Our IKEA homeschool room is a simple, minimalist homeschool room. (Which is technically the back half corner of a larger room.) We’ve been simplifying our lives and enjoying the results, so we applied the same principles to this minimalist homeschool room of ours!
We also wanted to do as much as we could with things we already have on hand, which ended up being a lot of fun and making our homeschool room unique and personal. It ended up being a (mostly) IKEA homeschool room!
HOMESCHOOL DESK IDEAS
Area #1: Minimalist Double Desk
This is a bit of an IKEA homeschool desk hack, but involves very little work! (For the win!) We set a piece of laminated plywood on top of two IKEA Stuva bases we already owned. Then we spaced them slightly apart so that
- we could access the outlet behind the desks, and
- it would function like a no-man’s land between children.
This minimalist double desk “hack” ended up being about eight feet long, but we could easily customize it to be shorter or longer if needed.
frames | lamps | chairs | wastebasket | desk
We purposefully tried to keep these double desks minimal, with as little as possible on the surfaces, so that the girls could focus on the task at hand!
More bonuses to this IKEA homeschool desk situation:
- BUFFER: It’s brilliant to give a bit of buffer between children at desks. The extra space with the woven wastebasket between their homeschool desks serves as a clear delineation between each child’s space.
- XL SIZE: I also love how big this minimalist homeschool desk is because when the girls do art projects, they can spread out on such a larger surface than a standard desk. This surface works SO hard for us because the girls use it every day. (If not for school, then for their various crafts or pretend play!)
- FLEXIBLE: As they grow, we can easily build some larger legs to raise the desk as needed. Easy!
frames | lamps | chairs | wastebasket| desk
I also CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT these minimalist homeschool room touch lights. Honestly, especially for kids, they’re ideal. We’ve had several lamps knocked over in the past with little fingers fumbling for the switch, but these are SO easy to turn on because it’s just a simple touch.
They’re great for adults too, as Matt and I can attest because we’ve got another one on our office desk downstairs. Call us lazy, we don’t care—it’s great to just touch the lamp on/off!
(If you can find one of these in a color you like, snag it fast, because they often sell out! We only had the one in our office and I had to wait quite awhile before these white ones came back into stock, then I jumped on them like a velociraptor.)
HOMESCHOOL ROOM IDEAS
Idea: Simple DIY whiteboards!
This is one of my top homeschool room ideas! I use these DIY frames instead of chalkboards for our homeschool room—and THEY’RE FANTASTIC. Minimalist, beautiful, and budget-friendly.
Large dry erase boards are expensive. I had these three old poster frames in our garage to donate, but then genius struck last year when I started homeschooling.
We brought them inside, I flipped the posters around so only the white showed, et voilà! Three glass homeschool “whiteboards.” They work perfectly with dry erase markers. It’s been ideal to have a different board for each child, with one in the middle where we choose a different saying or verse each week. (My oldest chose the one shown here, and it was better than my original idea. Can’t complain about her wanting that one!)
I’ve written a post full of ideas for these, as well as exactly how I made mine! See it here!
frames | lamps | chairs | wastebasket | desk
I realize chalk paint, chalk boards, and chalk walls have been all the rage in past years, but I’m just gonna come right out and say it:
I don’t love chalkboards.
Personally, I find chalkboards harder to write on than whiteboards, so I definitely didn’t want them in our homeschool room. When I’m getting into a detailed drawing with my 6-year-old and need to be exact (because she’s one of those kids who likes exact details), I can’t draw or write in the detail I need to with chalk.
Chalk also can squeak, which makes my inner ear go “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeowwwwwwww!” (I’m an HSP.)
Chalk also gets messy. I let my kids play to their hearts’ content with chalk outside, but they somewhere get covered in it by the time they’re done. (Still don’t know how that happens.) I don’t need that inside. It’s all about keeping house cleanliness as low-maintenance as possible, especially because I’m a homeschooling mom who also has another job on top of my mom and housewife jobs. Low-maintenance interiors are becoming one of my favorite things!
So you can see why that’s one of my favorite homeschool room ideas to share!
HOMESCHOOL ROOM IDEAS
Area #2: Storage & Organization
You all know how much I love drawers (as evidenced elsewhere in our laundry room, mudroom entryway, and bathroom vanity), so the following photos of the other wall in our homeschool room shouldn’t surprise you. It’s The Drawer Lady’s dream.
This was the one big purchase we made from IKEA, because we didn’t have anything existing that we could finagle to do what we wanted it to do, which was
to hold a truckload of stuff.
