Whether your children are in daycare, homeschooled, or traditional school, they will come home with art. Some of it will impress you and be pieces you cherish and others you will attempt to discard in the garbage like a ninja in the quiet of the night. There are various ways to preserve the artwork long term, but there is also the short term.
The refrigerator may be the traditional space used to display artwork but if you have more than one child this space quickly becomes overcrowded. If you are part of the population that is obsessed with Pinterest, than you might be considering an art wall. Personally, I prefer the concept of an Art Wall. The concept? Simply stated: it offers a space for the artwork to rotate.
Since both of my children attend daycare, we are inundated with pieces of paper. I feel like each child is responsible for the death of one tree in the past 12 months. Each day is a new creation which range from noodles making the shape of a letter to handprints making the shape of an animal. The art wall option is great because not only will it enable you to display multiple pieces simultaneously, it confines the space where the artwork is permitted so it forces you to let go of pieces when there is no more room.
What to display and what not? But with an art wall you can rotate out older pieces.
First, you need to consider the space. Where in your home do you have room to display the artwork? We are attempting to declutter our fridge so that it only contains relevant and important information for the week so the fridge is now evicting the artwork. We chose to place the artwork in our living room in a space dedicated for the children as we do not have a playroom for them.
How to the Make Art Wall
My husband purchased wood (2 x 8) from Home Depot. The length of the wood was cut to the length of the bookcase which determined the children’s space.
It was stained an espresso stain to match the same bookcase but you can pick a light color stain to highlight the grain of the wood.
Later, we used Gorilla Glue to adhere the Bulls Eye Clips.
Two boards containing four clips each were created and then hung on the wall.
As another option, we could have used metal wires which would permit more pieces to be displayed. You could also just use a wire set that adheres directly to the wall to hang the artwork, bulletin board, corkboard, and more.
The art wall Jessica has in her home has a similar design element using clothes pins. She used letters spelling out ART above her display. The letters were covered using scrapbook paper. She bought the wood, painted it black, and then glued on the small clothes line pins. Jessica made the top board for her younger son and bottom board for her older son. This way each child has their own space.
Your children relish what they create. It may not involve the highest level of artistic talent, but it represents their world at the time. It demonstrates skills they are acquiring such as developing fine motor skills, creativity and imagination. When you display that art, you are telling them that you believe in them and are proud of their abilities. So, as much as I hate that letter made out of noodles, it will stay on my wall (until I get the metallic Rainbow fish to replace it)!
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