My kids love to get creative and I love having supplies on hand for those moments when their imaginations kick into high gear. With all 3 out of school for a couple months, a little creative quiet time is a nice addition to the go go go schedule of summer. Over my blog life, I’ve shared variations of organized children’s art supplies. Many times my systems have involved keeping the supplies tightly contained and highly monitored. But thankfully, my 3 are old enough now that I can set up a station like this and not worry about cut hair or colored walls. 😉

I was also desperate for a system that looked nice and didn’t scream “kids art supplies riiiiiiight here!”. Why? Because our playroom, where the supplies live, is in a main walk-through area of the house. We come and go through the white door you see…

That white door leads to the laundry room and out to the garage…

For an organizer-eye like mine, I love to walk into the house and see a tidy, pretty space. My most recent piece for keeping the supplies organized was this bookshelf, which was actually on its way out of the house 2 weeks ago and made a pit stop here…

It was previously in my daughter’s closet but since I added a couple bookshelves in her closet system, there was no need for this piece. On the way out of the house, I thought keeping it until I found something better for the art stuff would be good. And it did its job well for the last 2 weeks…

With the open shelving to the right, there wasn’t a need for something this large. As I shopped over the last few weeks I kept my eye open for something functional yet pretty. Something I wouldn’t mind seeing tucked in this corner. I found just the piece last week at Marshall’s. (They aren’t paying me to talk about this, by the way!) You guys may not believe this, but I had never been inside a Marshall’s before. I love that store! They have a huge section of organization products that won me over. *insert heart eyes*

A friend of mine suggested I go because she found brand name children’s swim goggles for $5 each. If you have kids, you understand the plight of moms everywhere paying way too much money for goggles only to have them lost within days of pool season beginning. After her suggestion, I rushed out to our local store to see if they had any in stock. They did…and they also had this!…

 

I knew this would be perfect for our art supply because I had a general idea of what the contents would be. And I love the baskets and wood frame. It’s very *me*…

I combed through our entire collection of supplies, including the supplies that came home at the end of the school year…

I grabbed a few inexpensive items to contain the supplies within the baskets…like these $1.50 bins from The Container Store…

 

And these cute tins from the Target $1 spot…

As you can see, it’s pretty and colorful too! In the tins up top I sorted washable markers, twistable crayons, coloring pencils and regular pencils. In the 2nd basket I contained crayons and another small $1 container from Target holds erasers, scissors and tape…

Bottom basket contains coloring books…

I love this!…

 

Tucks so nicely into the corner, and looks pretty to my eye while still containing a lot of fun. You’ll notice the shelving to the right is holding a few extras…

The 3 magazine files (also from the Target $1 spot – a purchase made a few years ago) are holding color card stock and construction papers. The small stack sitting next to the files is pads of blank paper…

And a battery operated pencil sharpener…

On the shelf below I have workbooks and a chalk set my 10 year old has been enjoying…

 

As you can imagine, I could barely finish setting this up for the photo session for the blog…the kids were literally behind me waiting to pounce and get creative! Can’t say I blame them!…

 

 

I love passing through to see this clean and tidy area too…

 

Before…

After…

In love!…

This shelf reminds me of something you’d find at Pottery Barn. Don’t forget you don’t have to shop in expensive stores…check out your local discount stores like Home Goods, TJ Maxx or Marshall’s for a great price on great organization products! Also, I know when the kids aren’t using this piece anymore *sniff sniff* I’ll easily find another use for it.

Go organize something and have a great day / weekend you guys!