Anatomy of an Art Corner for Kids

Mothers with small children everywhere are stocking-up their craft supply drawers and battening down the hatches in preparation for summer break! Yay! Summer is here!

Summer means swimming and playing outside, but it also means rainy days, sometimes sick days or even days when we have a complete "failure to launch". 

Enter: The Kids Art Corner. 

It doesn't matter the size of your house, if you build a space inviting for your little artist to paste and cut until his heart's content, he will gravitate there. 

Why am I now thinking about that old Kevin Costner Movie, Field of Dreams?

Do you remember that one? (cue: ominous, whispery voice), 

"If you build it, they will come." 

Alright, so, cheesy Kevin-Costner-movie nostalgia aside (I actually loved that movie!) I really stand by my theory that a craft corner just for kids does a world of good in a busy household. I also don't think that you have to spend a ton of money pulling together something like this. 

Thinking of making a space like this? 

Here's the Anatomy of an Art Corner for Kids:

1. Now, obviously the table is the focus of the art corner or room so if you do nothing else, just have a table designated for creating. I promise you, you'll be less likely to worry about a mess if you have a space designated for one. 

2. Place a small chest of drawers (you can even find inexpensive plastic ones at places like Target) next to the table and fill the drawers with supplies. The black chest in the picture above is one I score at a garage sale. You could label each drawer if you wanted. 

3. Paint a square of chalkboard paint on the wall or apply one of those removable large chalk stickers. The one I have on the wall is a peel and stick one from made by Wallies. I like tod do this because my 2 year old still doesn't care if he draws on paper or the walls, so, if he's going to do it anyway, I might as well have a spot just for that. Surprisingly, once I put my "chalkboard" up, he pretty much drew there and nowhere else!

Curious about what supplies you should have on hand? I'm a huge fan of sticking to the basics. Kids work well with simple supplies and there's no need to work yourself into a tizzy trying to have a bunch of fancy stuff on hand. 

Basic supplies:

crayons

glue sticks

kid-safe scissors

paper (I suggest investing in a large roll of paper)

chalk

tempera paints

paint brushes

washable markers

small plastic containers for paint mixing and water when painting

newspaper

etc

4. I also like to have some fun, old-fashioned games available in the corner too (I put these in the center of the table when nothing else is going on) so if the kids feel like having a impromptu battle of the shoots and slides, they can have at it. 

It's as simple as that!

No need to make it more complicated. The main idea is that you are creating a space where the kids can camp and create and basically call their own.