Ever since I began homeschooling Sadie, I always thought it would be cool to have a room solely dedicated for doing school. Did I feel like it was necessary? Absolutely not! We’ve done school at the kitchen table (and everywhere inbetween) and it works just fine. I thought it would be cool to have a room where all our things were accessible and there were no distractions.

We (sadly!) knew this could never happen at our house because it’s 900 square feet and every room is used up for sleeping or living. We’ve been so blessed that Jimmy is a co-owner of his family’s steel fabrication business. Their shop is located about 15 minutes from our house and just so happened to have an extra room in the office that was empty. I would often take Sadie there to do school just so we could get out of the house and see Jimmy.

Over the past few years, Jimmy and I started dreaming about renovating the room and we finally made it happen!

Before we can truly appreciate the room, I have to show you what it used to look like and all the work it took to make it look like it does now!

This is what we were working with! A big office space with beat up carpet, an old desk, and just an overflow of stuff. Thankfully we were able to clear it out (aside from that cubicle in the back which holds shirts they give to customers!).

Here’s what we did to renovate the room:

• Ripped up the carpet and painstakingly peeled all the glue off the concrete floor
• Sanded, polished, and sealed the original concrete floor
• Painted the walls and removed the blinds from the window
• Installed new baseboards
• Purchased new furniture

The flooring was by far the biggest challenge to take on but I’m so glad we did! The hardest part was getting that orange gunk (aka carpet glue) off the floor. Jimmy and I had a date night of just peeling glue with acetone, lol. It was so romantic 😉

After that, Jimmy rented a concrete polisher and really got the floors smooth. Then he coated and sealed them.

Once the floors were sealed, we could finally move on to more fun things like baseboards, paint, and furniture! This was where I got to make more decisions as far as design. I wanted the space to feel calm. We went with the paint colors “repose gray” and “riverway” by Sherwin-Williams paint.

I wanted a lot of natural-feeling touches in the room like plants and wood, so we went with as much wood in the furniture and accessories as we could and also added in some greenery. Honestly, we plan to add more plants in because they make us so happy!

The desk, rug, pegboard above it, pegboard accessories, shelf, play mat, and plants are from IKEA! We have an IKEA pretty close to our house and just love how afforadable it is. We even found those desk drawers in a color that almost perfectly matched the accent wall paint color.

The chairs, whiteboard, and mirror are all from Amazon. The garbage can is from HomeGoods and the huge beanbag (Sadie’s favorite thing in the room!) is from Lovesac.

I had so much fun figuring out where to store everything and how to organize it. Honestly, the biggest consideration was making space for Mordecai to play. We stocked shelves with baskets of old toys, crayons, coloring books, and snacks and bought that blue play mat for him to romp around. Basically: it’s hard to teach older kids with little ones around unless they’re occupied 😜

We decided to keep the final reveal of the room a surprise for Sadie, which was even more fun! I brought the kids down to the room for the first time today and it was so sweet! Sadie made a beeline straight for that beanbag!

I was curious if Sadie would be able to focus on the first day in the room, and she did a great job! I think she liked having a dedicated space without the usual distractions of home.

And lest you think the room stayed perfectly neat… here’s what it looked like about halfway through our school time!

One of the biggest blessings of having this space at Jimmy’s work is that we get to see him during his workday! Sadie and Mordecai would never have that opportunity if they were schooled in a more traditional way. Along with seeing Jimmy, they also see their grandpa, aunt, and uncle every time we’re there. How cool is that?!

It was great to see this project come to fruition! I feel wildly blessed that we are able to use this space, that Jimmy put in the work to make it happen, and that we’re able to go on this journey of homeschooling our kids!