Needing some homeschool room ideas for small spaces? Here I share tips, ideas and a look into our own homeschool room from someone who has lived in small houses.
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The last house we lived in was 1,100 square feet with 2 beds and 1 bath. There were 5 of us living in the house…and yes, I was homeschooling. Needless to say, there was no homeschool room in that house. So if you are here because you have a small home and are in desperate need of help to figure out how you are going to homeschool in a small space, I can help. Because I’ve been there.
Now we have an 1,800 square foot house with 3 beds and 2 baths and are still homeschooling and have a dedicated homeschool room. So if you’re wondering how to make a homeschool room when you only have 1800 square feet, I got your back there too. So let’s work together to figure out how you can make the most of the space in YOUR house to have a thriving educational atmosphere.
Small House Ideas
Create a Dedicated Space
There are a couple of different options you can take when you have a small home. The first is to carve out a part of your house that is specifically for homeschool. And yes, you can do this even in a small home! You just need to get creative. Do you know what one thing I love about small spaces and tight budgets? It requires lots of creativity and can be fun if you just let go and stop wishing that you had a bigger house! So let’s relax, have fun and walk through a few different creative ideas you can use to make a dedicated homeschool space in your home.
Living Room or Family Room
You can carve out a section of your living room or family room to be the homeschool area. Shift stuff around so that a corner or half of it is the homeschool area. Room dividers are also really popular right now so you could grab a room divider if you want it to feel completely separate. Or some IKEA organizers would make a nice room divider as well. Of course, those aren’t necessary if you are on a tight budget.
Homeschool Classroom
And no, this doesn’t require a separate building on your property that is a homeschool one room school house (although those are pretty neat!) and you don’t even need a big room to do this. Grab a couple of small desks off of Facebook Marketplace, Ebay or Amazon and either carve out a part of your home that the desks go in OR find a small room in your house to turn into a little classroom. Which leads me to the next option.
Small Room or Extra Room (like a guest Bedroom or Office)
This is what we are currently doing. And later on in this post I am going to share how we turned an extra bedroom into a school room. But for now, let’s explore this option for your house. Could your kids share a room and the extra room turn into a school room? Or if you have a home office, that could be turned into a homeschool room and maybe take your office to another part of the house or make a cloffice (a closet that you turned into an office). If you really want a homeschool room or a large dedicated space, get creative with your floor plan! We have 2 living areas currently so if we wanted, one of those could turn into a homeschool area one day. It would just take some imagination!
Laundry Room
Yes, I’m serious. What does your laundry room look like? Our last house had an unnecessarily large laundry room with tons of wall shelving. I turned it into an office and the shelves were lined with books. But it could have easily turned into a homeschool room with a little ingenuity. There may be other small nooks and crannies of your house like a laundry room that you aren’t thinking about because it isn’t as conventional.
Homeschool without a Specific Homeschool Space
When you have a small house, you really don’t need to have a specific homeschool area unless you want one. In this post I’m trying to help give you different options so if you want a dedicated space, go for it! I hope those ideas above helped. But if you don’t, here are some ideas as well! Do what works best for your values, family culture and home.
- You don’t have to have an entire room – One great idea is to do it at the Kitchen Table. We did school at our dining room table for many years and loved it. We had built ins next to the table and just put some of our homeschool books on there. Alternatively, you could turn a linen closet or other closet in your house into the place where you store your homeschool resources.
- Create a learning space in all different parts of the house – I actually try to do this to a degree anyway even though I already have a homeschool room. But you can do this too and not have a homeschool room. Create one area of your home as the reading nook. Get cozy floor pillows or small chair/couch/futon and put it in any corner of your house. Put a small desk in another part of your house with art supplies. Make a game corner with a small table and a cabinet with puzzles and educational board games. Make a nature table near the back door with nature books and fun findings to learn and explore more about nature. Just create your whole home into a place where learning is as natural as breathing!
Sharing Our Homeschool Room to Give you more Homeschool Room Ideas for Small Spaces
Alright, so now I want to share with you what our homeschool room looks like. This is how I turned an extra bedroom in our home into a homeschool room. When we moved into this house, I knew I wanted to try out having a specific homeschool room. So when we moved in, we put all 3 kids into one bedroom. Then we made the other extra bedroom a school room. I am loving it! And so are the kids.
