Chalk & Flannel “Boards”

Keeping with the whole Room initiative: I really wanted to make as many surfaces interactive as possible. We are lucky to have two closets in Layla’s room (an anomaly for a city home) but with this fortune comes the work-around : How to make THESE doors (basically the whole length of the room covered in doors) interactive.

Wanting to make spaces throughout the room that promote different kinds of learning and develop different skill sets, I wanted to make sure the closets became an interactive addition to this goal. One became a chalk board and the other a flannel board. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to “ruin” a door by painting or stapling it but figure when we are ready to leave this house we will be able to replace them and the years of use spent in between will be well worth it. When I was young I remember turning my door into a “Chalkboard” before they made chalkboard paint. Needless to say this, too, ruined the door- more so than painting it, in my eyes….so my husband was a trooper and a wonderful help: he primed it twice and put two coats of chalkboard paint on it.

We took both doors off the tracks and put them on the floor to create these. I attached a 2 1/4 yard piece of flannel to the door by stapling it to the back – as you would to make a canvas. I was originally going to make it from white flannel but found this really cute print and couldn’t pass it by. I really couldn’t have found anything to match the room better than these colorful blocks do!

On the chalkboard she can practice writing, scribbling, doodling, designing, etc.

The flannel board will provide another type of skill building – either abstract art, shape sorting/playing, imaginative play, felt dolls, seasonal learning tools and so on.