Decorating a Small Classroom on a Small Budget

I've shared several of my small-room solutions and class decorations (here and here), as well as my new bee carpet (which I loved). One thing I didn't LOVVEEE about that carpet was the amount of dirt that was tracked onto it every day, and how the yellow of the carpet showed every little bit of dirt. I even rented a carpet cleaner after one quarter ... but it didn't do much for the look of the carpet. {Anndddd... I might have blown a fuse on that side of the room, rendering the outlets on that side useless for the rest of the year. Ahem.} 

This was when I first got the carpet ... {sniff, sniff}

After watching my precious bee carpet get dirtier and dirtier, I decided I needed to move it to a not-as-high-traffic area and replace our primary lesson carpet. Naturally, I turned to the bajillion Pinterest photographs of classrooms {and got SUPER overwhelmed ... #amIright?!} ... I decided I really wanted to tone down the "THIS IS A KID ROOM!!!" vibe and make my classroom feel more like my home {I'm there more than I'm at my own house ... #againamIright?!}. 

My inspirations were classrooms like Reagan's {click on picture to see more}  ...

... and these images ... 

 

Then, I found this rug on overstock.com {OY! I got it on sale, but I'm going to have to make it up elsewhere ...}. I loved how this rug had the yellow and blue from my bee rug, but pulled in the red from my desks. Plus, it didn't look so much like I bought it SOLELY for a classroom.

I also fell into deep, deep love with the work of Stephanie Ryan, a beautiful watercolor artist whose work I bought for my moms {my mom and mothers-in-law!} for Mother's Day. I decided  I could use the combination of the rug, the inspiration pictures and Stephanie Ryan's work as the "base" for my classroom decor. 

 

So I headed off to JoAnn Fabrics, which, can I just say --- totally overwhelming. Way too much stuff. I knew I wanted to pull the colors from the above pictures, but use a variety of patterns and textures so it had depth. {HAHAHAHAHA I'm channeling some HGTV here, can you tell?!}

I wandered around, pulling up these pictures on my phone, hoping I could find something that would work. Finally I settled on these three as a beginning {LOVE that gold polka dot burlap...}

One of the things I knew I needed to do was take care of some of the various pillows I have in the reading nook - they were cute, but didn't go with the whole color palette I have going on. So I headed up to my closest thrift store and bought some $2 pillows. I didn't care how they looked, I just needed cheap filling. 

I placed each of the pillows on top of the inside-out fabric and pinned it on three sides -- 

 

Then I pulled the pillow out, and popped it in the washer/dryer to get the cooties out, while I sewed three sides. {Oh! I should also mention that I used the gold polka dot burlap on the front-only for the pillows, mainly because it was $12.99 a yard. This budget only allowed for 1/2 a yard of that adorable-ness, so I bought some cheap-o $3/yd. brown cotton quilting fabric for the back. 

When the pillows were dry I flipped the sewed fabric right-side out (so now the seams are on the inside), put the pillow back in, and sewed up the one side I hadn't done before. Bam! Adorable pillows that I love! 

Here's what I have so far --- Cici approved, of course ... (there are some other fun things happening there too ... can't wait to share)! 

Check back later for two of the fun projects I made with these Hobby Lobby supplies ... !

See y'all soon ...