Quick School Room Update

Well that’s something different, right? Today I wanted to share with you a project that started way back at the end of the summer. Our big kid’s school contacted me, not because she was in trouble but because they wanted my help with a room up at school. It serves as a computer lab but also as a thoroughfare for students, teachers and tours that are given to incoming parents during the school year. Now, before you click away, I used ideas in this large room, that you could use in your house. Don’t assume there won’t be anything for you here.

Ok, my idea was to warm up this space with some DIY curtains by the windows and then give the space a few pops with painted black accents and a great stencil design. Here’s what I showed them:

Curtain fabric / Rug (I have the same style/ different color, here) / Grey plant basket (similar) / Stencil / Hat wall

Pretty right? Black, white, wood and plants is a fail proof plan… For ANY space.

While I don’t have after shots of the room just yet, I can show you the before’s.

Just a big, blank canvas.

I’m not sure how realistic rugs are for a space like that but man, if I could put them there, they’d be there. Rugs are such a great way to break up large spaces but also a way to unite a room. This one is busy and dark and would hide lots of wear and tear.

To break up the long wall, I chose to paint a section near the clock, Sherwin Williams ‘Tricorn Black’. A sweet group of volunteers painted that section and a blank wall at the far end of the room.

I got this great world map stencil from Stencil Revolution. They have a great selection and provided the stencil for this project. There were many more I would have loved but this project happened to be at the top of my to-do list.

At first, it was going to go on a gray wall and be painted in black but I changed things up and used some painters tape to hang it on one of the black walls.

A quick wall makeover with stencilrevolution.com

I didn’t have a level up at school but I used the one on my phone to make sure it was straight on the wall. Then I used a foam roller left over from the freshly painted front door, to paint the continents.

I used older paint. That’s why you see the thicker parts on the roller. The stencil was heavy duty and nice to work with.

I didn’t worry about a second coat or that it was painted entirely even. I liked the idea of giving it a chalk on a chalkboard kind of look.

Whenever you’re painting over a stencil or painters tape, always make sure you start on the edge and push the paint into the center. This is instead of risking paint being pushed under the stencil or tape.

Before the paint even had time to dry, I removed the stencil. It looks so good! Clean, crisp lines and a good pop on the dark wall.

I warmed things up by hanging a basket. You can see my post on hanging non-wall stuff on the wall, here. And of course, adding plants.

This wall still needs a table, which is hard to find when you need one in giant scale. But I’m so happy with where it is so far.

I also DIY’d the curtain fabric because it wasn’t in the budget to buy it. This is what I originally envisioned:

Way back at the beginning of my blog I shared my cheap, easy curtain solution so I just went back to the basics and created my own via sheets and a sharpie.

I’ll share more details on the space and more details on these curtains someday. For now, let these two quick projects encourage you that making changes to a space don’t have to break the bank.