14) A New Place to Work

 We are currently in the process re-doing the office/craft/everything else room in our house. While the rest of the room is still a work in progress, the kid part of the room is mostly done. Up until now we have been making all our art at the kitchen table, which has been fine but also has it's drawbacks. The biggest one being that it is hard to explain to a one year old in her booster seat that we don't eat crayons only to sit her in the same seat a few hours later and ask her to eat something. So one of my biggest objectives in this space was to have a place for the girls to work that was just for them. We have had this great Svala table from Ikea for the last few years. The table has served many purposes and was definitley worth the $19.99 price tag. However as the girls are getting bigger I have found that it is hard for them to sit at the table with all their papers and materials and still have room to work. So to solve this problem I found some utensil holders at Ikea that fit perfectly onto the side of the table and are a great storage space for crayons, markers and other materials. To attach the utensil holders I nailed two nails into the side of the table and then slipped the nails through the slats of the utensil holder. I can easily remove the the utensil holders if we didn't want them there, which is a really nice option. I love having the art materials right there for the girls to use without taking up all their work space and in a place that they can reach without even getting up, it makes cleaning up super easy! I also wanted to add a place to display art work and dry wet paintings, so I was very excited when I found the Pressa hanging dryer, also from Ikea. I hung it over the table and love how it looks like a chandlier dangling from the ceiling. It has been great and easy way to store wet artwork. The room is still a work in progress and I look forward to finishing (and sharing) the rest of the room soon. But in the meantime, I am happy that the girls now have a place of their own.