My New & Improved Speech Room!

Hi Friends!!!

Well, it's been many months since my last blog post! If you follow me on Instagram, you've still been able to see some of the things I've been up to. :) I took the summer off from making TpT products and blogging… it honestly felt nice to not think about work for a bit!

Now that I'm back at work, I have some TpT products in the works, but I am not going too crazy. I'm try to get as organized as I can and really get a handle on the school year first. :) 

One of the first things on my list for this new school year was to revamp my speech room! It took a lot of time and energy but I am thrilled with the final product! My room is bright, clean, inviting and organized! It makes me happy to arrive to work in a nice room- I know it will certainly help on the super crazy days. 

Here is a peek into my new and improved speech room, with some before & after shots too! 

I have great built-ins in my room, but they are such a yucky orange color. I've seen other SLPs and teachers have success with contact paper, so I gave it a shot. I found my adhesive contact paper at WalMart online…. but you can check out Amazon too! I have to say, applying the contact paper was a bit frustrating and time consuming, but the end product was totally worth it. I was also a little worried that the print would be too busy, but it really looks nice and clean! I was so happy with how my shelves turned out! :)

For as long as I've been in my room at this school, I've had these big storage cabinets taking up my whole front wall. My front wall is made up of windows…. so I really began to feel blocked in. It took TONS of time and energy to clean out these storage cabinets… but once I did, I was able to move them out of my room and it made the world of a difference! I donated the orange cabinet to one of my coworkers. The brown cabinet still holds some of my not-so-important items (see… i'm not that organized!) and it sits in a pod near my room along with other teacher storage. :)

With all the open space, I decided to move my desk location to the front wall. It has been so great to be able to see out of my room- the windows really are nice… but I had never utilized them before! :)

The desk I previously had in my room was great! It was sturdy and not a bad color… I was just looking for something that popped a little more. After searching on craigslist for cute desks that matched my color scheme… I thought I was out of luck! Then, our neighbor randomly set out this glass desk for free on his curb! My husband helped me snag it! The wood was scratched and the metal pieces were tarnished… but the glass was beautiful! My husband took on the task of painting it and it turned out gorgeous!! It's definitely my favorite thing about my room now! :)

I took quite a few trips to Hobby Lobby and Target over the summer and during the first week back to work. 

-I purchased the cute yellow, grey and teal poms, the burlap banners and the cardboard letters at Hobby Lobby. 

-I purchased the teal plastic bins and boxes at Target. My "smile" pillow and frames were purchased at Hobby Lobby a couple years ago and my husband just spray painted the frames for me. :) 

-My "Today I Will Choose Joy" sign was a very thoughtful gift from a sweet coworker and it happens to go perfectly with my new decor! 

-I found the "SLP" wooden letters at Michael's and my husband painted those along with my desk! :)

-I used the decorative "Mrs. Swopes" cardboard letters a couple years ago and just re-covered them with new patterned paper this year to match the new color scheme. I also added the "I Can" letters. I can give you a quick tutorial! It was super easy to do! 

I bought scrapbook paper that I liked (Hobby Lobby has big packets of similar color schemes with 5 or 6 copies of each pattern in the packet) and I bought spray adhesive glue. 

I simply traced each letter upside down on the back of the scrapbook paper. 

I cut the paper letter out, sprayed the cardboard letter with glue, and stuck the paper on! 

It really was a breeze and turned out so cute! So much easier than painting each letter!

As far as the printables and visuals go… 

-I made a new organization visual for the Zones of Regulation! I will be posting it on TpT soon! I'm waiting to do a trial run with it with my kiddos to make sure it works well. :) 

-I got the "I Can" CCSS from Natalie Snyders! I cut out the statements and laminated them on my own scrapbook paper that matched my color scheme. 

-I also used a yellow, grey and teal room decor printable from The Speech Umbrella on TpT! I cut out the letters, laminated and glued them to the burlap banners.

-Finally, the "Where is Mrs. Swopes?" front door sign was made by me… you can find a similar FREEBIE in my store, here.

Well, that's a tour of my new speech room! I hope you enjoyed checking it out! Please let me know if you have any questions! I have loved seeing everyone else's speech room photos… you have all really inspired me to get my room in shape! Yay!

**P.S. A big thanks to my husband, Sean for his handy work and my Mom for helping me tie up all the loose ends! I couldn't have done it without them!**

 I'm hoping to get some "Look at my Lessons" posts rolling now that I'm organized, and be on the look out for some new TpT products! If you follow me on Instagram, you will easily be kept up-to-date with everything I'm doing… it's my favorite way to share! :)