A one-room schoolhouse...under the stairs!!

I either have a future fashion stylist, business woman, or teacher on my hands. My little girl seems to flip flop between the three career choices...so being a being a good mama, I try to "support" her in each of the roles. She loves clothes, jewellry, and most of all shoes, so to humour her in that regard, I dutifully buy her pretty clothes, take her to ladies shoe stores to try on "grown-up" shoes, and most of all smile at her attempts to be more stylish than me, which isn't difficult given the lack of trendy style choices in my wardrobe.

She has also recently taken a shine to the white marker board in our office and will often entertain herself while her daddy is working, by drawing pictures and doing sums on the board. The other day, my husband announced that we should bring this board upstairs in order for her to have easier access to it. I casually agreed and thought no more of it until later that day.

I was spring cleaning our finished basement which includes the family room, boys' bedrooms, and bathroom. It also includes, however, a little "room under the stairs" which we had, up until then. simply filled with an overflow of toys and blankets. As I mucked it out, a lightbulb went off and I realized that it would be the perfect spot for a school room/office to foster her teaching/business skills! We had outfitted the space with a wall light and fully finished it with carpet and paint, so it was literally a blank canvas awaiting inspiration.

In my previous homes, we have always finished the space underneath the main stairs as a playhouse for the kids. We simply dry-walled the nook, after framing a child-sized doorway and window (no glass) for it. We always added a covered light, carpeted the area, and furnished it with either their toy work bench or kitchen and a mini chair or two. It also provided the perfect spot for hide-and-seek, puppet shows, or simply a cozy place to snuggle up and "read" a book. In this house, we kept it simpler; and decided to either create built-in shelving or store things like our vacuum or fold-up cot for little overnight friends. Up until Friday, however, it was simply a dumping ground for the miscellany of our lives!

Keeping with my decorating for free theme, I poked around in our basement storage area and found some things to use to create the little school room: I hung up her beloved whiteboard, added a little table to hold her collection of stamps, stamp pads, envelopes, calculator and other teacher/office needs. I hauled in the school desk that was cluttering up her brother's room, and threw a yellow sheet over the box that holds my wedding dress - creating the perfect ledge for an abacus, basket of funky coloured pencils, and the like. I tacked up some of her artwork, and hung a curtain on a shower rod to allow her "privacy" and to hide the space when needed. I surprised her with the little room after school and with delight, she hurriedly invited a little friend over to be her pupil. Simple... easy... and it used up some "junk" that had been cluttering up our basement - junk that we weren't quite ready to get rid of just yet.

What about you? Do you have a little nook you can repurpose to inspire creativity in your little ones?

*************************************************

disclaimer: I actually don't give a hoot what my sweet daughter does when she grows up, providing she lives a happy life, is in a role that fulfills her, and...as long as she lives near me!!