Dreamer.Thinker.Player.: The Ewert Art Center

The Ewert Art Center is what we have decided to call our new art area the we have built in our formal dinning room! We are all very excited about our new and better usage of space!!! This idea has evolved over the past year and thankfully. I have moved our arts and crafts supplies around to several areas in our house and not been happy with any. I personally like to paint and draw too, and I had no space to do so, so I haven't.

I am thankful for my mom's group for so many reasons, but one great part is just hearing what everyone says. I always listen closely because I always pick up tips and tricks! So, at a meeting last month, I threw out the question, "What is your morning routine with the kids?" I had so many great answers, but one stood out above the rest for me! She is a mom of 5 year old triplets and a 3 year old, so her advice always seems the most practical. I always get great tips from her! She said that her kids know that when they get up, they need to go to the bathroom, get dressed, then come to the kitchen for breakfast and then when everything is done they go to their art area and draw or practice writing until it is time for school. While her schedule sounded great, I got hung up on "art area". So I asked her about it and she told me that they decided to turn their formal dinning area into the kids art area. They bought a durable table and all sorts of organizational stuff. She said it is the perfect solution for them.

So I went home and dreamed of having our own art area...I knew converting our formal dinning would never happen....or could it? Our dinning room table and hutch is my Granny's I would be heart broken if anything happened to it. And I would never part with it. But the more I thought about it something kept pulling me back to the formal area...we NEVER use it, at least not in a practical or productive way. We eat at it maybe once a year. Why not try to use this area? So once Michael and I started talking about it and making plans, it all just started coming together!

We decided to get a protective padded table cloth and put that down over the custom pads that we already had. Since we now had 2 pads on the table, I knew we would need something hard to go over them now...So we went to Lowe's and found the most awesome thing - A dry erase board that was big enough to fit on the table!!!!!! We extended the table as big as it would go and then Michael cut the board to fit the table and TADA! - The Ewert Art Center was born!!!!

We have spent time at the table every day! We are enjoying it so much!!! I love having our designated space to do whatever we want! And we can leave our paintings to dry and not have to move them around the house to a safe place!

I am excited that the boys will now have a spot to do their homework! They will be right off the kitchen and next to the computer so it is a great central place for me to be around them too!!

And for the formal dinning part, we can just throw a pretty table cloth over it and we are back in business!!!

My little helper in the dinning room Before we transformed it!

Our first project before we completed the table! He painted his pumpkin red!

Michael just finished cutting the board and the boys are going to town coloring with dry erase markers! Ben LOVES drawing with the dry erase markers!

I gladly organized all our art supplies on a side table. We've got markers, crayons and colored pencils GALORE! It's so nice when it's all organized and right at your finger tips!