Our Art Environment Reorganization

I am constantly trying to maximize the usability of the kids' environments, whether it is rearranging furniture and toys in the living room, moving toys back and forth between the living room and family room, or simply reorganizing where the toys go.  After Christmas, we got a toy shelf for my older son's room, moved some of his more advanced toys up there, and resorted the toys downstairs.  I had reservations about putting toys in his room, but we were over crowded and under-organized downstairs. I also added picture/word labels to the bins and boxes so that it was clear what went where.  So far, this reorganization worked pretty well, but my biggest issue wasn't solved because my biggest issue was the case of the exploding art supplies.

My husband thought that I needed to just put all the art supplies somewhere else, like in a closet or the laundry room or something, but I argued that I wanted them accessible so that we could do art at a moment's notice, when inspiration hit.  We settled on an annex for some of the art supplies and recycling materials that I was saving "just in case".  So, now there is an exploding shelving unit in the laundry room, which still isn't ideal, but did help with the living room clutter.  There was also the issue that our common art supplies (markers, crayons, scissors, etc.) were in assorted containers on top of my sewing cabinet and they needed to be moved every time I wanted to sew, and of course this would mean that the art supplies were displaced for a week or so when I was working on a sewing project.

Then it dawned on me that since we started eating in the dining room rather than the kitchen, we weren't using the kitchen table for anything (except a catchall for random crap).  And the kids' easel was attached to our learning tower (which lived in the kitchen), and there was the sliding glass door for another painting/window crayon area.  Another bonus was that I just moved the kid's play kitchen set into the kitchen behind the island (where the kitchen table is), so if my younger son got bored with a project, he could play there until my older son was finished.

So after finding some inspiration from various preschool settings and the Play At Home Mom website, I bought some inexpensive planters and a paper sorter from Target and attached them to the wall next to the kitchen bookshelf and cart, cleared a spot for the art basket in the bookshelf, and pooled all the crayons and sorted by color in baby food jars, which I put in a shoebox for easy moving.  I also moved the coca-cola cooler that housed art supplies into the area.

 So, now the kids have easy access to their markers, crayons, and paper, AND the paintbrushes and paint are now near the easel.

So far, they love being able to grab their own paper and draw whenever they want.

However, the one drawback is that paint is more accessible, which leads to more mess...but it IS a ton of fun.

For a quick rundown of what we have available:
Left planter - paintbrushes of all shapes and sizes
Right planter - markers
Paper holder - paper of various colors, stencils
Animal Crackers container on floor - washable paint (there is another animal crackers container in the laundry room with acrylic paints)
Basket on Shelf - tape dispenser, scissors, dinosaur stamp set, box of window crayons and markers, pencils, glue bottles, colored sand in baby food jars, roll of easel paper
Coke Cooler in front of kitchen cart - various supplies such as feathers, yarn pieces, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, magnet strips, newspaper
Easel - paint pots, container of chalk
Table - shoe box of crayons sorted by color in baby food jars, some separate type crayons
Shelves in laundry room - boxes, baby food jars, yogurt cups (great for holding glue or paint), acrylic paints, paper plates, art flour, art salt, art cornstarch, sand, bulk glue for refills, etc.