How to Create a Small Art Station for Kids

Help your kids be creative, develop their skills, and maybe save some boredom by setting up an art station for them at home. 

If you have young kids at home, you probably know how important it is to have ‘activities at the ready’ for them to do at home. This will not only help cut out some boredom (supposedly) but it will also help them be creative and develop their skills and little muscles. I keep both art and craft supplies in reach so we could do activities together or that the kids can reach without monitoring.

As an added bonus, all the art will be contained in one ‘organized’ system and hopefully, would not end up in various corners of the home. If things get out of place, the kids will have a dedicated area to put them back.

This small art station is set up close to the breakfast table where the kids love to sit and do art and crafts. Most of their art books and tools are in here except for the paint. I have a bin of kid-friendly paint stuff that I bring out when they paint. And they LOVE to paint. Although I try to be careful, paint still ends up in unwanted places sometimes (small kids). There are times when I desire a whole art room for painting with no worries about paint splattering on the floor or getting everywhere. You know – just go ‘wild’ with the imagination and paint away to your little heart’s desire. But it’s not our reality – no such room here. Meanwhile, this small art center has been a great place for them to get creative otherwise (drawing, coloring, stamping, sticker-ing, etc).

How to create an art station for kids

• Gather materials – coloring books, drawing books, pencils, crayons, stickers, stamp and stamp pads, etc.
• Get an organizing system – this could be a small 3 to 4 plastic drawer organizer, baskets placed on lower shelving, a set of cube organizers, a small cart, or even a small dresser, and things of that nature.
• Organize them – Organize all the art items in a way that the kids could find them when they need them. It does not have to be complicated.

Here’s a peek into our system with an explanation of what is in each drawer. You won’t see all of it because they are stacked to get them all to fit. But I do love how neat this little table keeps everything next to the breakfast area (still working on the breakfast nook post).

Top drawer: This top drawer has some coloring books, sticker books, and small journal type notebooks. Not all their coloring books will fit in the drawer so some of them are on the top (seen here). We have already went through and selected the ones they use frequently to keep in the drawer and put away the others they’ve used up or not using on a bookshelf. Once they’ve used up what is in this drawer, we move them out and refill it with another set.

The second drawer: It contains drawing books and some of their art work. We have another bin they can drop their already done loose art papers in – to cut down on the clutter.

Note: We try to go through the LOADS of paper and do a weekly clean up. We file the ones they want to keep and throw away the others.

Bin: Since the desk only has 2 drawers, I created a third bin with this crate for the necessary coloring, drawing, and art tools. This bin currently holds things such as pencils and colored pencils, markers, glue, kid-friendly scissors, stamps, chalk, etc. and glitter. You gotta have glitter! Although this may not be the best place for glitter since a certain little person likes to get into it.

As you can see, our system is not a complicated one by any means. It is a simple and kid-friendly way to keep all the kids art (except paint) activity materials in one place and in easy reach for when they need them (don’t forget the crayons).

As far as the rest of the craft items, I am keeping them in kitchen cabinet drawers. We don’t have a craft room set up – just a few tiny cupboards. You can see the way I set up our craft space in our previous home. All the art stuff was in there too. Our laundry room had some opened shelving that I thought were a perfect place to keep the craft stuff. Catch the full post here.

What do you think of this little art station? Do you have a set-up in your home for younger kids? I’d love to hear about it.