We have been in our new house for about a year and a half already. Last fall I had finished setting up our homeschool room but haven’t shared much about it yet. So this post will give you a look at how we set up the room and what I did for our desks and large wall map.
Our homeschool room takes up half of our loft area (my craft area takes up the other half). There is a long wall that holds our huge world map – it’s about 4 feet by 6 feet! The map is centered on the wall with a small cube shelf underneath and the girls’ desks on either side.
On both sides of this area, we have large cube shelf units to hold all our books and supplies. I try to keep current school books in the smaller unit (so it’s easier to find what we need for a lesson) and store everything else in these larger units.
The Purple Desks
Last summer, I found some old school desks for sale in our area and thought they would be perfect for our homeschool room. They were a little worn-looking, so I gave them a makeover with some light purple spray paint and dark brown stain.
I sanded all the wood areas to remove the old finish and smooth it out. I also wiped down all the metal areas. When I was ready to paint, I taped off all the wood areas and started spraying. I went with Krylon ColorMaxx Paint + Primer in Gloss Gum Drop.
Once the paint was dry, I taped off the metal areas to stain the wood. This part took multiple steps because I used Minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner, Minwax Gel Stain in Coffee, and Minwax Polyurethane in Clear Semi-Gloss (following the instructions on the cans)
The desks aren’t perfect, but I think they turned out all right! The girls enjoy using their desks for some school work, but there are still plenty of times where we are doing school work on the couch or at the dining table.
Our Huge World Map
With such a large wall in this area, I knew I wanted a large statement piece on it. So, I decided a world map would be a great feature, not just for the decor, but for learning, too! I searched a lot of places online until I found a map that fit what I was looking for: big, colorful, and laminated (so we could mark on it as needed).
Since large frames can be fairly pricey, I went with a DIY method for hanging up and framing our map. To give the map some stability, I bought some foam core boards (each about 2 feet by 3 feet) to cut and tape together to fit the size of the map. Then with a tarp covering our floor, I used a spray adhesive to glue the map to the foam core boards.
For the frame, I bought some 1-1/2″ wide trim boards and cut them to fit along the sides of the map (the top and bottom pieces are a little bit longer than the map to line up with the side pieces). Once they were cut to the measurements that I needed, I sanded and stained them the same dark brown as the desk tops.
Once everything was dry, it was time to hang it all up. I chose to use Command Strips since the map and trim pieces are all fairly lightweight. For the map, I added four strips along the top and four more strips towards the bottom (about one-third of the way up from the bottom edge). Each of the trim pieces got a few Command Strips added across them to attach them along the edges of the map.
We’ve been using this space for just over a year now, and enjoy how it’s set up!
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