This summer I was hired by a friend to help her create modern classroom decor and it was a fun challenge. She was really drawn to Scandinavian and farmhouse design, so we did a mixture of that style inside her classroom. I also got to design her hallway bulletin board. I used my Cricut Explore to cut out all the shapes from card stock and the names from vinyl. The background is a fabric from Hobby Lobby and the trim is actually gold streamers. We like to think outside the box haha.

To pull from the Scandinavian style, we used a lot of light raw wood. I edged out the white board with wood (inspired from this Fixer Upper classroom makeover) which was really easy to do. It’s a small thing, but makes an impact. It can always be stained or painted later very easily.

We stuck with black and gold for metal accessories in the room. This industrial curtain rod is from Target (it’s this one but in black, they aren’t showing it right now) and the curtains were some I had from our old house. I always keep certain household decor items around because you never know when they might come in handy.

I helped pick out the above accessories from a few places. The light and watering can are from Target, the letter board was from Amazon (but Hobby Lobby now carries them…hello 40% off coupon!), the plant stand is from Wayfair, and the plant is from Home Depot.

My friend really wanted a modern pegboard as well, so I made two small ones out of 2’x4′ piece of plywood (it was either 3/4″ thick or 1″). I thought it would be hard to make them, but once I drew out a template, it took hardly no time to drill holes and cut down dowels to fit. We placed these where a bulletin board used to be. To add another place to write things, we simply stuck a 2’x4′ chalkboard board from Home Depot in the middle. One of her friends did a great job doing the lettering on it. As the year goes on, she will be able to switch things around and add items as needed. The side pendants were another item someone had gifted me and they fit here perfectly. They were from a light kit from Ikea. The metal brackets they hang on are from Lowes.

The last bigger project I made was this cute little reading “house” simply made from 2″x2″‘s. I looked at a few similar tutorials online and tweaked it to fit what she needed. Most tutorials are for actual bed frames and we didn’t need all of that. I screwed all the pieces together so she can easily unscrew it all and remove it if she switches classrooms next year. The pillows and cushions are from Urban Outfitters.

I helped her pick out this rug from Urban Outfitters (even though we really wanted the sold out plus sign one since she loves math), but she also has brought in other things that show her style and things that are purposeful to her teaching. It’s all very organized and so inviting!

All of the kids who were around while we were putting it all together just loved her room! They all said it was their favorite and they didn’t want to leave it 🙂 I think a big part of that is her though, as she is so loving and kind to all the children she is around. I learned a lot from this experience and yet again, it gives me more understanding of a different career. It was a lot of work putting a classroom together from scratch and then to add all the lesson planning and everything else a teacher has to do is a lot. Thank you teachers for all the thought and preparation you do for teaching our kiddos. We will never even know the full extent of it, but us parents are so grateful. It makes a world of difference to us all. -jess

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