Staging a Room- Interior Design

Let me show and tell you how this idea of becoming an Interior Designer came about. Hassan's Distance Learning Art Studio has a theme of 'Careers in Art'. We are learning about a new career every week and there is the same challenge choices (assignments) for students K-5 so that if students wanted to work collaboratively with their siblings, they can.

Staging a Room was an option for students to do during Interior design. I kept record of what students did 30% of students staged a room. In fact some did a total revamp of their house. I got some feedback and found this to be a parent favorite as well. Here is the video that the students watched to learn about staging a room. 

In Minnesota, Governor Tim Waltz announce school closers and allowed for two weeks for teachers to plan what they would do to change over to teaching online. This was such a gift as a teacher... but as a parent who still had to work... it was hard for our family. I have two middle school students and they needed a focus. As I mentioned in the video above, my son has always had a gift for decorating so that is what the two of them chose to do, decorate a space for distance learning.

I had the cutest space for my kids. It was a two level play house for them to call their own. They spent a lot of hours in there... but then they got bigger. This was the room that they chose to redesign. They first took down the structure with drywall and 2 by 4's. They took all the nails out and organized the wood. The plan was to reuse the materials. This portion took two days for the kids to do, with no help from my husband and I. 

Then they patched the walls, removed the outlet plates and such, and taped the walls for painting... They had to cover the floor because the room had a green ceiling that the kids wanted to change. 

The made a bigger mess then I would have... but I wasn't there. I was doing my school work and trying hard to let go as a mom and the 'clean police'... Everything turned out fine. I need to do that more often. The focus they decided to paint with multi tones. 

That brought us to the weekend and my husband and I were able to get in on the fun. We taped out the wall in hexagons (my son's choice). Then painted it with our lighter color. 

Removing the tape was so satisfying! The kids were so proud of their results. Now to figure out what we would put in the room. 

My husband is a Tech Ed Teacher so he had the tools to help them design the desks that would fit the space. 

They bought one sheet of Masonite Board and cut one line to create two 'L's for the desk tops.

My husband trained my son and he started to make the desks with some of the power tools we have at home. There are mistakes, but they look amazing. My son was so proud! 

The two kids stained the wood. The dry time was the hardest.  The kids found other things to make and create while the desks dried. 

My daughter had a vision and had been saving cans for a couple of weeks. She sprayed them all up and made this amazing pencil display. She also sprayed the utility faceplate so she could cover it with her artwork using magnets.

 

There is more to come in this room I'm sure, but for right now, this little nook is a place for both the kids to learn and create in. Sawyer has his lego supplies on his side and Matisse has her Art supplies on the other. The best part of this project is that it was an amazing focus for my kids when we couldn't give them the attention or direction. They needed to find their own way and they did it in a productive and beautiful way. They used mostly recycled materials and a lot of time and love!!