Our New Learning Room

We've been using our new Learning Room since the beginning of September, but all this time we've been finishing things up in there. I finally have decided that it's probably never going to be *perfect* so I took some *real life* pics of it.

So here it is in all of its everyday glory:)

First a *BEFORE* shot for you:

This room is actually the formal dining room of the house, but the former owners had an office in here and it is working out well as a learning room for us. It's not a large room (would have been a small dining room anyway), but with built-in's it's working nicely.

Vince (with the help of Mr. B) created a great built-in bookcase for us with inspiration from some HGTV shows.

It turned out GREAT! I have crammed that sucker as full as possible, too! :) I thought I would never stop finding boxes of books to unpack, but I think we've finally found homes for them all.

Vince also created this desktop area for me. It houses our computer (the one w/all of my homeschool files!), printer, our new workbox station and all of the random miscellany...you know that stuff.

I've also added in another bookcase on the other side of the room. This one is completely full, too! (I've got to learn to purge a bit better).

This is one of my very favorite features in the room: a window seat for reading! I wanted one of these SO VERY BADLY when I was a little girl. Something about a window seat and a good book just sounded like a piece of heaven to me (still does!).

I made that cushion from a piece of eggshell foam and extra stuffing, then covered it with fun fabric from Hobby Lobby. Even though I don't want anyone to look at the bottom stitches on it, I love the way it looks all tucked into the seat. It's comfy, too!

Around the room I have various things on the walls:

Our * Composer of the Month* and *Artist of the Month*, maps, artwork,

our morning board activities, Character Trait of the Month chart and more.

We use our Learning Room ALL of the time! With the central location in the house and having a great table for all types of use, it's truly a functional room for us.