Stylish work spaces for kids who are distance learning

Last spring, the home and school system unexpectedly forced children to take lessons through computer screens. Kitchen islands, dining tables and other surfaces are forced to be used for this task, but people are gradually realizing that virtual learning will continue this fall, which has forced many families to come up with strategies to keep students focused and productive in the new school year. Bethesda's designer Liz Levin said: “Parents are scrambling to turn every corner and crack in the house into a work space.” We worked with Levin and two other locals. Families discussed their solutions to enable their children to go to school seamlessly at home.

After parking started, thirteen-year-old Julia Levin (Julia Levin) began to spend more time in her room, and began to reconsider the gorgeous wallpaper and lavender color scheme designed by her mother when she was 4 years old. Her room. She said it was too naive. "Her mother Liz Levin said. When she contacted her mother’s contractor (and neighbors) for dog service in exchange for his help to remove the wallpaper and paint the room white, she knew Julia was serious .

The subsequent project was completed in September, when the seventh grade was actually opened for the St. Patrick's Day School in the District of Columbia. This was an excuse to reorganize the built-in shelves, desks and window seats in the room to achieve a new home school environment. "We just got rid of a lot of things

Most of her room is books on the shelf. "Levin said that he replaced the game castle and little girl accessories that once lived under and around the table.

Julia develops her teenage tastes by watching TikTok videos, so she is motivated to create screen-friendly backgrounds for classroom zoom sessions and social media streams. Red Thunderbolt stickers dot the wall, LED strip lighting framed her closet door shelf, and Julia painted a black and white cowhide pattern to match her phone case. Surrounding it is a collage of magazine pictures, surrounded by red neon thunderbolt and pink letter J. Although such design elements are not necessary for studying at home, Liz said: "It is a great opportunity for self-expression and for her to feel her ownership of the space, and she will spend a lot of time there."

The Gleasons moved into their newly built Bethesda house in the summer of 2019, and once the pandemic left them for six months, they realized that the design of the house would be better than anyone expected. When Megan and Lawrence Gleason were working in their respective interior departments, their 14-year-old son Cooper and 11-year-old daughter Mackenzie went to school in their bedroom. Each bedroom has a built-in wall, which includes desks, shelves and lots of storage. The attic in the upstairs hall was once used by the children to receive friends, and now they can rest between classes.

North Bethesda designer Arlene Penrose said: "In terms of craftsmanship, every accessory and fabric-every detail is thought to create the atmosphere they want to feel in every space." Mason said, Gerry The Sen family worked with GTM Architects’ Mark Kaufman and Sandy Springs Construction Company to require that every child’s bedroom “has a table and a place to sit, with plenty of natural light and trees. view."

Penrose got design inspiration from the children when decorating the children's bedroom, and their choice provided a surprisingly good Zoom background. Cooper, a ninth grader at Langdon School in Bethesda, uses antique wood panels on the wall behind him. Mackenzie, a sixth grader at Washington International School in Washington, DC, wants to place a crystal chandelier in her room. That and the golden M on her bed can be seen as her video background. In addition to the table, they can also choose other ways of learning: Cooper has a huge Lovesac bean bag in the corner of the room, and Mackenzie has a large window seat with a double mattress on it. Plush cushions. "What I like about my room is that you can do a lot of things in the room," McKenzie said. This is important because in this new era, her bedroom must play many different roles.

Penrose plans to charge laptops and cell phones in pop-up sockets on the surface of children’s desks, as well as slim drawers that can hold devices when not in use. The Gleasons also asked for a special craft room in the basement because they had been using the fitness room for this purpose in the old house. Now, it is perfect for art and science homework during the children's virtual school day. Megan said: "We are very happy to work in such an excellent place."

As a four-year-old mother, Sarah Hayes, the designer of Chevy Chase, knows that it is important to make children move. When her children became clear, Ella and Gennaro twins, 15 years old; Lilly, 12 years old; Burke, 10 years old, will study at home this fall. She knew they needed more than one place to study. . "I want them to be able to move around. I don't want them to stay anywhere all day," she said. Hayes found that the existing basement area for games and handicrafts can easily be transformed into an alternative learning space for children, where children ride bicycles at different locations during the day. A simple white metal chair around the Parsons table can withstand the child's back and forth movement, while a corner of the bookshelf ensures that books and other supplies are always ready.

Hayes also helped her children change their work space upstairs. Fortunately, the addition of houses in 2014 provided them with their own wing, which included a pair of twin suites, each with enough space to accommodate its own desk. Now that they have started visiting prep school in Georgetown, District of Columbia for 10th grade, they are considering the transition from the "fun, beach-like" turquoise and pink palette chosen by the 9-year-old to a more calm and neutral Atmosphere. Hayes said: "They want it to have less aura and more Zen." But some things will not change. Keeping the organization in mind, Hayes uses a bar trolley as a bedside table to store supplies and roll up on the table. The storage stool at the foot of the twins’ bed also contains books and other necessities.

Lilly, a seventh-grade student at Woods Academy in Bethesda, and Burke, a fourth-grade student at the Mater Dei School in Bethesda, also changed the environment. Hayes used pink floral fabrics to decorate the walls of Eli Lilly during the renovation process, and now it has become a bulletin board behind her desk, where she fixed postcards, birthday cards and photos of friends. Like her sisters, she has a bar cart that can be used as a bedside table or a bookshelf. Hayes also helped her turn a small Dormer-style closet into a school locker with a dry erase board, decorative stickers, and lockers.

Burke never put a table in the room, so Hayes created a corner for him in the family room. Because it was in such a public area, she didn't want to have a formal desk, so she bought a small card table and a storage cart to store items sliding underneath. She said that when her son was not at work, she would cover a beautiful tablecloth on the table, so all of this was out of sight – “It was for my own inner peace, my own sanity,” she said. "At night, it's just a table, with a tablecloth under a picture in the family room."

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