I was so excited for back-to-school (or more accurately, mom-summer) to begin, that I spent the last month working with The Container Store to turn our playroom into a study station for the kids. Stella is officially a second grader and has *actual* homework now (thank goodness for google because I literally do not know how to help her with math - WHY DID THEY CHANGE HOW TO DO MATH) and she needs a proper place to sit and concentrate. Sutton is only in Pre-K, but...
1) he will be learning unnecessarily complicated math problems before I know it
2) he needs to do everything his older sister does or he panics and
3) it would throw the room off to only have ONE desk unit, and let’s be honest this is the most important reason.
Since I’m more than a little familiar with all that The Container Store has to offer, I knew the Elfa system was the way to go. I could customize it to fit the playroom perfectly, and add shelves, drawers, and utility boards to my heart’s content. Which I did. And then some.
My goals for the space was to have enough accessible shelving to hold the current school year’s projects, classroom art, and memory boxes - but also enough upper shelving to hold past years as well. As kids get older you collect less and less (they don't make Thanksgiving Turkeys with your kids hand print in the 8th grade…) so eventually your storage boxes can span a few years instead of a single one.
I also wanted to make sure to have several drawers for notebooks, coloring books, and the endless stacks of white and color paper used for art. Mission accomplished and now I don’t need to look at them on the desktop!
Last but not least, I wanted a setup that inspired creativity, was visually beautiful, and of course - served the core function of holding supplies. The Elfa utility board system allowed me to hang, clip, hold all sorts of things, but most importantly, a tray of pens, pencils, markers, and more. And I obviously was not going to pass-up a rainbow moment, so I used these colorful boxes to hold everything. Why the rainbow you ask? Because it always looks pretty, it keeps all the items contained within a system, and Stella can always find the color she needs and knows exactly where it goes when she’s done.
Now for the best news, The Container Store’s Shelving Sale is going on now through 10/14, and Elfa is 25% off! I think I'm going to need to make myself a desk now since I'm guessing my kids won't let me work at theirs...
PRODUCT LIST
Elfa shelving solutions
Document storage boxes
File storage box
Rainbow boxes
Poppin desktop sorter
Poppin desktop pencil cup
Poppin calculator
Poppin scissors
Poppin notebooks
Glass jars
Desk chair
xo, Clea
Thoughts welcome!