Allearia Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 We are finally going to convert the garage into a homeschool room this summer. I decided that we are going to do this long term and want it to grow with our schooling. I also may do some small scale co-op type classes. We are putting in a frosted glass garage door and it is attached to the house so hopefully it will mostly feel just like another room/sun room. It stays pretty cool. We will probably go to Ikea for bookshelves, tables, chairs. We also will have a futon in there for reading on and to use it as a guest room when needed. So how do I decide? I don't know if I have room for everything I want. I would love them to have separate desks, a big table for us all to work, and maybe a separate science table so we could keep science experiments out/running for a while. I will probably not have room for the desks, might make a spot in the adjacent office area with a desk they could take turns sitting at when they need quiet. We probably need a place for a computer. How did you decide the set up? It will be 9' by 19'. I know I have seen lots of threads and pics over the years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkermamaof4 Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 We just finished ours. it took a little bit of moving things to get it to our liking and we had closets built across one wall. We frequented Ikea. I hope yours ends up great. Ours has revolutionized our days! I stay so focused in there! We bought tin buckets at the $1 tables at Target (ikea has cute ones too) and filled them with our pens and pencils and markers. We ended up putting them on an ikea cd shelf. They fit perfectly and aren't on our desk space that way. We bought desks for each of us from staples and a matching lateral file. We pushed the desks together to form a big rectangle all facing each other, then filled the empty middle spot with a table top from Ikea. it is perfect and we really like facing each other. We only leave the area for math with the one who needs quiet in math time. The closets have black shelves in them from walmart - even cheaper than Ikea. Anyway, it turned out great! I even bought Ikea fabric and made cute drapes - so easy with their clips and their $10 rods. And we bought a bunch of the ledge shelves and hung them and put our book basket choices on them each week. LOVE that. It is my favorite part of the room. Oh, we got 4 dry erase boards from target - one per kid and a huge one for me. I love my school room! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joyfulhomeschooler Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 We just finished ours. it took a little bit of moving things to get it to our liking and we had closets built across one wall. We frequented Ikea. I hope yours ends up great. Ours has revolutionized our days! I stay so focused in there! We bought tin buckets at the $1 tables at Target (ikea has cute ones too) and filled them with our pens and pencils and markers. We ended up putting them on an ikea cd shelf. They fit perfectly and aren't on our desk space that way. We bought desks for each of us from staples and a matching lateral file. We pushed the desks together to form a big rectangle all facing each other, then filled the empty middle spot with a table top from Ikea. it is perfect and we really like facing each other. We only leave the area for math with the one who needs quiet in math time. The closets have black shelves in them from walmart - even cheaper than Ikea. Anyway, it turned out great! I even bought Ikea fabric and made cute drapes - so easy with their clips and their $10 rods. And we bought a bunch of the ledge shelves and hung them and put our book basket choices on them each week. LOVE that. It is my favorite part of the room. Oh, we got 4 dry erase boards from target - one per kid and a huge one for me. I love my school room! Wow! Sounds GREAT! Pictures???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassicalTwins Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 (edited) Get shower board at Home Depot or Lowes to use for a dry erase...much cheaper than a real dry erase. We have one of these http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80063673 for each of the boys, each drawer contains exactly what is needed for that subject. Also do a search for Gutter bookshelves... as a fun/cheap alternative to book shelves. Edited May 5, 2011 by ClassicalTwins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 I planned my HS room around the surfaces we needed. It isn't perfect, but it's pretty decent. There's my big desk, which holds the computer (helps to have a flat monitor, so it doesn't take up much of the desk space, plus the desk is a big old office style desk, quite large); it also holds the workbaskets (and has room for me to lay them out every night), globe, and the big crate that holds our current schoolbooks when they're not in the workbaskets. There's a small table next to it for the file crate with our completed work. I've got a comfortable chair for reading, if I'm not sitting at the desk. I have a table for the little boys, and a desk in a quiet nook for my daughter, who is easily distracted. And we have a table for art projects. And