When my dear husband and I got married, we kept maybe four of his bachelorhood possessions. It’s not that he had bad taste, but the “stuff” that he came with wasn’t quite fitting into our style {okay . . .it was super awful}. I made him ditch an old worn out recliner and he has never let me forget that. Sorry, dear. But he did bring this cute pub mirror to the table: 
Not bad, right! You can still pick them up at Target for under $30. I think it’s pretty cute as it is. However, when we moved to our current house it no longer had a proper home. So when we carved out a space for our children to play, dream, create, destroy . . . I transformed it into a place to display their artwork. Here’s what it looks like now 
To transform this from a mirror to a chalkboard display I did the following:
- Taped off the frame with painter’s tape
- Sprayed the mirror with chalkboard paint
- Added twine to each hook
- Attached coordinating ribbon to clothespins {glue gun to the rescue}
- Used the glue gun again to attach the ribbon covered clothespins to the twine
As anyone with children knows, the “paper trail” they leave behind grows exponentially each day. I had no idea these little ones could “create” so much in one day. Seriously, people. So to tame this in our house, we choose five things we love and hang them here. Then the kiddos get to see their artwork valued and displayed. The rest goes in the trash. Yes, the trash! Can’t possibly keep it all. As we rotate the artwork from the chalkboard, we decide which ones goes in our art portfolio {black binder I keep the children’s artwork in}. So far, so good. How do you display your little one’s artwork? I am always looking for new things to try. Linking it up: Monday: Polly Want a Crafter Tuesday: House of Grace Thursday: Somewhat Simple Friday: The Shabby Nest Remodelaholic Just a Girl Tatertots and Jello
So clever-Im an art teacher so I know ALL about "the paper trail" Really like this idea, I'll need to use it when I have kids of my own.
What a great idea! I only have one child (so far) and we display the art on the fridge for a while, then give her the option of sending it to one of her grandparents or tossing it. I have kept a couple of things for her for later. I love your idea though, I might have to try that!
Cute idea! Sadly, I miss the "refrigerator art" as the girls are grown now. Katie's volleyball coaches have younger girls and they are always drawing pictures for me to make up for it!! LOL Love it! I do have boxes of artwork saved in the basement, and every now and then we get it down and have a good laugh. A friend suggested taking pictures of their art and putting them into a scrapbook, takes up a lot less room!
Such a cute and organized way to display the art- I could see you changing out the ribbons for various seasons and rotating them. And I'm with you about parting with artwork. There is no way you could keep it all and really give it all proper value by storing it all. Some of it has to go! Maybe that also helps teach them at an early age that it's okay to purge and edit the things we keep in our home.
I love it! I love that you can change it out anytime and it always makes the kids feel super special to have their artwork hung about! Cheer, Stacey
oh, I like the idea of sending some of the artwork off to relatives. What a great idea. So doing that. And I hadn't thought about switching out the ribbons for the seasons. That's a great idea, too. Thanks girls!
LOVE THIS IDEA. Funny, my hubby has a similar mirror that I made him take to his office. I think I will make him a lil "kit" like yours and send some of her artwork to his office. Im a new follower and i LOVE your blog. Hugs From Texas, tara
hi! i'm a new follower, too. big fan. i'm a fellow domer with 3 little ones. anyway, i have the land of nod clothes line with cute clothes pins (shamrocks and birds) to hang our current artwork, but we have a rule that when one goes up, one comes down. i take a picture of what comes down and put it in our digitial frame that is dedicated to just their artwork. they love it. i love it. and its clutter free:)
So happy you found me! Okay . . .a digital frame for the artwork is brilliant. That never even crossed my mind. And to have it in our kitchen {the room we can't seem to ever get out of!} would be perfect. My children would LOVE it. so would I. thank you. xoxo
How cute! What a great idea!….Christine
That is adorable! I have these frames that have a door on the fron so you can easily change out your child's artwork, but they were pricey and I can only display one at a time. I love this idea – less expensive, and you can display multiple works at once!
This is just darling.. clever little idea and perfect to use what you had. Must store this mental note away.. thank you!
Hi! One year I laminated the artwork and gave everyone a custom calendar. I also photographed everything and then threw it away. The really good stuff is framed and displayed in my home. Since they're older now, I'm not so much privvy to the art anymore….
I love that, what a great idea, I have artwork everywhere.
I would like to invite you to Fantastic Frugal Fridays. It is a great place to link up your frugal posts and meet frugal friends.
This is adorable. What a great idea! I'd love for you to come link up to my party this weekend. You've got a fantastic blog.
whilehewasnapping.blogspot.com
Hope to see you there,
Krista
Very cute way to show your kids stuff. I'm a new follower.
Such a cute idea, I love this!
What a smart & pretty idea!
I love it!
This is so cute!