubber bands, beads, pom poms, craft sticks, and pipe cleaners. Then there is glue, a tray full of lots of different types of scissors, tape, and hole punchers.
On the bottom right shelf is all of our clay/play dough materials: loose parts, pattern stampers, clay tools, wire, jars with play dough and clay, rolling pins, and mats to put underneath when working with the materials. The mats are just those cheap thin chopping boards found in supermarkets.
And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed the tour of our art space. I am often asked how my kids go having free access to everything and the answer is, great! I did envision a lot of waste and constant mess when we first started but that hasn’t been the case after the initial excitement wore off. There is mess, sure, but you have to expect that with artists in the house! They have surprised me with how responsible they are with it.
You can read more about how we approach art here, and I’d love to hear about your art spaces too!
For ideas on how to create a beautiful and inviting art space, click here.
Comments
It’s beautiful. Of course 🙂 And I do love those shelves. Our art space is very small, just a thin cupboard really and the kids work at the dining table. Some day soon we will have our homeschool studio and I’ll excitedly set up open art shelves like these.
Can not wait to see the rest of the room 🙂 If you don’t mind me asking, about how big is the playroom? Is it a rumpus room?
I think it’s supposed to be a lounge room. There’s a family room though so that’s where our TV/lounge is. This room is down a couple of steps and has a big sliding door to the backyard. Perfect for the playroom. I sent hubby down to check, lol, he says it’s about 6x4m
So lovely and inviting!!
Thank you 🙂
It really is a beautiful inviting space!
Thank you 🙂
I love this space! We do most of our art in our kitchen and the girls have access to lots of different materials but because most of them are in drawers I sometimes think out of sight, out of mind. Your open shelves look like they work really well.
Thanks Nichole! I also love they don’t have to come and ask me every 5 seconds to get something, LOL.
So beautiful. .so much effort. .u guys inspire me so much..keep it up..
That’s so lovely. Thank you 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing!!! It’s great to see other people spaces! I currently have a 16 month old who eats art supplies so can’t keep things within her reach but it will be lovely to create an open access art space for my girls one day!! 🙂
I love seeing other people’s spaces too!
LOL, I remember that stage.
Lovely! This post is perfect timing for us. We are just about to move to Melbourne and renovate, so my kids will have a playroom. Thank you for your inspiration. Looking forward to seeing the rest of it 🙂
Thank you Krystal! How exciting. It’s always nice setting up something new!
What an inspiring space and materials ~ no wonder they love creating each day 🙂
Thank you Kelly 🙂
Oh wow! We have most of these materials too, but most are out of reach in our craft cupboard. I love that you have them accessible and beautifully displayed! I’m hoping that when my 2 year old is just a teeny bit older I’ll be able to bring down our paints for free access too…
It’s great when they get to this stage. Though I have a 9 month old on the move now too so not sure what will happen, LOL.
How have you had to tweak your set up with your little one on the move?
love the art shelves! Love to look at what people put on them for ideas and inspiration for mine. The kitchen is the only room in our house that has flooring appropriate for paint spills so that is where the grands do their artwork. My oldest granddaughter and I recently culled all our art stuff except for the dough materials and put them in a trolley that has 5 pullout shelves. she labeled them all and we have great fun with the independence it gave to the artists to find their own supplies and use at their leisure. Am excited to see the rest of your setups for play and learning. Also can you tell me a little more about the Usborne lift the flap art book
That sounds really great!
My girls love all the usborne books, especially ones with flaps and things. This one is great with lots of information on different types of art, how they were made, different artists, etc. It tells you a bit more if you click the link, but it’s been a winner here 🙂
This is such a beautiful organised space! Love it!!!
Thank you Anastasia 🙂
I just love the way you’ve set these spaces up, so inspiring.
Thanks Kylie!
So inspiring 🙂 What a glorious space to be explored!
Thanks Janice 🙂 Did you catch a glimpse of the play dough kit in there? It’s been put to very good use!
I love the way you display their work and how easy it would be to add their latest masterpiece! This is just what I have in mind for the future, so I’ll be pinning it now! 🙂
Thank you Alison! 🙂
It’s so beautiful and neat (can you tell our house isn’t? lol!) I love that they have access to it whenever the artistic mood strikes them!
err…I may have tidied up a bit before the photos, haha!
Lovely, well thought out and so inviting. Pinning! xo P
Thank you Pauline! 🙂
This is so lovely. My lack of tolerance for mess means that there are not many opportunities for art in our house and that’s something that really needs to change! Thank you for the inspiration.
Sarah
Embrace the mess!! LOL. It’s hard sometimes isn’t it? Maybe try painting outside?
What a great space! You have some really interesting materials and yet there’s not too much on display so it’s not overwhelming. I’m excited to have found your site!
Megan
Hey, I have a 4 and 5 year old. Do I just give em the materials or do I need to work on a project with them using the supplies? I am usually too tired to sit with them, darn!
My girls just have free access. They use things whenever they need to and come up with their own projects. Much easier! 🙂
Beautiful and organized. We simply do not have the extra room for this but I enjoy your blog though. I’m wondering how this works with a toddler who enjoys exploring and pulling things off shelves? Sometimes I can embrace mess and other times I lack the patience for it. 🙂
Hi Heather. Some things have been moved around since my toddler began walking. So glass bottles and paints are now on the top. With everything else I’ve just kind of let her explore and get used to it. There was a time where she was continually there pulling things down and investigating. But when she got over that and had thoroughly checked everything out it settled. Trying to keep her away just made her more interested. Now at almost 2 she is fine. She doesn’t pull stuff off for no reason but she uses the shelves like the other girls. She will get glue/scissors/pens/pencils etc to use herself 🙂
I love the accessibility of the materials! I’m wondering how you deal with all of their creations. Sometimes my son gets very prolific, and I haven’t yet discovered the best balance of display and storing for all of the results of his labors. Do you display and then store? Do you throw away and recycle? How do you involve your girls in the process of deciding respectfully what happens with their art? Thanks in advance!
Hi Sara!
I’ve used your learning spaces many times as inspiration for our play area, very clever and beautiful.
A question’s been burning though, if I may ask; what did this look like with a toddler in the house? Did you change the art shelves?
What are the dimensions of the shelves? It looks like it would go great in our space.