How to Protect Your Table from Art Time with Kids

Are you wondering whether or not the stain on your table is spaghetti sauce or leftover red paint?

When you do art at home, it’s usually your dining table that takes center stage.

Having one table that does double duty – for both messy art and plates of spaghetti dinner – can make even a seasoned homeschooler shy away from some of the most engaging art projects out there.

So what’s a homeschooler to do?

Here’s four tips to protect that functional and multi-purpose table.

Tip 1: Know Your Table Limits

You may have an older dining table or table in your schoolroom and you don’t mind if it gets a little dirty.

Alternately, you may have a dining table that needs to entertain your Great-Aunt Betty who comes over every week and wants you to get out the fine china.

We use our dining table for our main artistic endeavors, but my girls have their own table too. There was an unfortunate spill (or twenty) of water and it warped a little and then I gave up. Now the girls don’t protect the surface, and it’s slowly getting more colorful.

Don’t despair – if you don’t have an old table that you can let go to the art world, here’s how to handle it.

Tip 2: Cleaners Clean Up Just About Everything

If you use these, it’s generally okay to be brave and ditch the tablecloth:

• Washable tempera paint
• Chalk pastels
• Oil pastels
• Crayons
• Crayola markers
• Colored pencils
• Glue

With a few squirts of a general cleaner, and only a little bit of elbow grease, these supplies clean right off of a normal dining room table with no one the wiser.

Not to mention, you don’t have to worry about your 3-year old toddler yanking the tablecloth off the table like a magician.

Tip 3: Non-slip Tablecloths for the Win

If you’re using something like Sharpies, which are permanent, you will want something under your paper.

Tablecloths can quickly get bunched up, yanked off, or cause a sibling fight when one accidentally moves it and it moves everyone else’s art on the other side of the table in the middle of a drawing.

When we first started, I used a disposable tablecloth. Those things are super slippery, and also incredibly thin. Not to mention all of the waste from throwing them away constantly.

If you want something that covers the entire table, make sure it’s made out of a material that sticks to the table enough that it stays put.

Tip 4: Poster Boards Make Great Placemats

Poster board is easily available just about everywhere – dollar stores, Target, craft and art supply stores. It’s also inexpensive, and I can generally find it for a dollar or less.

If you fold the poster board in half and then cut it, you have two, incredibly sturdy and REUSABLE placemats.

Notice how a regular sheet of 9 x 12 paper fits inside and how there’s room on all sides. Paint, markers, and pastels will easily go right off the edge onto the place mat.

Posterboard placemats will become even more colorful over time, and when you are done with art time, you can easily fit them in between any furniture, or even under the couch.

This is my favorite method, and even I use poster board when I’m ready to get super messy.

Tip: Getting a color other than white makes the paper easier to see against the poster board.

Have another favorite way of keeping the table clean? Share below!

Join the Glitterbombers Membership!

This is only one of the many diverse art conversations had in the Glitterbombers Membership. Hundreds more art projects, videos, and resources at your fingertips for whatever you’re studying, or whatever art concept you’re ready to teach. Head here to hop on the waitlist and find out when we open next!

 

Need a perfect project to test out those new clean-table methods? Click below to paint a surfer lion!