I know the way we do it is not for everyone, but I will tell you what works for us! We do not homeschool, but we do believe that education happens all day long, and much of it comes from us as parents. We keep educational things all over our dining room. Our dining room is also the main eating area for us, since our kitchen is not an eat-in kitchen. Almost everyone that comes to visit sees the dining room from where they are sitting or standing, or has to pass through it at some point. The underlying décor in the dining room is nicely done and the school materials are fairly well organized. There is no one that would visit here that would not understand why our dining room looks the way it does, and we have never been embarrassed by it. Our kids have grown up with placemats that have maps, math, presidents, etc. on them, and have learned many things from the conversations we have at the dinner table while using these placemats. We have had conversion charts, periodic tables, maps, money charts, clock posters, and number lines on the wall over the years. The kids have learned from them because they are where they can see them any time of day. The room is constantly changing as the kids grow. The kids also have their desks in the dining room. We don't really have another place for them. We have an extra room, but we use that as a craft room, which is usually somewhat messy...their desks stay clean and useable when they are out where we can see them. They do use the craft room for school projects, and that way the projects can stay out until they are completed. Our dining room is never in magazine-worthy condition for sure, but I know that the kids are only kids for a short time, and it is so fun to use every opportunity to teach them new things. Also, this is our own home for raising them, so I don't really think about how the décor looks to other people that might stop by for a visit. I will have a beautiful dining room later in life, when the kids are grown and gone. To me, at this stage in our lives, this is beautiful décor to me! This post was edited by myfoursquare on Tue, Oct 8, 13 at 13:31

I simply do not agree that the space is too small for anything. We are remodeling our entire house. As we are gutting and diying the rooms, we are having to move where we sleep. Right now the master bedroom is done, but kids bedrooms are just about to be gutted. In the meantime the are in my "largish" walk in closet in bunk beds. As a bedroom. The room is 6.5' x 6.5 with an additional little alcove in the back of the room that measures about 2.5x2.5. My kids are in elementary school also. We have the bunk beds and the head and foot bard go wall to wall, but they have plenty of room for all (and let me tell you they have lots!) Of their stuffed animals. There are three slings for these going up one corner of the alcove. There is built in shelving, which holds most all of their board games, I put some of the older adult games they can't play yet on higher shelves for storage (10' ceilings). And they have a long bookcase that holds all their books. They have decorated the walls themselves, I buy the cheap black frames at Ikea they pick out stuff, sometimes their own, sometimes things they like, I hang it with command tabs. They have been in here an out 9 months and they love their little space. They go in there to play, do a puzzle on the little bit of floor they have (which is silly as they could use our bedroom floor right there but theirs is better they say), read, just hang out doing whatever they do hiding from parents. They have realistically another 9 months to a year depending on if we run into issues (old house always issues). I say get their input, paint bright, let them be the decorators. Soft comfy chairs (maybe gaming floor chairs or bean bag chairs). If they only got an hour of screen time make the room dual purpose, they will use it. Build in some storage for other things they like... Legos, art, books, puzzles, games. I am sure you know. Any which way, build up and most importantly secure things to the walls. Good luck.

Thanks @ katinparadise! Good idea! We’ve been busy planning kitchen remodel and kids’ rooms, so I’ve put the living room plans off. And I may be homeschooling my two youngest next year so I’m toying with the idea of making the room a reading/homeschool room. It wouldn’t be a forever thing, maybe just a couple years, so I don’t want a full-on schoolroom. I’d like to keep it flexible. I had this idea to do a full-wall bookcase. Would that be crazy? Then maybe on the pantry wall/corner I could put a book rack for the books we are currently reading (like what they have at preschool...it seems to be much more appealing and more likely to be cleaned up than the large row of books.) Main bookcase would’ve storage and rack would be reading corner. Anyway I am clearly nowhere near making up my mind lol. Feel free to give me any thoughts!

I agree about the piano, it was a childhood birthday gift/family heirloom and I truly dislike having it there. I'm sure overtime, the TV legs could wear into the piano. The fireplace itself is actually a two-way fireplace that can be used from either the kitchen or the living room. We are not proud of this wall, because it is a strange configuration and I guess it shows. Eventually, I may want this wall torn down, but of course, there will be challenges with a widely open floor plan, particularly for kitchen cabinet space. Living room side Kitchen side