A Spot to be Creative – Office Update

This is one of my favorite places in this house. It’s a spot we’ve created in the office for the kids to get crafty and creative.

The backdrop of this scene is a picture my husband took of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area between Oregon and Washington. We tacked it behind a giant old window that we found in the barn of our last house. The frame is chipped to perfection! The picture is so large, it definitely gives the feeling that there is an actual window on that wall.

I love to see how my kids’ imaginations come alive on paper, but for my sanity, I need to have the 1.3 million broken crayons all corralled in one spot. That’s where this handy dandy crate comes into play.

Often, the space looks like this shot below. (Just keeping it real for you.) Why things always end up on the floor, I have no idea. Thankfully they weren’t cutting paper into seven million itty bitty pieces today. There’s also plenty of ink and glitter stuck to this table, but the black paint hides the smudges well. This was not an expensive table, but it has held up extremely well to the abuse the kids throw at it from spilled glue to the occasional matchbox car crash.

Off to the side (out of frame) I have a table with a basket to hold all of the coloring books, stickers and extra paper.

We have far more pencils than pens these days because someone (a little boy with blonde hair) has a propensity for coloring on things other than paper.

Can you see the train in the picture below? Even though the Columbia Gorge is a scenic area, it’s also a major rail shipping corridor. My husband just happened to catch this train in action and I love the detail it adds to the photo.

By having all of the kids’ pens, pencils and paper out in the open, this self-serve area is perfect for when inspiration strikes. They can help themselves! And as any mama knows, that is a beautiful thing!

My home isn’t always the prettiest. It is filled with beautiful messes that my kids make in the midst of discovering the world and letting their imaginations run wild. And at the end of the day, that makes me pretty darn happy.