Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Pallet/Antique Art wall

I taught early childhood for 6 years.  I have come to understand the value of kids coming in with the fine motor skills and experience with art supples before starting school.  Imagine taking on a new job and being expected to type a report but you have never been by a key board before. That is how many kids are coming in to 4k/kindergarten....they are told to do various sheets/projects to show their learning, but they have never used the tools before.  This is often due to the mess potential of art supplies.

Though I don't love mess, I totally value giving my kids the experience with the tools necessary to become successful later in life.  So, emerges the kids art studio I have created in our kitchen.   Now, I love organization and things matching so that is how the specific art studio came to be!
Now I should preface in saying my house is almost completely decorated in pallet wood and thanks to my husband and father-in-law, they are all matching pieces.  So, naturally I needed to create an art wall that matched as well.

I started with purchasing a piece of peg board.  I then painted it antique white with Rust-oleum 2x ultra cover spray paint (I bought from local Menards, available on Amazon as well)








I then got some (free) pallet wood from my father-in-law and borrowed the stain he used on the other items in my house (also available on Amazon).








I cut the boards to be long on top and bottom and the cut the side boards to fit in between the long ones.

We then stapled the peg board to the frame (we didn't have screws short enough to go into the board but not through).  We went through the back side of the peg board into the not stained side of the pallet wood.

When we went to hang this on the wall, we discovered the pegs would not go through the board if it was flush to the wall.  So we took some 1x4 boards and screwed them into the back of the peg board and pallet wood. We then screwed through the whole front (pallet wood, peg board, 1x4) into the studs of our wall.  I hung some pegs on and some buckets I had from my classroom (Target Dollar Spot Fall 2015) with chalk board spots.  I wrote the names of the materials on it to help with the literacy connection as well.

I hung some extra pegs so I could put a whole punch through any and all of the kids birthday invites and such as well as some of their art on the board.  As they get older I'll add more supplies.

**If you see these green chalkboard buckets at your target or have some from previous years I would LOVE more matching ones!**

Now he can begin working with markers, paint, and crayons.  I have begun fixing the writing tools in his hand so he can begin a pinch grip.  It is adorable to see him pick up a writing tool and move it around his hand trying to figure out how to hold it (though he usually ends back up in the fist grip--we have time)

You can take the girl out of the classroom/teaching, but you cant take the teacher out of the girl!

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