I first saw a blogger friend of mine create an art space for her girls a couple months ago and LOVED it so much that I knew I wanted to do something similar in our home! (check out Stephanie Hanna’s blog post HERE) Ironically, we had to move to a smaller house to make it happen, but it worked out great since my girls are older and use this area a TON already! We are on a budget so I shopped our home, found ways to use old storage in a new way, and used the magical power of paint to create this whole DIY toddler art space for under $75!
The Desk
Originally I was going to purchase a desk for this space, but after checking local thrift stores, Facebook marketplace, and Offerup I decided to make my own. I purchased these steel hairpin legs years ago for our dining room table and have used them on multiple projects since! We disassembled our table when we moved to the new house, so I decided to repurpose the legs into a desk.
I purchased a 2×4 ft piece of MDF from Home Depot for $15 to use as the desk top. MDF has to be sealed to make it waterproof (important for a toddler craft area) so I painted it with this blush pink chalk paint and sealed it with this top coat. Super easy, and I love that the top was already smooth and flat and required little prep!
Art Cart
The art cart was a lot of fun to put together, and my girls love having all of their supplies at their level! The cart was $12.99 from Ross, but I see them at Home Goods and IKEA all the time if you’re looking for something fancier. All of the plastic containers are from Ross as well, and range between $2.99-$6.99 in price. I went with all clear containers so my kids could easily identify what was in each bucket, and ideally not dump everything out to see what’s inside (this mostly works!).
Peg Board
I purchased this peg board from IKEA for my home office several months ago, and decided to spray paint it black and use it for the kids supplies I didn’t want them having easy access to (glitter glue, googly eyes, chalk). I put the little craft pieces in mini mason jars from the Target dollar spot, but you can find this size anywhere! If I could go back and do this again, I would probably just get the pre-drilled peg board from Home Depot so I didn’t have to use all IKEA products. They tend to run out of these peg board supplies quickly!
Seating
I really wanted to run out and get really cute chairs for this desk but it was not in the budget at the time! Instead, I pulled these black folding chairs out of the garage and they work great. Plus, they’re plastic and easy to clean, and I couldn’t chair less if the kids color on them or glue scraps of paper to them (both have happened this week).
The light up clips were a fun way to add some sparkle and a display for the kid’s artwork! These girls can (and do) color about 6 drawings per day each, so now they have somewhere to hang and display them instead of leaving them all over the house.
Decor
I found this accent rug at Home Goods and feel like it is the perfect balance of my need for neutrals while having a pop of color for the kids. And since it was inexpensive, I won’t be devastated if it gets messy while my kids create!
I was really struggling with where to hang our birth posters in this house, but I feel like they fill the wall above their desk perfectly. And I really love being able to see them all the time and have them in a well lived in part of our home
Since this art space shares a room with my office, I hope that the kids will enjoy utilizing this space while I try to get work done during the day. So far it is a huge hit, and I am excited for them to have a space to create and do crafts on their own! Also, don’t think for a minute that their supplies stay color coordinated for longer than 15 seconds. But I like how it looks so I continue to organize it! My girl Lydia revealed her own Craft Corner in her home, and she did it for under $30! Make sure to check that post out HERE.
For more DIY home decor ideas, and to see what else I’ve been working on in this house (like my recent playhouse makeover!) click HERE!