Your Decorating Hotline

Let’s change gears from all the articles on accessorizing this week. Another topic at the top of everyone’s mind in early September is ‘back-to-school’. For the many of you with school age children, you’re faced with the challenge of what to do with the prodigious amount of paper and projects the little darlings bring home from school. Yes, I too kept boxes of mementos and school papers, but they’re gone now. I sent them with the kids when they moved out - now it’s up to them to keep or toss.

ORGANIZING SCHOOL PAPERS

Please don’t feel you have to keep everything! Keep a representative handmade project or two and a few samples of exceptional or funny assignments. As soon as their little backs are turned, recycle the rest. Keep the assignments in folders by year and the projects boxed or in bins so they’re not cluttering up the house. If you have a computer, scan in the projects because they’ll preserve forever and who knows what creative use you’ll find for those literary gems in the future (maybe a scrapbook page or two for those avid scrapbook readers). Embrace the goal of keeping your home clutter-free.

DISPLAY KID’S ART

Every year we wonder how to display the creations of our budding artists. Magnets on the fridge? Taped to the bedroom wall? Frame one or two for the playroom? Here are a couple of creative ways to feature the art of your children.

Frame your kids' pictures and their art.

Jen Grant Morris came up with this great idea to display both a picture of her kids as well as their art. She scanned in art they created then standardized the sizes and laid them out in a grid using a computer art program and printed out the final picture.

The use of negative space in the pictures of the boys is especially appealing and gives the eye a little rest as it absorbs the busy art compositions. Frame them all in the same color frame for cohesiveness and you’re ready to go.

An ever-changing wall of kids' art.

Here’s another idea – kinda techy looking but very efficient. Using a contemporary drapery tension wire and metal clip hooks, the art can be changed on a whim. Kids have the instant gratification of having their creations on display and you have the control of keeping all the projects in one place. (from style-files)

This same idea could be accomplished with standard inexpensive cafe curtain rods (about $5) and using the drapery rings with hooks that come in 10-packs for about $7. Or use whatever look suits your decor (or the decor in your kids’ rooms).

Feel free to share this article with friends or family who are facing this dilemma. Have you come up with a unique way to display art by your kids? Tell us all about it.