O.k., all you ladies with your wonderful school rooms...Help me!

[Suzannah]

We used to do school in the dining room. I found that if the kids ever got up from the table after breakfast it took half an hour to get back, ready to work. But as DS got older and DD began doing school and then DS the younger came along, we just didn't have any room left in the dining room for all the bookshelves, chairs, tables, etc.

 

So, I flipped my dining and living rooms. We have a corner fireplace and the table is aligned with the fireplace, diagonally with the room. I have a baker's rack on one wall with three large canvas bins, one for each of us to keep our folders, textbooks, etc. in. And the bookcase for reference materials, models, microscope, pencil sharpener, etc. makes an L-shape with another narrow table. I love my *new* dining room/school room.

 

Now my dilemma is what to do about a whiteboard. I've been wanting to get a new one for a while, but in the old set-up, I pulled the drawer of the china cabinet out and set our 2x3 lightweight board there. In this new arrangement, the china cabinet isn't close to the table anymore. So I'm thinking of getting or making a new, larger one. But I want it to look nice since it's in my new GRAND dining hall (fireplace, very tall ceiling, huge decorative window) and this is the first room you really see when entering our house. My husband rolls his eyes when I say I want it to look nice. He thinks it should look like a school room. But it's still my living room...er...dining room. I've seen small boards with different colors or muted pictures painted or etched in the corners. But they don't seem to make them in larger sizes. I thought about Plexiglas with a piece of light-colored but not white fabric or something behind it. Does anyone have any ideas? And on a related note, has anyone used a black marker board? Restaurants often use them out front to advertise their specials. Some are very expensive but I've seen some reasonably priced.

 

If I can't manage something decorative for the board itself I'll probably just do a regular one and hang a quilt or something over it when we're expecting company...or when I just need a break from school. :)

 

I also need to figure out a good way to display our wall maps. I've had them in another room for the last few years but we're moving the furniture around in that room and it'll be awkward to get up close to it once that's done. I was thinking of attaching wooden dowels to the tops and bottoms to hold them out flat and hanging them from the mantle or on the wall when we need them.

[WTMCassandra]

In this kind of case, my instinct would be to install two hooks on the wall and identify two things to put on it:

 

1. The whiteboard

 

Then, when company would come, I would lift off the whiteboard and replace it with:

 

2. A nice wall decoration/picture/wall sconces/something

 

Would this work?

[Frontier Mom]

I guess a quilt would work. I have seen some with some nice black frames at places like Target I think but I'm sure they will cost a little more.

 

As for me, there is no mistaking one has entered a homeschooling house. We have 4-H projects in the dining room, books all over the den, pets everywhere and my schooling room is upstairs. I just gave up a long time ago. Here, what you get is what you get.

 

Great idea though. Good luck.

[dragons in the flower bed]

My husband rolls his eyes when I say I want it to look nice. He thinks it should look like a school room. But it's still my living room...er...dining room.

 

 

I completely understand wanting it to not look schoolish.

 

How about putting a whiteboard inside a faux window? Buy trim and arrange it like around a window, but put a whiteboard inside. Hang pretty, normal, decorative curtains, and draw them when company is coming? If you use a deeper faux frame, you can rig up some of those pull-down maps, too.

 

Someone needs to do a homeschoolroom design show on HGTV.

[Pam in MA]

We have one wall that is magnetic for maps, posters, etc., which you can take down anytime you want. The only thing I needed to make it work perfectly was ordering some extra strong magnets on-line. . . all the ones I bought other places weren't strong enough.

[JoyfulMama]

I like the idea of a quilt (but that's because I quilt)! :)

Buy a big hang-over quilt rack, and install it above the white board. When needed, erase the board, and hang up the quilt! Quick and easy room conversion from school to guest dinner.

(And no need to find a place to hide the white board.)

[Chris in VA]

Can you post a picture? I need to see visuals! (Sounds beautiful!)

