A friend of a friend gave her time to paint a beautiful landscape picture to put in the teacher's lounge. It is a 3 piece picture that covers one whole wall in the lounge. We paid for supplies only, about $300, which we split with the principal. It really added a lot to boring walls and the teachers loved it. So if you have any artists in the house, this makes a great "gift" to the teachers.
ok so this might sound like a crazy idea but what about the show you see on t.v. like suprise by design, changing room or trading spaces, maybe you could write them a letter or have the kids write them a letter telling them why there teacher's need a new breakroom. On the t.v. programs say that they give you the money and they will come out and do the work all you need is volunteer.. I know I seen on one of them they did a fire station, maby they would help you?
Last year a local furniture store held a contest for schools to provide entries as to why they deserved a $4000 shopping spree to redecorate for their teachers lounge and we entered- and WON! We were able to buy a 4-piece leather sofa set that included a couch, loveseat, oversized chair and ottoman,a large area rug, a dining table w/ 4 chairs, and 6 extra matching chairs that went to another table for eating or meeting, and some framed art, a tall hand-painted bistro table that came with 2 matching bar stool chairs and a coat rack. We purchased from Wal-Mart some table linens,clocks, greenery, window treatments, candles, and we painted the room before we started a very soft khaki with all white trim- so if anything ever changed it would still match. We covered the bulletin boards that were in there with matching fabric and even covered the phone books and pen/pencil holders in the same fabric-cute huh? We wrapped the lounge door to look like a "gift" complete with a big "to/from" tag and the teachers loved it!! I know you may not win a contest, but you may ask a local furniture store to help- if you are in need of furniture- otherwise asking for left over paint, decor things and buying stuff at discount stores can get the job done really quickly! Stacie
Some staff redecorated our teacher's workroom/lounge last year. Mostly they organized and put up some decorations. All in all, it turned out pretty nice, except for one thing. They took this niche that had been workspace and added an overtuffed sofa and coffee table. It LOOKS great, but it's impractical.
The coffee table just serves as a collection point where forgotten papers stack up. For this furniture to fit, the two nearby computers had to be moved to a smaller table. Teachers are ALWAYS using the computers and are now more cramped. Really, it's pretty rare for more than 2 people to ever sit on a couch, so this change basically provided 2 seats, but they lost work space and crowded the computer area. As I said, it's very pretty, I just don't know that it was the best use of space.
My point is, consider practicality as well as decor on any changes.
The PTO is redecorating the out dated teacher's lounge at our school. Do any of you have any suggestions? We know they don't get to spent much time there, but we still want to make it a comfortable get away for those who choose to.
