“Crafting” a Creative Space in the Family Home

*Collaborative Post

We’re all aware of the importance of a safe and nurturing home for our children, but if you want to capture their creative spirit and want to encourage them to embrace artistic flair, you need to provide this at home. Making a space for creativity in your home can be difficult, especially if you don’t have much space. And if you’re trying to keep on top of a clean home, the last thing you would need would be colours, paints, and papers everywhere! This is why it’s important to create a space for creativity, but what are the things that we need to do?

Provide Yourself With Inspiration

If you want to encourage a vibrant and diverse set of ideas, either from you or your children, you’ve got to give them the tools and as much inspiration as possible. It all depends on what you think your children would like to achieve. Give them as many paints and pens and paper as possible. And also, think about having art books lying around as well as crafting inspo such as downloadable sheets, a variety of abstract art prints, and photographs or search for helpful craft blogs online. Give them as many resources to draw and craft from.

Find a Space With Natural Light

There is nothing more stifling to creativity than a dark and dull room. Some people like the idea of a darkened room because they can control the amount of light that goes into it. But to encourage artistic and creative children, it’s important to find a space with natural light. There are so many different benefits to having natural light, so it’s ideal to pick a room where the sun shines in all through the day. If you cannot get this, adding more light by using mirrors to reflect natural light or during the darkness of winter, SAD lights are great ways to mimic the feel of natural light. It is so important for our children to have natural light because of the numerous health benefits, but it will also help them to associate creativity with brightness. When our children don’t feel particularly creative, a combination of light and inspiration can help them to focus their efforts.

Set Up the Best Furniture

Creativity is a long process. Whether you are finally sitting down to create a quilt or get your sewing on, you need to find the best furniture that will keep you up and focused but will also give you the opportunity for downtime when you need it. Getting the best furniture to aid your creativity is a fine art, believe it or not! You want to be relaxed so you can let your creativity flow, but you don’t want to be so relaxed that you are falling asleep! This is why something like a standing desk gives you the best of both worlds. When we are sitting down creating, we can become absorbed in our project. And as sitting down all day isn’t the best thing for us, we’ve got to find the right balance. Creativity is far more vibrant when we are energetic. 

Incorporate Plants and Scents

There will be times when we don’t feel inspired or we don’t have the energy. But this is where we need to incorporate components that will increase our creativity and keep our mood positive. Choosing certain plants that give off a certain scent will help to keep you awake. But if you are not a plant person and the idea of a low-maintenance house plant isn’t suitable, especially if you have kids with allergies, you may want to think about incorporating aromatherapy. There are a wide variety of scents that can get you into the right artistic mood. And when we start to think about our senses, not just in terms of what we see, but in terms of what we feel, hear, and smell, we can start to incorporate so many different things to inspire us. You may find yourself distracted because there’s too much noise in the house or you are not feeling particularly focused. But this is where finding ways to focus all the senses will benefit you. Even the right music or white noise can take you away from the hustle and bustle of your home. It’s vital to remember that when we incorporate all of the senses, it can encourage a flow state, which is vital for a strong flow of creativity.

Make the Space Alive and Thriving!

Making the space vibrant is essential, but you have got to be practical. If you want your children to hang around the space, it’s got to be somewhere where the whole family goes. When you are setting up a creative space in a corner of a room, you’ve got to make it somewhere that is easy to maintain. Ideally, a hall closet would be a suitable option because it’s somewhere that you can shut off from the rest of the home. But you’ve got to pick your battles. You want your children and other family members to gravitate towards the space, which will make it suitable for everyone. But everybody’s got different approaches towards the idea of what is defined as “creativity.” Your children might likely be more inclined towards painting and drawing, but you might be someone that likes sewing. This is why it’s important to have a wide variety of practical cleaning products available so you can clean up the space quickly. The best thing you can do is put a tarp or mat down that is easily removable and washable. At the end of the day, you have to live in the space as well!

It’s nice to see our children getting into artistic practices and creativity. But some parents don’t like the mess! If we are more than happy to get our children involved in creating things but we don’t like the idea of having to clean up all the time, we’ve got to find the right balance. Setting up a space for creativity in your home is the best approach, just as long as it inspires and is practical in equal measure.

*This is a collaborative post. For further information please refer to my disclosure page.