One thing that I wish my house had was a mudroom. A spot to drop our coats, backpacks, and random stuff as we come inside from the garage. We also have multiple entries into the garage so we don’t always go past the front door on our way out.
Over the past few months, I have been trying to think of ways to create an area for Emmett to store his school backpack, coat, and also show his schedule for the week and display artwork.
As I searched for inspiration, I determined that the corner in our kitchen by the broom closet would be the perfect spot. It is somewhat hidden away, and we only use the area to get into the broom closet, and sometimes use the Dutch door during the summer (it is a second door out to the deck, normally we use the door by the dining table).
My goal with this preschooler command center was to make the area such that Emmett could use it himself. I put everything lower so that he can hang his own coat and backpack, check out his schedule for the week and swap out artwork that he brings home from school.
Decorative Command Hooks served as the ideal backpack and coat hook. I can easily adjust their height and spacing as needed once Anneliese has a backpack to hang as well. These hold 3lbs, so they work well for now, but we will need to use something stronger as he gets older.
I debated between a few different calendar options – velcro, magnetic, custom printed, horizontal, vertical, etc. In the end, I decided that this vertical week calendar was the ideal size and then made custom activity squares. Each square represents a common item of his week – school, speech therapy, swim lessons, and church. I also made some “special occasion” squares – an airplane and car for trips, different activities such as the zoo or farm, and of course a house with tools for the Home Depot kids DIY workshop.
The activity squares were all designed in Canva. After printing and cutting them out, I individually laminated the squares and added a circle magnet to the back. The “star” shape is to mark which day is “today”.
The final aspect of this command center was a spot to display Emmett’s artwork. Brad and I ended up DIY-ing the artwork display, and it only took a few minutes. We used some scrap wood that we had and cut it to 2″x24″. I bought these black clips and screwed them onto the wood, and then we screwed the display onto the wall. The wood we used is really hard (Brazilian Purple Heart), so Brad did pre-drill the holes before adding the screws. The clips also come in gold and silver, but I knew we already had black screws so I went with that.
Emmett was so excited when he first saw his new corner of the kitchen. Each morning we check out the calendar to talk about what is going on that day, and he enjoys changing out his artwork when it comes home from school.
