Making Room For Art

"Look Mom! I'm arting!"

The word "arting," coined six years ago by a 2-year-old Jackson, has remained within our family ever since.

Jackson is a hands-on kid, drawing and making things daily. When he heard that cartoonist Bill Watterson refused to license Calvin & Hobbes toys, he begged me to sew some for him. I tried to let him down gently: craft-challenged Mom can't sew and knows nothing about doll-making. He went ahead and drew his own Calvin & Hobbes paper dolls and played with those instead.

Our home is littered in the most beautiful way with paper versions of his favorite characters, from Sylvester to Mario Brothers to 101 Dalmatians. Cardboard boxes become transmogrifiers (Calvin and Hobbes' imaginary transformative device) or diesel locomotives.

Despite our appreciation for a house packed with creativity, those masterpieces often overflowed into our centrally located dining room. When I moved my home office from the small room next to the dining room, my husband Dan and I debated what to do with the old space. Dan envisioned a quiet space for reading, but I wanted to centralize all the kids' arting. Since we already used the living room for reading, the arting room idea won.

Between school art projects, art classes, and homemade creations, the boys had plenty to display on the walls and excitedly chose which ones to exhibit. Thrilled by any excuse to visit our local IKEA, my mother-in-law and I leapt into the minivan like a couple of credit card-wielding superheroes. Our mission: acquire a table with an easily cleaned surface and adjustable legs to grow with the kids, easily accomplished after a pause for quiche and spinach salad in the IKEA cafeteria.

I'd like to say the arting room came together seamlessly, with "after" photos worthy of a magazine spread, but it took time and tweaking to learn how the boys would use the space and what kind of storage we needed. Even then, half the time it looks like an art supply store exploded in there. But while everyone still gathers around the dining room table, now there's actually room to eat.