classroom makeover
from whimsical to calming.
Lori has been in her classroom for two years and has been desperately wanting to eliminate all the colourful stimulations from her room. She wanted a calming place for her little friends to learn. A diversity wall required by licensing is what sparked the relationship, which led to a complete transformation of the playhouse and classroom. With little to no budget, we relied heavily on kind donations from local businesses and friends for the materials and accessories to transform this room. Once we got in there, we just couldn’t stop! This was such a fun project.
We started with painting over the grey wall with the existing wall color, we filled holes and touched up paint throughout the entire classroom. We painted all the doors and trim inside the classroom black, including a chalkboard door, which will create such great opportunity for the little ones to create! It was a main priority to create a space with purpose. Once the space was empty, only purposeful items made their way back into the room. This helped us create a clean and minimalistic space.. As minimalistic as a preschool room can be.
All the cabinets in the classroom were mismatched, so to create a uniformed look we painted all the cabinets black. We removed the hardware and painted them with Rub n Buff. We created a quiet cubby in one of the cabinet spaces that was serving no prior purpose. Lori said this space has been utilized daily ! The countertops were all different and in rough shape. We decided to spray paint them a cream color and then roll with a sealant for durability. We painted the blue tile backsplash white to match the rest of the room. The lockers were painted white, and then capped the top with 3/4” plywood. With the extra plywood, we made 2 shelves above the desk area and a topper for the filing cabinet to tie it all together. We moved the filing cabinet over to the desk area in order to create a barrier and define the “teacher space.” Every teacher deserves to have some pretty shelves, out of reach of the little fingers to display her most valued treasurers.
We created cafe style curtains with a dowel and some more IKEA tea towels, to ensure all the little friends are uninterrupted by curious hallway browsers.
The playhouse ! it was loud ! Stripping the textured tree was not a fun task and it took waayyyyy longer than anticipated but we are so happy with the way the farmhouse inspired playhouse turned out ! The two requests Lori had for the house were:
1. get rid of the birds, flowers and the trees
2. cover the inside "ladder” that the kids love to climb.
We ran with it, and the outcome of the playhouse is stunning ! We filled in the half walls and made them full walls with large windows on both sides. We built up a frame so we could add on a roof. We had some scrap cedar shakes donated to add to the peak, and as an added bonus, we even had enough to make a roof on the existing market stand. We cut out the small curved windows and made them much more functional for the little friends. IKEA tea towels and wooden dowel towel rods made the perfect curtains. The cute curtains are nicely framed out with black trim added to both windows and the door. No playhouse is complete with out a boxwood wreath, custom flower boxes and a welcome mat. So many hours are going to be spent enjoying this playhouse, and it truly makes my heart sing.
And the thing that started it all, the diversity element. We came up with the idea of having a large rainbow featuring different skin tone colors. We used pool noodles wrapped in macrame cord. We finished up the wall with some floating corner shelves to display important items to enhance learning.
In just four long days, we completely transformed this classroom into something that the entire teaching staff and students are envious of.
Thanks so much Lori for allowing me to help out with your classroom transformation. It was an amazing passion project for me. Thanks to my always willing friend Amy for recruiting me to take on the challenge. If you have a little one, and are in need of a preschool, be sure to check out Little Steps at Christ King Catholic School.
