Tips for Creating a Dual-Purpose Dining Room and Homeschool Classroom

No need to completely give up your kitchen or dining room table for homeschooling. We’ve got organizing tricks that can take your space from classroom to dining room and back again in just a matter of minutes.

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August 26, 2020

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Photo By: Tomas Espinoza Photography

Classroom by Day, Dining Room by Night

Creating an at-home classroom is a must for a lot of families right now, but not everyone has a spare room that they can give up five days a week. See how we’ve created a makeshift classroom that can be adapted to most kitchen and dining spaces. Best of all, it can easily be put away at the end of the day, so families still have a place to eat without being surrounded by school supplies.

Watch the Video: Dining Room Classroom

Swap Dishware for School Supplies

If your dining space has a hutch or sideboard full of rarely used serving ware (read: turkey platters and holiday dishes), move those pieces elsewhere and replace them with school supplies. Here, we color-coded each kid’s supplies to make it simple and easy for them to stay organized and on task.

Under-Chair Storage

When transitioning from school time to mealtime, this simple but effective trick makes it easy to quickly clear off the table. Just add wire baskets (these were about $8 each) to the chair legs using string. We also attached rubber bands underneath the strings to prevent the string and baskets from sliding down.

Add Name Tags to Baskets

Go the extra organized mile and add name tags to the under-chair baskets so each child has their own designated space to minimize confusion and clutter.

Hide a Chalkboard Decal Behind Art

To create a message board, temporarily stash your artwork (we rested ours on the floor behind the buffet) and put a chalkboard decal in its place. If you cut the decal slightly smaller than the artwork, then you can easily hang your artwork back up whenever you want your dining room to look less like a classroom.

Use the Chalkboard for Daily Reminders

The oversized chalkboard decal makes for an easy-to-see space where reminders and schedules can be displayed for everyone in the family. Plus, this decal is much less expensive (about $15) than a traditional wall-mounted version.

See More Photos: Our Top Chalkboard Paint Ideas

Create a Cozy Reading Nook

For young readers, create a comfy reading space using stuff you already have around your house. A beanbag or stack of pillows for seating, a reading light, noise-canceling headphones and a timer for tracking required reading time is all you need.

Make a Mobile Printing Cart

A low-cost wheeled cart (about $66) isn’t just a fantastic place to store supplies, it can also serve as a mobile print station that can be easily wheeled out of the room when you want your dining room back. Just set the printer on top of the cart and attach a power strip so powering up and printing is as easy as ABC!

Create a Supply Centerpiece

Instead of flowers or dishes filling the center of your dining table, reimagine a serving piece (we used a tiered cupcake stand) as a supply centerpiece. This one is filled with school supplies that are in easy reach of the kids. We used poster tack to secure the cups to each tier.

Watch the Video: Dollar Store Classroom