Art Station

We're big on arts and crafts in our house. We've got easels set up in our living room, there's a desk dedicated to drawing and crafts in our kitchen, and my kitchen counters have glitter permanently adhered to them. (It's purple glitter and stuck in my grout, in case you were curious). So, we've got an endless supply of colored pencils, markers, chalk and crayons to contain.

I've found lots of pretty or inventive containers to corral such things, but they require too much effort on the part of my little ones (porcupine with crayon "quills", anyone?). So, I need something cute, but easy.

I found this set up when I was trolling the isles of Ikea one day (with no kiddos in tow, thanks to their fabulous play area!). It's from the kitchen section and is designed to hold cutlery. It wasn't expensive - about $3 for the rail and about $3 for each bucket. It hangs above their little table and makes cleanup quite simple and looks cute, to boot!