If you’ve been following along, you know that our classroom had a little summer makeover when I had to move it next door. I found moving a classroom much harder than setting it up in the first place, but it gave me a chance to give us a whole new look and get reorganized too. Here are a few tips if you’re moving an established classroom or setting up a new one too.
I browsed Pinterest, School Girl Style, Joann’s fabric, and the local teacher store for inspiration. I change our accessories (name tags, labels, hallway decor, calendar, etc.) every other year, but I needed something I absolutely loved for our main items because those will hopefully last for several years. I ended up finding fabric I loved in multicolored polka dots and then ran from there with matching paint and border.
I decided to do double borders like I saw on Schoolgirl Style. I bought four solid colors and two prints to mix and match. When it was time to put them up, I was having trouble getting everything perfectly lined up. The bottom solid border wasn’t on an edge so it wanted to slip around and wouldn’t stay straight. My husband was helping me and had his tool box, so he made a suggestion to try a chalk line. He snapped a straight edge and we used it to keep the bottom border straight. It was so much easier, but it was kind of messy. After that we switched to push pins and twine. We simply measured the set distance in a couple different places and stuck a push pin in. Then we ran twine from pin to pin, creating a perfect straight edge. After that things went much faster.
Next it was time to decorate the boards. I always struggle to get my letters and posters perfectly straight. Again, my husband’s tool box was the answer. We used blue painter tape to create a straight line and I was easily able to hang straight letters on top of it. As you can see from the picture above, I work from both ends and have my letters meet in the middle. This helps keep things centered.
Finally, it was time to move over some of the posters from my old room that I wanted to keep. I already had them perfect spaced out on my old boards so I didn’t want to have to do that work all over again. I used tape to hook the posters together before taking them off the wall. This way, I was able to tape them up on my new board in one piece and then work my way around with staples. This also works for laying things out on the floor where it’s easy to rearrange and play with your design. After you like it on the floor, tape it together and put it on the wall.
I plan to give you an updated tour of our entire room soon, but those are a few new tips that I hadn’t used when setting up my boards previously. I hope they help you out too. Do you have any practical tips to add?
Oh, and in case you missed it on Facebook, Laura Candler is having a H-U-G-E giveaway right now. There are over $2,000 prizes up for grabs so go get yourself signed up!
This post was so, so, so helpful! I'll be recruiting my hubs to come in my room this summer it looks like! 🙂
Lisa
Stories From Second
Did you paint your boards????
Yes! We can't use paper because of the fire marshal.
Looks great!
April
Wolfelicious
Love LOVE that fabric! 🙂 I can't wait to put it up in my room! I might have to copy you on that double-border! love it!
Nicole
Rowdy in Room 300
Your room looks terrific!
Yearn to Learn Blog
How fun!! Love the blue paint idea! But with my luck, I wouldn't even be able to do that straight!
This is wonderful! I am going to be a first year teacher this upcoming year, and I am stressing about my bulletin boards! I do not know what I am going to do about the windows and brick that cover the majority of my room. This has been VERY helpful! Thank you SO much! 🙂
msyoshida@yahoo.com
Great tips! Love your boards.
That fabric is so bright & colorful! I love it! Thanks for the painter's tape tip! I have plenty of that for my classroom & now I can use it for something else that's productive. 🙂 Thanks for sharing these great tips!
Lisa
Learning Is Something to Treasure
You can do it, ladies! Take pictures to share along the way. =)
Thank you so much for your helpful tips.! I just found your blog tonight. I love it. My K team is developing on the Learning Spot theme this year. Polka dots rock! Thanks again!
Hello, any chance you have the sku number or name of the fabric from joann's? Our local joann's doesn't have it, but I would be willing to drive for it since it would be perfect for my classroom. Thanks!
I know the feeling. I had to drive to three different stores to get enough of it! It's called Puppy Patch Multi Dots. Here is the link to their website page with it: http://www.joann.com/puppy-patch-multi-dots/zprd_11166865a/