Our office/craft room/mud room also serves as the kids art room.  Since the floors are tile, we can get messy and not worry about getting paint on the carpet or wood floors.  Up until now, we have had a table and some art supplies.  Nothing super creative, just a space to draw.  Every time we would be creating something, I was never inspired by the space.  It is such a hodge-podge of things.  There is no cohesion to the room, so it lacks some major personality.

The space also needed some major organization of the art supplies.  I was using these colorful drawers to hold the kids art supplies.  The drawers were working in the beginning, but as our art supplies grew, those drawers just couldn’t handle all the supplies.  Paper was falling out of the drawers, nothing was put back in the correct place, and we could never find the crayons.

I also had some games in the drawers, which were really helpful when Adleigh was little, but now that she’s a toddler and NEEDS to be in on the action, the games were not being used like they use to.

So I set off to create an organizational system that would meet the needs of our family.  I started by clearing out all the drawers and sorting through all the items that were in the drawers.

There was a lot of garbage and broken things.  I threw/recycled the garbage.  Sadly, that took the majority of my time.  We really let the drawers get filled with too much stuff.  I decided to reduce the amount of stuff we have in the drawers, I would use a spin-y pencil holder.  In that holder, I put crayons, pencils, chalk, and colored pencils.  I put that on the kids art table.  This makes it easy for the kids to get inspired and draw.

Then I sorted all the paper.  We have construction paper, coloring books, card stock, Crayola Magic Paper, dotter paper, you get the idea!  I decided it would be better if I separated all the paper into different drawers.  Two drawers are holding construction paper.  One drawer has all the coloring books.  One drawer has the Crayola Magic Paper, while another drawer has the dotter paper and dotters.  I put our painting supplies in another drawer, and the remaining drawers are holding stamps and stamp pads.

I moved all the games into the play room or into the kids bedrooms.  Some of the games are great activities to do while I am getting dinner ready, or putting a kiddo down for nap.  I feel that they will get more use in a different place in the house.  We shall see how this goes.

The final project I have left for this space is to decorate it with inspirational and creative artwork designed by the kids.  If this truly is a place for them to get inspired and show their creative side, I need them to decorate it as such.  My inspiration is from The Imagination Tree.  I just love how bright and cozy this space is.

Image Via The Imagination Tree

Now I am off to get crafty with the kiddos.  We need some serious decoration for the space and I am really inspired!  Today for the Organize Back To School Challenge, I am challenging you to create an art space for your children to show their creative side!  Follow some of these tips from The Artful Parent on how to craft up an art room.  Also, don’t forget to follow along on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ as I share more fun and inspirational art rooms/ideas with you!