Bonus Room Re-Do

We recently were blessed to purchase for a very modest price seven pieces of used office furniture from a business closing its office. I'm not ready for Pinterest or Better Homes and Gardens, but I'm so tickled with our new school and play room space!

I wish I knew how to use my camera so I could take those really slick photos I see on some homeschoolers' blogs.

We have a new, larger conference table for a desk, which allowed me to move the black table off to the side. I've got to think we have enough table/desk space for all the children we're going to educate.

Shooting into the sunny window makes for a dark photo

To the right and left of the window are two tall pieces and two short pieces of storage furniture. During my initial reorganization, I'm storing math books and manipulatives on the right, and art books and paint supplies on the left. Just think of what a school day might look like if no small children spread math manipulatives around or got into the paint!

John's desk off to the right side

The left side of the school room

Looking back out of the school room, one can see the six bookshelves that still feel new to me: they were a generous Christmas gift from Grampa Neil just over a year ago.

Much more space on the art table now that I can store the supplies elsewhere

The play side of the room now has two new tall pieces of storage furniture. We had to throw away the totally broken upper half of the armoire, but the bottom half (the drawers) still functions well enough, so we kept it for now to store puzzles.

Note that the bottom cupboards on the four new pieces of storage furniture LOCK! They lock with keys!!!

New storage for toys, and the old train table which stores wooden blocks

This charming old bookshelf doesn't have a new home yet, but won't stay in the play room because it is a tipping hazard.

The new furniture freed up this faithful old cube bookshelf that I proudly acquired as one of the first pieces of furniture I bought in my first apartment when I was 17 years old. I think I bought it at Target and I can remember assembling it myself. Anyway, this old fella is now serving me beautifully in the laundry room, where I can now put into it swimming gear, towels, my purse, and seasonal items.

Bookshelf now in the laundry room

So much more floor space, no more tripping

I know that homeschooling doesn't require all this space and organization. One can do it all at the kitchen table. But having space and some freedom to store items away makes life decidedly calmer, and I'm feeling so very blessed these days. I don't take it for granted.