an organized art station for preschoolers

After finally getting a proper art station set up in our old apartment, we moved to a new house last November. Ever since then I've been dying to set up a "new and improved" art station for the girls in the basement (which basically is functioning as the playroom now) and just haven't had the time. Well, the project is finally done and I couldn't be happier- not only is it set up again but I've made some small changes to make it even better, I think, for the girls now that they're older. Presenting: the new and improved art station for my little preschoolers! :)

Can you tell I am in full nesting mode this summer? After moving into our new house last November, I didn't really have the time to invest in organizing and settling into the new place until school was out. All of the projects that have been on my list for months are finally getting done and it's awesome!

So first let me remind you of what the previous art station looked like:

(you can click on the picture above to read my post on the previous setup)

Basically I had most of the basic drawing supplies (crayons, pencils, markers etc) in these containers hung on this rail system from IKEA, with the rest of the supplies (paper, coloring books, other craft supplies) in the tub under the table. 

Now here is the art station in our new house:

Many things are similar, but I've made several changes as well.

First of all, I still love the containers and rail system that I used before, so I bought some more. Now that the girls are taller, it's nice that they can reach further up reasonably well so that I have more hanging room! :) I previously bought only white, so this time I bought a few in some different colors. Although the colors aren't my favorites, I do like having some more color to brighten things up a little. 

I also added some of these letter holders to keep paper in. That tub under the table was just a pain and I'm glad to be rid of it!

I also moved some of the other less-used craft items that were previously in the tub to some other storage in the basement- but that is another post for another time ;)

The biggest change, and the one I'm most excited about, is the larger hanging container. It is actually supposed to be a pull-out drawer of some kind, but I found it on clearance next to the other small containers and rail systems so I grabbed it. With a few S-hooks you can hang pretty much anything from the rails, so this fits in just fine!

I added this larger container specifically to hold stationery. The girls have really been enjoying writing letters and cards to send in the mail, and I actually had quite a stash of stationery sets from my middle and high school days. I also ended up stashing their sticker books in the same bin since they fit better there. The girls were the most excited about this new container too, and they immediately made some cards to send off in the mail as soon as they saw it :)

The whole goal behind any children's supply organization project, whether it's at school or at home, is to make it a) easily and safely accessible for the kids that are supposed to be using, b) organized in a system that is easy for the kids to maintain themselves, and c) visually appealing. I'm happy with how well this system meets those goals!

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