a piano. And several baskets of books -- current history and science books, plus board books for the toddler. I have a clothesline sort of string over the art table for displaying projects, and two large maps on one wall. I'd love to have room for a timeline on the wall, but we don't really have the space for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allearia Posted May 6, 2011 Author Share Posted May 6, 2011 Thanks for the help! Would love more ideas. I am trying to decide whether to move the piano in the schoolroom. I love it in the living room, but the room is so small it would give us much needed space. The kids would miss being able to play it for people and have us listen as much while they practice. I'm so excited, I think our year will run much more smoothly with a dedicated area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enlarsh Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 Thanks for the help! Would love more ideas. I am trying to decide whether to move the piano in the schoolroom. I love it in the living room, but the room is so small it would give us much needed space. The kids would miss being able to play it for people and have us listen as much while they practice. I'm so excited, I think our year will run much more smoothly with a dedicated area. Since you are converting the garage, you may want to consider the humidity levels before you place your piano in there. Temp changes of even a few degrees can warp the piano's sound board and/or increase how often you have to have it professionally tuned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 Since you are converting the garage, you may want to consider the humidity levels before you place your piano in there. Temp changes of even a few degrees can warp the piano's sound board and/or increase how often you have to have it professionally tuned. I was gonna' say this. :) I would really, STRONGLY consider keeping it out of the garage, even if it's converted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allearia Posted May 6, 2011 Author Share Posted May 6, 2011 Since you are converting the garage, you may want to consider the humidity levels before you place your piano in there. Temp changes of even a few degrees can warp the piano's sound board and/or increase how often you have to have it professionally tuned. this is a good point... thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stratford Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 Huge Disclaimer: We haven't started homeschooling yet and our room is a work in progress (read: not even close to finished yet.) That said..... We have a weird "study" room in the front of our house that we're converting to a HS room. (I say weird because we've never had a good use for it, it has it's own french door and doesn't connect to anything else.) It's only 12x12 but should be plenty for a school room right now. I'd be happy with school at the kitchen table, but one of DH's prerequisites for starting to HS was having a special space exclusively for school. Okay by me! We hit Ikea and have a big desk for one wall (seats 2) and a smaller 1-person computer desk for the other wall. One "leg" of each desk is a set of drawers. I have a rod thingy for the wall above the big desk with little buckets that hang on it - for pencils, scissors, etc. 3 bookshelves. We'll have showerboard on the wall, and a couple of maps. I would have loved to have a big worktable and individual desks, but with the space we have, that was a no-go. I've drooled over so many pictures of HS rooms online that I'm hoping what we came up with will be functional for us (and cute, too.) I'll post pictures when it's all put together (hopefully soon?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaMa2005 Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 Huge Disclaimer: We haven't started homeschooling yet and our room is a work in progress (read: not even close to finished yet.) That said..... We have a weird "study" room in the front of our house that we're converting to a HS room. (I say weird because we've never had a good use for it, it has it's own french door and doesn't connect to anything else.) It's only 12x12 but should be plenty for a school room right now. I'd be happy with school at the kitchen table, but one of DH's prerequisites for starting to HS was having a special space exclusively for school. Okay by me! We hit Ikea and have a big desk for one wall (seats 2) and a smaller 1-person computer desk for the other wall. One "leg" of each desk is a set of drawers. I have a rod thingy for the wall above the big desk with little buckets that hang on it - for pencils, scissors, etc. 3 bookshelves. We'll have showerboard on the wall, and a couple of maps. I would have loved to have a big worktable and individual desks, but with the space we have, that was a no-go. I've drooled over so many pictures of HS rooms online that I'm hoping what we came up with will be functional for us (and cute, too.) I'll post pictures when it's all put together (hopefully soon?) I have that rod thingy too and just love how much stuff those little buckets can hold! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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