[Suzannah]

Thank you everyone for your ideas. I will post a picture as soon as DH gets our computer working again (our main computer is acting up and he recently did a fresh install on the laptop so it doesn't have the photo software at the moment.)

 

I was thinking more of a quilt rack with one of the quilts I already own rather than a framed one. But that is a nice idea too.

 

I don't mind my home looking schooly. But I also like for this main area to be presentable for company and also to just give me a visual break from the job. Last year we put up a timeline that went all the way around the dining room, living room and up the stairs. It's been taken down now in preparation for the upcoming year's timeline. But to me (see my siggy) it looks like a creative wallpaper border. Yeah, geeky I know.

 

I have a small aversion to painting that section of the wall in whiteboard paint My 11 and 6yo would be fine, but I don't want the little guy to get confused about writing on the walls. Magnetic paint might be ok. But it doesn't really solve the problem of where to write things.

 

So has anyone here ever used the black marker boards?

 

Thanks again! I'll try to get some photos up this evening.

[Suzannah]

Ok, this is the first time I've posted pictures here so I hope I'm doing it right.

 

This is the new dining room/school room. I was thinking of moving the picture from where it is to over the firepace and putting a marker board of some sort there.

[Jennefer@SSA]

Buy a big hang-over quilt rack, and install it above the white board. When needed, erase the board, and hang up the quilt! Quick and easy room conversion from school to guest dinner.

 

:iagree:

 

This is my vote, too! :)

[PeterPan]

The pictures help, but we still can't see the overall layout of the two rooms. To me, it doesn't look like I'd want a room to look when I walk into a house, but I can't see the overall effect. I can tell why you like doing your school work in there (because it's a nice, big space!), but it doesn't seem a cozy place to eat. Do you eat there or in your original dining room or in the kitchen? If you never eat in this space, then I'd remove anything that says dining about it and convert the room into a multi-purpose living/play/school room. With those high ceilings, it's really conducive to that. I keep thinking what you need in front of that fireplace is a pool table, not sure why, hehe... (just sounds fun and grand, in keeping wth the space!)

 

In any event, I'd remove both of those decorative pictures. Frame a map and put it over the fireplace. The whiteboard can go to the left of the fireplace, where you currently have an unnecessary picture hung. That solves those two immediate problems. As far as arranging beyond that, I'd just try things and see what you think. I love rearranging my space and being able to make it a bit different each year to suit us. You could bring your table off the wall in an L over by the new location for the whiteboard. That opens up the floor space for some things like a play area for your little one, etc.

[Suzannah]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, we do eat in there. Since I took the photos at night you can't see the woods out the window. It actually is quite cozy when there's a fire, and feels airy in the summer so I'm looking forward to using it as a dining room. Here's the living room. I had already decided to move the pictures, but didn't want to do it before I had decided what else needed to be done.

 

Oh, and we already have a play area set-up so there's no need to create more play space here. Wouldn't matter anyway. If the little guy is in the room with us he climbs up on the bench next to his sister and messes up whatever she's doing. So the high chair needs to stay for a bit longer.

[sagira]

How beautiful, clean and neat all of your homes are. Just complimenting :)

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

If I wanted to hide a white board with quilt...

 

I think I would get one of those sheets of showerboard from the hardware store rather than a framed whiteboard. This is because it would (in theory) hang tighter to the wall. Then I would have a quilt rack that doubled as a shelf (you choose if you hang the quilt with pegs, clips, a bar...) sort of like the shelves that are over pegs for coats in the hall. You could use the quilt hanging device for maps, poster or artwork display on school days and use the shelf to hold books, decorative boxes of supplies, projects the kids made that you want to display, or something more decorative when guests come.

 

I can't tell from the photos if this would fit with your decor but its another suggestion.

[Suzannah]

How beautiful, clean and neat all of your homes are. Just complimenting :)

 

You do realize, don't you, that I staged the photos very carefully so they wouldn't include the baby's toybox or our rolling library crate next to the pile of shoes no one seems to be able to remember to put away? :glare: No? Well then, as far as you know this is exemplary of the entire house! :D I try!