Go ahead, Write on the Wall!

We were gifted an art easel a few years ago with a chalk board on one side and a white board on the other.  The girls love to draw on it, but I was getting annoyed with it sitting in the middle of the floor.  In my Pinterest wanderings, I saw a number of ideas over a long period of time that came together to come up with a plan to keep the drawing boards, but clear the floor space of our play room. 

The Inspiration

I saw this project for a large art center and loved the idea of putting the chalk and white boards on the wall rather than on the easel.  Then I saw this cool oil drip pan magnetic board and decided to add that to the wall.  To store the art supplies where they could easily be put away I loved the ideas of hanging small buckets on a rod that I saw here and here. 

The Materials and Assembly

I am terrible about taking "before" pictures, but our easel was a lot like this one.  It was really easy to just take off the white and chalk boards and simply attached them to the wall.  I used anchors for the top two screws, just in case.  I put them right up against the edge of the wall and against each other for two reasons:  First, that way they all fit without covering the outlet and second, that way there wasn't wall space in between to be colored on in and "oops" situation. 

I got the oil drip pan from Walmart.  Easy as can be!  I let the bottom rest on the floor and used two upside down 3M hooks on top to keep it again the wall.  The pink magnetic baskets to hold the magnets were in Target's school supplies (locker organization) this year. 

The simple and cheap café rod I got at Target (I'm sure Walmart has them too).  Again, I used screw anchors on the rod brackets, just in case.  The little buckets were in the Target Dollar Spot a while ago.  I simply strung the buckets onto the rod and snapped the rod into the bracket.

And there you have it!  The girls love it and I love not having to walk or vacuum around the easel!  And, with the addition of the buckets and the magnet board, it is better than before!

Good luck and have fun!