Table Baskets & Chair Feet

  Spray paint, a glue gun, and a staple gun are a teacher’s best friend.

I have been busy this week getting little projects done for my classroom.  I have had tables in my room for years and I wouldn't trade them for anything (in first grade).  I posted awhile back about my crayon storage and I received some questions about how I store the boxes at my tables. I have one basket (pictured below) in the center of each table.  Each basket holds supplies for 4 students. 

There is good news and bad news to this answer.  First,  I purchased these baskets 2 years ago at Walmart.  I found them in the car wash section and they were bright yellow.  The bad news, I haven't seen them there since.  The good news is that I saw the exact same baskets in navy blue at Big Lots 3 weeks ago!  

This is how they looked last year...  

I needed to change them to match this years classroom.  I used Krylon Fusion Gloss Black spray paint to make them black.   I've used this in the past and it works great on plastic. My only tip is to buy more than you think you will need.  I usually run out and always have to stop and run to the store...never fun. 

I place 4 crayon storage boxes in the middle.  On each corner I used Rubber Cement to glue down blue Solo cups.  Hot glue does NOT work for the Solo cups. I tried that last year and they all popped off! After a  few other adhesives, Rubber Cement won. If you have any other questions, just e-mail me. 

My next little project was chair feet. 

I saw this on Pinterest HERE. It was one of those "Why didn't I think of that?" moments.  After some thought, I decided to run out to school and swipe a chair to bring home.  I bought 2 colors of fabric to see how I would feel about these feet.  I tried them in black and green.

 You should have seen me at Hobby Lobby, I was rubbing the felt across the floor to see which color held dirt better.  The conclusion was green.  However, after doing both colors, the black is WAY better than the green.  The green feet are loud and busy.

I used one rectangle of felt and cut it into 3 equal pieces.  I folded each strip in half and used the folded piece for the bottom of each leg.  I just couldn't find a rubber band color that I could live with, so I secured the felt onto the foot by using a black elastic hair tie.  I bought the thin ones and there were 50 in the pack.

These chair feet fall into the category of something I never knew I needed.  When I was a first year teacher, I would have loved to know how damaging, dirty, and loud the bottom of a chair was going to be.  I hope this post can help someone out there realize that their life may be a little better if they have a plan for this.  I love this idea because it's cheap, necessary, and practical.  I have tried tennis balls and sticky felt pads before.  The balls are great but are usually bright obnoxious colors and oh so much fun when they "accidentally" fall off. The felt pads didn't stay on at all.  I've also had years with nothing and I'm pretty sure I hear the scraping sound in my sleep at night.  I would love to hear if anyone has done this for chair feet before and how they held up. If you have another suggestion, I would love to hear those.