Classroom Decor Ideas

Are you looking for some inspiration for your classroom decor? This post should help to give you some fantastic and creative ideas! It’s not often that teachers have the time or the resources to redecorate their entire classroom, but you can make small changes over time. But a move to a NEW classroom or a different grade level is the perfect opportunity to change things up and chose a brand new room theme!  I just set up a new classroom! Stay tuned for a photo tour full of ways to decorate quickly while sticking to your budget!

Start With the Bulletin Boards!

The focal point of the classroom should be your instructional areas and often these include bulletin boards and white boards.  Make the most of your bulletin boards by making them bold and beautiful!

I like to try to choose bulletin board accents that can stay up ALL YEAR and then save one or two boards for displaying student work.

I invest in fabric to cover them. Fabric can be pricey but it saves so much time in the end! I like solids because you can change up the look of your board easily if you get a new poster set or fall in love with a new border.

Here is a photo of the dividing bulletin board “wall” before posters were added.

It took three full days to decorate the “wall” in black fabric and border but it was worth the effort. Under that fabric is a boring beige wall but it could have been jazzed up with border alone.

Here we have some posters up!

Choosing Classroom Accent Pieces:

The alphabet is from Ladybugs Teacher Files and the Cafe poster set is at my TPT store!

I went with black and bright theme for my new room as you can see! Other decor sets like boho are beautiful, but trendy. I feel like I have more choices in a bright theme because so many store bought items like classroom storage containers and book bins that are sold in bright colors.

My border is from Creative Teaching Press. It’s called Dots on Black. I love it because I can bring in all sorts of bright colors and it really pops!

They have lots of coordinating pieces that I purchased for cubby tags, folder covers, etc…

This was before I started making my own sets!

This year I purchased the matching pen and travel mug!

LOVE THEM!

Creating a Welcome Board for the First Day of School:

I was in a really big hurry last year to get all moved and set up, so this poster set from Lakeshore was a great, quick welcome board to greet my students outside the door! It was perfect because we are the Second Grade Superstars! Each star has a student name on it.

You can also find many door decor sets and welcome boards to match your theme on TPT.

Decorating the White Boards with Teaching Tools:

This is my Daily Schedule board. I used it on the whiteboard so I can easily move the pieces around because the board is magnetic. If you like it the poster set, it is available at my store. There is a white version too! 

I have five more, smaller bulletin boards in my room.

Display Student Accomplishments or Work Samples:

I used different borders in bright patterns to coordinate. This board is for our Brag Tag necklaces.

Decorate Boards with Teaching Posters:

This is a wild and bright bulletin board to display Beanie Babies reading strategies.

 I found the perfect friends to hang here! 

More loveliness here from Ladybugs Teacher Files!

I used the letters I bought and mounted them on yellow cardstock to create a title for my Daily 5 board. 

I have a matchy classroom jobs set and genre posters in black against the whiteboard for contrast.

Other Uses for Decor Accents:

The dots on black letters came in handy for making this second day of second grade photo prop frame:

 This is my fabulous student teacher and her first lesson in classroom DIY! She did a lovely job!

The black open frame is from Michaels.

Decorate with Storage Items:

I bought bright baskets for every type of storage and printed black signs for labeling and organization. 

To the right is a cute coffee mug from Kroger that holds our highlighters.

I made several decor sets in black and bright. These are editable and so I made matching labels for all of my book bins with the AR book level. If you like them, the black and rainbow bright decor set is available at my shop. 🙂

Classroom Decor for the Walls and Ceiling:

Here is my helper hanging the curly black streamers and paper lanterns!

 They are in each corner of the room. 

I bought a colorful inspirational poster set and those are angled and hung around the room.

These fans were at our local party supply store in a variety of colors.

I cut off the stick and glued them onto the boring white walls!

Take it from me, tissue poms are a royal pain. Lanterns are so much easier! If you shop for these online, you will pay much more! They are really cheap at the party stores. I hung them using clear fishing line and lifted the ceiling tiles.

Create a Cozy Reading Corner:

This is my reading nook and cute helpers/ bean bag testers during set-up. Black dish tubs (on shelf) from Walmart hold picture books. Smaller bright baskets in hot pink were purchased from the dollar store for chapter books.

I found hot pink bean bag chairs at Walmart.

Desk Decor:

I fell in love with this zebra task chair. I ordered from Walmart online.

 They had a coordinating lamp shade too!

In the end, the process of moving and decorating a room was both exhausting and thrilling at the same time. I feel great about my choices and they have proven to show the test of time because I still love it and have easily changed and added to my existing decor the years. I hope that you enjoyed your stop here for my classroom decor tour!

 With a little help from friends, you can turn

  this

 into this!

Happy decorating my back to school friends!

Read more tips here:

Classroom Decor and Organization