We’re always trying to minimize and declutter, but children have some sort of magical pixie dust around their fingertips that causes paper and art projects to multiply like rabbits.
mirror| globe | similar caddy | basket | drawers
So this is what we went with, and it has been LIFESAVING! It’s actually a double set + a single set from one of IKEA’s furniture lines (links below photos!). We could have done two double sets of these drawers but 1) I liked the visually appealing number three and 2) I don’t want to own that much stuff!
What’s in all those IKEA drawers:
I won’t go into all the detail until another time, but for now I’ll summarize for ya. We use it for
- Homeschool supplies
- Art supplies
- Natural materials (sticks, rocks, acorns, shells, etc)
- Paper
- You name it.
mirror| globe | similar caddy | basket| drawers
Each child has her own drawer to keep in it whatever her little heart desires.
Our oldest’s IKEA homeschool drawer is bursting at the seams, but it’s been a great teaching opportunity when it’s full. I’ll sit down on the floor with her (in the middle of the dumped-drawer-hurricane-mess) to go through it with her and teach her how to sort, organize, and make the hard decisions about what to keep and what to let go. She’s full of ideas (NOTHING like her mother, right?). So, with my HSP heart feeling for her, I’ve been able to help her through that decision-making process as someone who’s had to work through the same things, and she’s expressed gratefulness that someone understands. Isn’t it crazy but wonderful how we can connect with our kids in the hard things? (Although I had to learn those lessons in my late 30s, so she’s already ahead of where I was. Praise Jesus.)
mirror| rattan basket | frame | chair | drawers | desk
Sidenote: I want to put a clock up there but until I find the right one, it’s a lovely round brass mirror for now (to give your eye a break from all the squares). And yes, while polished nickel has my heart forever ‘n ever, I do occasionally mix it up with brass. Just to keep everyone guessing.
MINIMALIST HOMESCHOOL room ideas
Area #3: Function (and more storage)
We used our 14-year-old file cabinets (which are heroically still holding up after all the moves) to house our homeschool printer and laminating machine.
I waffled about the laminating machine (wouldn’t it be unnecessary? expensive?), but I shouldn’t have. It was inexpensive and it’s been fantastic! From making reusable worksheets and labels, to DIY magnets and bookmarks to send to our sponsored kids, we’ve gotten more than our money’s worth out of this machine. It’s inexpensive yet has held up great. Super simple. And it doesn’t take up much space so I’m happy.
Saves me money and time with all those trips to the UPS store to have them laminate something for me. Which I used to do (face palm).
printer/copier | laminator | drawers
The printer is also a copier, which we use constantly. Such as when Child A has a certain worksheet and Child B wants the exact same one, so…hey, no problem! Again, saves me trips to the UPS store to make copies of that and so much more.
How did I ever live without a copier and laminator before? Oh yeah, I didn’t have kids.
printer/copier | laminator | globe | similar caddy| drawers
The locked drawers (which Matt added for me) are full of my “Teacher Mama” homeschool papers, plans, and ideas. Which is funny because I’m a more relaxed homeschooling mama, not following anyone else’s set plan, creating my own curriculum, going with what the girls are interested in and latching onto, etc. But I like having things organized so that when genius strikes me or the girls, I can find what we need.
HOMESCHOOL ROOM IDEAS
Final IKEA Homeschool Room Organization Ideas
I do have small white labels on each of the IKEA drawers, under the handles, so it’s clear what’s in what drawer. (Especially when it has the child’s name on it. They love having their own drawers.)
mirror| globe | similar caddy | basket| drawers
Shop the Post
Desks kept clear and simple so the kids can focus on what they’re doing, with as little distraction as possible.
basket | frame | chair | lamp | drawers | desk
Does it always look this clean? Nope! We live here! But every few weeks we have a clean-up, and THAT’S when I took these photos of our IKEA homeschool room. All the labeled storage, minimalist vibes, and simplicity makes clean up feel easier and easier every time!
mirror| globe | similar caddy | basket | frames | lamps | chairs | wastebasket| drawers | desk
Curious where we bought something in this post? Shop our House here!
Click below to see
- Our DIY white board hack!
- 5 brilliant kitchen organization ideas that make life easier!
- Our plans for the kids playhouse (all ages!)
- The kids bench & shoe storage area we created in our new mudroom (including IKEA hooks!)
- Why did we do choose white in this house? See our 7 Strategies for Choosing Interior Paint Colors.
PS: Every single one of our completed house projects can be viewed HERE!
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