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School room: what you can't do without!
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I have nineteen white Ikea Billy Bookcases (the narrow ones) with the toppers and glass doors. These bookshelves (about 16 inches wide) are narrow enough to keep books from looking sloppy from falling on their sides and are only 11 inches deep. People always ask me if the bookshelves are built-ins as they span both living room and dining room without sacrificing floor space. The glass doors really add to the effect, although they did cost more than the bookcases. We recently moved to a larger home, but this is the same number of bookshelves that we had when we lived in our 900 square foot home for 8 years with 7 children. My husband supports my addiction for used books from our friends of the library sales. 🙂
And I love my wall that is entirely painted with chalkboard paint.
My world map. We refer to it all. the. time.
Bookcases for sure.
Good lighting.
That’s about all I need.
Here are things that we currently use, are in the process of adding, or on the wish list:
Command-type center – modified, but similar to this
Wooden Spool table/ book shelf – great idea stirrer
Quotes Curtains – Inspiration for everyone
Like the idea of this bookshelf and windowseat
Love this rocking chair – good for kids who need movement to focus
Like the cozy feel of this school room – and the LARGE map on the wall.
Ok, I’ll agree to more bookshelves. ;0). We refer to maps kept in notebooks and a shower curtain that hides the opening to our storage room.
I use small marker boards to reduce paper waste. The kids practice math facts, spelling words, grammar/sentence diagramming, etc on them during the day. They are made from shower board that I got at Home Depot. I cut one big board for “school” type use, but we use the little ones more often. They are portable for house school and carschool and outdoors school. ;0) Our 5 yo also doodles on one during read alouds.
Becca<><
Loved those pictures and pinned a couple. But the picture of the window-seat with bookshelves next to it baffles me! How can anyone put anything on a bookshelf besides BOOKS? LOL Why put vases on a bookshelf? My vases live under the sink. My curios are crammed in a china cupboard. My bookshelves hold BOOKS. Putting anything else on them seems to me like putting underwear in the refrigerator—WHY? LOL
I’m with Bookworm. Why waste good bookshelf space?
One way we have increased shelf space is that I had some boards cut to fit our current bookshelf units so that I have more shelves per unit. With smaller books, the standard shelves are much further apart than necessary. Some of the taller books I have organized into magazine holders and then I lay them on their sides, so I can put the shelves closer together. I just label the end of the magazine holder so I know what topic of books are in them.
Joanne
Have y’all seen Ann Voskamp’s school room?? I don’t have a school room, and I like our school being part of our home, all over the place. BUT, if I could have a school room, I would want it to be like this: http://www.aholyexperience.com/2011/08/organizing-head-heart-to-homeschool/
I have 1000s of books and 15 bookcases, but I have to disagree with Bookworm on this one. I like having some pictures, vases etc on my schoolroom shelves (not all of my bookshelves, but those I use most often). I keep only current year books here and others elsewhere. Having the shelves arranged beautifully and not crammed with books is calming and less stressful to me. I love the simple beauty of it. It makes me happy and makes me more eager to utilize the resources. You can see my schoolroom on my blog at http://www.learningwithcharlotte.wordpress.com. to each his own. 😉
So my vote is for bookshelves, baskets and a nature table.
Blessings,
Christie
@Bookworm & jmac17 – I agree with that. I liked the picture, did something similar in our livingroom where we already have a true windowseat. We just added bookselves to either side of it. For the record, the only things on the shelves are… BOOKS.
I do want some for nature displays, though, and at the moment we don’t really have any space for that. I’m hoping to change that, though.And the one picture that I have of the “cozy” school room partly inspired our family room seating which is where the majority of our school books are. Still looking for the map that I want on the wall in there. After seeing missceegee’s map, I’m really tempted to do something like that.
I think I suffer from information incapacitation, though. I’ve seen so many ideas I like, that now I’m trying to reconcile the space I have with what I think will work best for us AND is something I can actually find at a price that works with our budget.
I wish I could post a picture of our nature cabinet. We bought the Klingsbo glass cabinet from Ikea and display under glass our rock sample kit, cattails, seashells, pine cones, feathers, etc. It reminds me of a museum cabinet. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40128563/
LOL. OK, Christie, if you ever get to come over we’ll definitely have to meet at the coffee shop! I have 32 bookcases. Every single one is double stacked and then as many books as we can wedge in spare spaces are wedged in. It can take a while to find anything, but I just don’t want to give them up, and I can’t store them (no place to put them! All my storage is in (very wet) basement or (totally non-climate-controlled) detached garage. They’d be mildewed in no time. And the concept of current year’s books makes no sense to me. There are 5 of us and we all read all the time and none of us are the same age and what if someone WANTS a Greek history book when they are in Year 6? LOL I think my house would cause major stress for anyone who doesn’t like double-stacked shelves. My idea of beauty? More books. 🙂 We actually took a family photo shoot once in front of our quaint double-stacked shelves with books behind us going every-which-way—we decided it defines us pretty well. But I must confess the Nook is making a real difference–now we only buy OLD “real” books and buy or rent or borrow most of the new ones.
I read about an idea once to put shelves ALL AROUND the entire house 12″ below the ceiling and I’ve been seriously tempted! But dh is afraid if he is walking down our narrow hallway with books hanging over his head on both sides and we have an earthquake he’d die. LOL Plus we lose our 6’6″ kid when he goes to college next year and none of the rest of us would be able to reach the shelves. LOL
I figure we’ll be cute and decorated and organized when the kids are gone. Maybe. OR maybe I’ll be like one of those old ladies with 47 years worth of newspapers stacked in her house except mine’ll be 60 years of books.
Bookworm – How do you double-stack a shelf? I’m trying to figure out what that looks like. We BROKE 4 of our bookcases in the move so most of the books are in boxes in the basement. Stress, mess, chaos. Still trying to figure out how to use the space we have. Blah.
I love the idea of cutting extra boards for bookcases. I HATE how there is so much wasted space in many of the designs. What do you use to support the new shelves?
I have tons of pictures bookmarked to try to incorporate into our home. It does get overwhelming…and expensive!
I love my Kindle (and now want an iPad) but it only feeds the frenzy. Now I can have real paper books AND electronic ones. It hasn’t slowed our book purchases at all. Is there an intervention group?
Any suggestions for a nice looking big-sized world map? We’ve had the regular old Nat’l Geographic bright blue ones….looking for BIGGER or BROWNER. Either or….
OK big dreamers, take a look at the 20 most beautiful bookstores in the world. Maybe I can find something that would work in my home?
http://www.flavorwire.com/254434/the-20-most-beautiful-bookstores-in-the-world?all=1
I do want some for nature displays, though, and at the moment we don’t really have any space for that. I’m hoping to change that, though.
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