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March 27, 2009
Create a craft area kids love
Rejuvenate a basement into a child-friendly and artistic space.
MICHELLE DODEK
My children love preschool. They like their friends and teachers and they adore doing crafts. We can't have the teachers over but the friends are always welcome. When we decided to renovate our house a couple of years ago, one of the priorities was to create a space in which our children could paint, glue and make innumerable bits of playdough and we wouldn't have to worry about the mess.
Our basement used to have carpet throughout, and negligible heating. Although 1970's decor features were not our style, it was the frigid, damp, mouldiness of the area that made us spend the time and money to gut the entire basement. We replaced the forced air heating system in the house with radiant heat, updated the wiring from top to bottom to make our house safe and, after replacing cedar paneling on the ceiling and walls in the basement with drywall, we put natural colour cork flooring throughout.
Cork floor was the key to the success of the area being an ideal space for a children's play area. Environmentally friendly, durable and warm, the flooring washes beautifully and withstands the abuse my children and their friends hurl at it. Our contractor tried to convince us that carpet was the way to go because of the expense of leveling the floor to accommodate the floor panels, but carpet is not kid friendly. Once the cork floor was installed, even the contractor agreed that it was a great idea.
Other design features that work for the kids include cabinets that store art supplies. We reused the kitchen cabinets that had been in the basement before the renovation when it was a suite and updated their look with a fun backsplash of tiles left over from other projects. The double sink is so handy for clean up after big craft projects. The cabinets are full of supplies for every project imaginable, and many that we have yet to discover. Lower cabinets have paper and other bits and bobs that the children can take out whenever they like, and the upper storage areas are perfect for paints, inks, glues and scissors that need supervision.
Instead of spending money on a new kiddie-sized table, I cut down the legs on an old Ikea kitchen table we had saved from our newlywed days and it became the perfect height for little ones. Perhaps in a few years I'll buy new legs at Ikea and restore the height when the children are older.
I also decided to create a display area for their masterpieces. A small CD rack that is intended to be hung vertically was put on the wall horizontally to display 3-D artwork (pottery, etc.) and strips of metal let magnets hold up an ever-changing gallery of other artwork. Still in progress is a project that will see old window frames from our house filled with thin sheet metal to add to the wall space available for displaying the art.
Many elements of the arts and crafts area are reused items that likely would have found themselves in a landfill. The table, cabinets and tiles suit us perfectly, as does the rickety clothes drying rack (which was barely sturdy enough for clothing) work for wet and glue-doused paper. Recycling the art that the children realize is no longer relevant is another way we try to instil environmentalism.
Having the space to paint and craft freely with easy clean up is an amazing addition to our home. The children know where to put everything away and are able to wipe all the surfaces with the satisfaction of returning the space to the way it was before their mess. With a display area close by, they feel excited about their work. We have visiting artists on display as well, as their friends are always welcome to express their creativity, too. Our arts and crafts area fits our lifestyle perfectly. It's the ideal space for the children and can still be reused as a suite 20 years from now when the kids grow up.
Michelle Dodek is a full-time mother of small children and her family's part-time handy-woman.
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