The Workspace Next Door: Hanna and Vilmos

After a looong, looong break from blogging I am back now with one of my favorite themes – The Workspace Next Door series.
I asked Orsi, a mum of two, Hanna (7) and Vilmos (4) to talk about their workspace habits. Besides being an English language teacher for over a decade now she is a co-founder of Piknik magazin, a website for families who want to spend quality time with their children at the weekends, but find it hard to look up the best events. They source kids programs for in Budapest and in major Hungarian cities, but also write about parenting, food and everything a parent with young children might be interested in. Orsi believes creating beautiful memories together with your children is so important and this website aims at promoting this idea. Her other passion is interior design which you can get a feel for over on her pretty IG profile: @orsi_piknikmagazin

What were the main aspects to consider when deciding on the kids’ workspace?

The children have a smaller workspace in their room but it is mostly for drawing or play-dough. It is an old Ikea piece which I upgraded with paint. The magnetic wall was something I really wanted and I found this awesome Groovy Magnet wallpaper, which can be painted. The painters had some difficulties mounting it on the wall but once it was done, the kids absolutely loved it. They can display their artwork, and it also distracts my son from actually drawing on the wall. I hate clutter so this is my compromise: the toys and all their stuff get hidden in baskets and drawers, but they can put anything on the magnetic wall. The room is quite narrow, that’s why we store almost all of the toys, pencils and brick-a-brack in a large Ikea Kallax unit leaving plenty of space to play. All of their books are on the big bookcase outside the kids’ room, where they can reach them.

Hanna is a first grader, but thankfully she does her homework in the school, therefore she doesn’t need a desk just yet. We have a large, open space kitchen and the dining table is the heart of our home. We gather around it when we get home, this is where we play cards or board games and occasionally this is where Hanna does her school projects or practices writing.

Did your kids have a say in the decisions?

Hanna is at an age when she has an opinion about everything. Last year we repainted the room to a more gender-neutral color and she helped me choose the shade. Whenever I would like to add something to their room, I ask for her approval. Vilmos is not really interested in the design yet, although I’m pretty sure I won’t have to wait long before he realizes the desk is actually lilac.

The three work areas in our home (the drawing table, the desk in the study and the dining table) work really well at this point, but I think by the time Vilmos will have gone to school we would have to reconsider these spaces according to their needs.

And do they also do their homework on the dining table instead?

Yes, if there is homework it is written on the dining table with all of us sitting around it. It is a pretty fun affair actually :-).

Thanks Orsi!

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