As my daughter gets older, the room will have to turn into her bedroom, but we are still many years from that so this is what is working for us now. I’ll have to write another post about what we do when that time comes! But for now, here’s how our homeschool room is laid out.
What is Inside our Extra Bedroom turned Homeschooling Room
A Closet Turned Bookshelf
First, we took the doors off of the closet that was in the room and turned the closet into a bookshelf. My husband made custom built in shelves out of some cheap wood and voila! Bookshelf. We store books, homeschool curriculum, math manipulatives and some homeschool supplies in it and I absolutely love it.
Book Bin and Wall Book Storage
My husband also made this book bin to store children’s picture books. We have a bookshelf full of picture books in our family room, but I wanted to have some in this room so they could go to the bin, pull out a book and sit and read. I also had him build a shelf to put next to our school table to put books about subjects that we are currently learning about. And then I also bought these cute wall shelves to put next to our couch for easy grabbing.
Chalkboard, White Board and Felt Board
Above the book bin, I have a chalkboard (that once again, my husband made). I think it’s important in a homeschool room to take advantage of the wall space so this has been a great thing to have on the wall. And it was cheap and not difficult for my husband to make. He also made us a felt board that I get down for the kids to play with during their rest time. We also use it for school purposes. And then I got this cheap white board that we use to put our All About Reading tiles on. I’m so glad I got this as we use it daily!
Rolling Organizer
I’ve had this organizer for about 5 years and it has been perfect for our school room. I have a few things on top and then have organized lots of our homeschool supplies and art supplies in it. This includes white paper, craft supplies, construction paper, All About Reading and Math U See supplies, paint, easy readers, etc. in it. I love that each bin has different things in it that are organized and ready to be used.
Dining Table
This is where we do the bulk of our school work and any art projects the kids are doing. And yes, I put a dining table in a spare bedroom. We had actually thought about putting our current dining table in here but it was just too big. So my husband built us a table that is the perfect size for this room. It is smaller than a typical dining table and just fits so snugly in the corner. Obviously not everyone’s husband can just build them a table, but if you turn one of your extra bedrooms into a school room, just measure what size table you would need to fit in the room without the table taking over. For us, the size 48 in x 28 in was perfect.
Posters
I wanted some vintage looking posters to offset the bright different colors from the organizer and all the colorful books in the bookshelf and I am very pleased with all of these. I would buy them again in a heart beat.
- Arboretum Poster
- Bird Poster
- Alphabet Poster
- Map Poster – We got both of these. I plan on switching out between the two based on what we are learning in geography. We currently have the United States map up
Small Bookshelf
This is actually the top of a cheap tall old bookshelf we used to have. It didn’t survive the last move so here we are with half a bookshelf. But it works! Here I store how to draw books, our art caddy, and some educational toys like this abacus, lauri toys and felt pieces.
Small Couch
Ok, I love this couch. I really wanted a couch for this room as a lot of our homeschooling involves reading. I wanted to be able to go back and forth between the table and a couch easily. And I also wanted it to be small so that it wouldn’t look out of place and over run the room. I love the grey color, design and coziness and would buy it again in a heart beat.
What I like about having a Homeschool Room
I love having a place that I can and shut the door to focus on one kid at a time. Some subjects require that and it’s nice to let the younger kids play in the family room while I take my oldest into the school room to do some intentional, focused learning. I also love having all of our homeschool supplies and curriculum in one place and being able to easily get it out and not having to drag stuff all over the house. Another nice benefit is that we can just shut the door at the end of the day and focus on other areas of our life besides homeschool. Overall, I love having a homeschool room and will definitely be keeping it for the foreseeable future.
Shop my Homeschool Room
Metal Wire Storage Baskets (Wall Mounted Black Bookshelf)
Vintage Distressed Alphabet Poster
Couch – In dark grey
Homeschool Organization Ideas for Small Spaces
- Use a rolling cart or rolling organizer
- Use file folders and organizers that have file folder storage in them
- Make use of wall space by using bulletin board, chalkboards, white boards and felt boards. Also get wall bookshelves to have easily accessible book storage that doesn’t take up precious floor space.
- Turn closets into storage organization for curriculum and books
- Use a portable Crayon Caddy
Did you like Homeschool Room Ideas for Small Spaces? Read more
How to create an educational atmosphere in the home
10 best open ended toys for homeschoolers that promote independence
The best books for your homeschool library
How to Draw Books for Kids Ages 3-8
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