Our Creation Station Maker Space for Elementary Kids

We have a wonderful finished attic space in our home that we used for several years as a Montessori homeschool preschool room. Now that the girls are older, we decided to turn it into a maker space that we call “The Creation Station” as a Christmas surprise for them! We were able to re-use many of our former homeschooling supplies like the shelves, art supplies, and most of the bits and pieces found in the containers in the crafting station. Transforming this room was a labor of love, and I’m so excited to give you all a closer look!

We’ll start with the art section, which is full of the girls’ favorite art supplies — including a “Paint Me” wall! Yes, we’re letting them use these paints right on the wall. If we ever move or want to repurpose this space, we’ll just paint over it! Here’s what else is on the art shelves:

An Echo Dot Kids named Ziggy for playing music, telling jokes, and an intercom system so I don’t have to climb two sets of stairs just to ask them a question
Sketching paper, construction paper, watercolor paper, and felt in paper organizers
Origami paper
A large bin full of scraps of all the paper
Blank books
A hole puncher
Stencils
Several empty vases for filling with water while painting
Markers, colored pencils, and regular pencils
Stamps and ink pads
A giant organizing tray filled with tape, scissors, pencil sharpeners, erasers, glue sticks, Elmer’s glue, paintbrushes, paint palettes, and watercolor pencils
Playdoh and accessories
Model magic, Sculpey, and sculpting tools
Kinetic sand
Watercolors
Washcloths for painting
The paints for the wall

Again, most of this was stuff we already had! I only purchased the paper organizer, the organizing tray, the Echo Dot, and the wall paints.

Then we have a potion making station which also includes the water source for the room, used for painting and making potions! Here’s what’s on this shelf:

I’m excited to see what the girls make with this stuff!

Then we have the crafting/sewing shelves, filled with various bits and pieces that we’ve used over the years in transfer works! Most of the containers are re-used from our homeschooling days, although a few pieces are new from Ikea. Here are some of the things on this shelf:

Sorting trays for the girls to collect bits and pieces in to bring to the table (built by my husband)
Large pom poms and mini pom-poms
Various types of beads
Crafting jewels
A touch-on lamp
A large sorting box, filled with things like jingle bells, paper clips, safety pins, brads, binder clips, cut up pipe cleaners, cut up straws, googly eyes, ribbons, other types of beads, etc.
A sewing box, filled with pins, fabric scissors, elastic, embroidery hoops, etc.
Various jars filled with pony beads, wooden balls, wooden beads, mini rubber duckies, etc.
A jar filled with Elmer’s glue
Washi tape, marbles, seashells, twine
A tray with materials for threading a needle
Fabric scraps and embroidery floss
Rocks and feathers
Dominoes, foam cubes, jar lids, and pipe cleaners
Old clothes to be repurposed by sewing into something else
A sewing machine (not pictured)

When the girls finish special projects, there are some shelves on the wall that serve as a Museum space for displaying their creations. This space was pretty much unusable because that’s where the radiator is, so we went with shelves that floated so the radiator would remain clear.

Next there’s a warm glue gun station with glitter glue, some drying racks for wet art projects, and a reading nook.

Then there’s a Nugget play couch for relaxing or building forts! I was originally going to buy a futon for this space so it could double as a guest room, but the Nugget is just as comfortable for sleeping and can also be used for other things, so we went with that. The girls are already planning their next sister sleepover for up there!

My favorite part is the cardboard construction zone! This section is mainly full of recyclables that we’ve been stockpiling for the girls to build with, including:

Giant bins to hold packing peanuts, toilet paper rolls, and empty tissue boxes
Cardboard boxes broken down to lay flat
A MakeDo tool set for building with cardboard
Colored masking tape
Flags
Dot stickers
An old school label maker
Bins of cardboard canisters, fruit baskets, and egg cartons

Last but not least, we have some of the materials that used to be on our homeschool preschool shelves that the girls still enjoy working with, like:

Rock digging and rock cleaning
Geoboard, symmetry drawing board, wooden spirograph, and fraction circle by Mirus Toys
Handbells and Felt Music Notation work
Constellation building material from Geodessee Toys
Miniature Christmas village

When we first decided to transform this room for Christmas, we put a sign on the door warning the kids not to come in while we were “cleaning” it. Then we wrote some scavenger hunt clues to lead them up here on Christmas morning!