ARTS AND CRAFTS: Kids' Craftroom Redo on the Cheap

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on children. I do not have children of my own. I do not claim to know anything about kids. In fact, kids freak me out a little.

However...

Last fall, my boyfriends kids (AKA: the Wigglets), started showing an interest in art. WOOHOO!! What I lack in knowledge about kids, I make up for with knowledge about arts and crafts. Art was a HUGE part of my childhood. And I couldn't wait to introduce them to paint and glue and GLITTER!!

Our first project was a success. At ages 2 and 4, they had never experienced free flowing jars of glitter before. It was magical. It was exciting. It was.... everywhere. Fortunately, I have a big, unfinished basement, so the mess didn't really matter. Unfortunately, it looked like this...

They didn't seem to mind, but I didn't them to bring it up in therapy in a few years. I knew I needed to fix it up, but:

• It has to be done inexpensively 
• It can't involve any major, permanent changes since I plan on finishing the basement for real
• The kids need to have the most artistic freedom possible
• It needs to be comfortable for me and their dad
• Did I mention it has to be inexpensive... like, as close to free as possible.

I started out by raiding my garage (and friends' garages) for any leftover paint. This was harder to come by than I expected. I ended up with a couple gallons of white and this gave me an idea... just do the whole room in white. That way, the whole thing will end up as a giant coloring book.

Just painting the walls white brightened up the whole place. Now it felt like a "room" instead of a "dungeon". I found an old white room divider screen and put that around the sump pump in the corner. Not a bad start, and we're still at $0 spent...