How to Decorate Your Art Room: Alphabet Cabinets!

I have been in my current art room for close to 15 years...which is hard to believe. I've only ever taught at two schools. I spent my first five years teaching in Nashville and the last 13 in my current school in beautiful Franklin, Tennessee. Can you guess what convinced me to change schools? If you are thinking all the storage and space, you are correct! I'm absolutely spoiled rotten, I'll be the first to admit. 

 Before I arrived at my school, this room was the school library. After a renovation, it became the most glorious art room with former bookshelves becoming wall to wall cabinets. Which I love...because, well, storage. BUT I'm not wild and crazy about wall to wall brown. For years I've tried to jazz up my cabinets: word walls cabinets; artwork displays; artist showcases; you name it, I've tried it. None of those things were something I could maintain because of my self-diagnosed ADHD and my self-diagnosed chronic laziness and, also, my self-diagnosed starter/not-finisher prognosis. I really should have been a doctor because it's obvious I'm good at diagnosing. But my handwriting was far too pretty so they kicked me out of med school. 

 Recently, on a trip to the craft store, I spotted a variety of letters and I got the idea to paint letters on my cabinets. If you've been following me since the beginning of the school year, than you know I'm on a redecorating kick with the idea to decorate to educate. 

 Evidence of my recent redecoratin'? Here you go:

* My Pencil Painted Cabinet

* My Roy G. Biv Paintbrush Wall

* My Tints and Shade Sign 

* My Color Family Crayons

* My Color Wheel Brushes

So when I settled on the idea, I searched the discount bins at the craft stores, always bought the ones on super sale and used my teacher discount...not too shabby when all was said and done. I didn't bother priming the letters because of my self-diagnosed battles with chronic laziness. I just lathered on the acrylic paint and they were fine.

I didn't want the letters to be too matchy-match but I didn't want them to look out of place either. So I decided to stick with the same color palette and just went with patterns for some and plain for the other.

I worked on these sporadically between a handful of other projects (ADHD, remember? You should see my house! It's a mess of "a handful of other projects"...starter, not a finisher, remember?!). Total, it probably took me 2 and a half weeks to get these complete. I used our school wide open house as my deadline.

These letters do make me so happy. Although now I kinda wanna take down what is above my cabinets. I have finds from other countries...but it currently looks like Cracker Barrel if Cracker Barrel was a World Market.

I really had a great time painting. I really helps me unwind to get my craft on and this was a fun outlet. 

How did I get them to stick to the cabinets, you ask? Hot glue. But that stays between us, okay? Command Strips woulda worked great...but I had hot glue on hand so...you know. I used it.

 I do need to update my wee hands as some of them are no longer accurate. Not to mention, those have bee up since I first started teaching at the school! Which means they're vintage and I could probably sell 'em on ebay.

The thing with redecorating and rearranging...once you start, you just can't quit. I have a dozen more projects I'm dreaming up. The fun never ends, does it?

 Thanks for letting me share this new project with you...they letters really make my cabinets so much happier.

 Mostly because I love all things brightly colored and patterned!

 

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Art Teacherin' 101: Episode 19

Last week, I discovered a little magical device that worked wonders with a chatty fourth grade class: this wee plastic sign from the Dollah-Make-You-Hollah Tree!

So, just how does it work? In short, I start off by placing it on the table of the hardest working group. Then I set my timer for seven minutes (because five minutes broke the class up too much) and when the timer went off, the Rock Star group chatted about who was the next set of Rock Stars. The wee sign was then passed to that table and Wash, Rinse, Repeat. Allow me to do a slightly better job explaining it to you here:

I'm REALLY BIG into putting the kids in charge of stuff like the Happy/Sad board (see below-below), the clean up signal, and, now, this. I could tell a big fat hairy fib and say that it's because I like putting ownership in the kids hands or instilling responsibility. I suppose that's a super sweet side effect but the fur realz reason is that 1. I'm Lazy and 2. I'm Crazy. I'd forget ALL of that stuff each and every art class if the kids weren't so stinkin' good at reminding me and keeping up with all of it. So there. Now you know the truth. 

In case you missed my Dollar Tree shopping spree finds, here you go! It truly is Art Teacherin' heaven, y'all. 

And in case you missed that bit about the happy/sad board...dudes. I love this thing. It's quick, it's easy and it's a visual for the kids. It's also great for when I have a sub as he/she can keep up with it as well. In my sub videos, you'll often see me chat about it as a reminder to the kids that I am watching. ALWAYS WATCHING...(something on Netflix). 

Because I did a lousy job explaining my table set up, here it 'tis. With my bigger glasses, we use every seat in the house except those end cap seats. That's where I like to plop down and check out the happenings. 

Now to figure out what to do with the rest of the little signs. I have a feeling this idea is going to progress so stay tuned. Love to hear your tips and tricks for management in the art room. We can all learn from each other! 

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