THIS. THIS is finally finished after months of work. If you follow me on instagram, you may have seen this little hashtag floating around: #allisonspeechroom. It symbolizes a dream I’ve had since I was a little girl. I’d love for you to stop in and get a little sneak inside my therapy room (also known as, my house!)
Since I decided to take a year leave from my public school job, I’ve also had the opportunity to pick up a few students I see at my house. A lot of people since then have asked me if I was doing private practice and the answer is no. Nor will I ever lol. Friends who do private practice, you have all my respect. I just would not do well at billing and all the responsibility that goes into private practice. Instead, I see students who are homeschooled who have speech services on their IEP. A company I work for does all the billing and coordinating, I just see the students, in my home. It’s perfect, really :).
After talking to my WONDERFUL husband, we decided to renovate a room that was above our garage initially planned on being a man-cave and turn it into a speech therapy room. See, I told you. He’s WONDERFUL. If you don’t know it already, we’re a little crazy. We bought this 125 year-old house and over the course of 3 years, have been doing what I often need God to do to me: throw out all the junk and rebuild it from the inside, out. I wrote a separate blog on it HERE.
Here’s what this beautiful room looked like before. Friends, I have to admit, I didn’t even want to post this picture, but you have to get the full picture of what this room looked like before. Words just wouldn’t do it justice, you know? So here it is, in all its glory:
It was made with some sort of fibrous cardboard that attracted dirt like it was going out of style. Who’s ready to sign their kiddo up doing speech therapy here? I know, I know. Don’t all jump at once, y’all.
We (aka my husband) started tearing everything out. We put in some nice, cozy insulation, new windows and redid the electric. It’s so nice now getting my choice of more than once outlet to plug my lovely laminator into. Should I laminate on the north wall? Or maybe the south? Hmm…decisions.
And then we went to town putting up the drywall. My job was to screw the nails in the rest of the way. It takes talent, you know. And yes, I’m sporting my fabulous “Speech Nerd” shirt in the photo in case you noticed :).
NEVER underestimate the beauty of walls.
If you know my husband at all, he’s not big on spending money (which is okay, because I’m not either). He would never consider buying new white trim if all he had to do was painstakingly remove each. and. every. piece of the old stuff and prime and paint it himself.
I knew I wanted to do something special with the stairs. After all, they are the very first impression my students will have when coming to speech.
I also LOVE pottery barn furniture. But…not so much the price tag. #aintnobodygotmoneyforthat. Or…. at least, I don’t. So…after careful searching, I found a set of Potterybarn bookshelves and a desk on Craigslist for a fraction of the cost. Whoot! The desktop was a little beat up but after some sanding and paint (and nail polish remover), it looked as good as new.
So, are you ready to see the room now? I owe a huge thanks to my amazing, handy husband for all the long hours he put into making this little dream of mine come true. If you’re reading this darling, I love you and I’m SO thankful for you.
Come on up.
I bought 7 tiny containers of paint samples to paint these stairs for under $20. The paint samples were more than enough to paint each stair. Then, I bought these wall decals from DecorDesigns on Etsy and am really loving the look.
Come up the stairs and now instead of the dirty, cardboard room, you’ll see my new speech therapy room:
That old desk? It’s as good as new. And I used the THIS idea from The Speech Bubble SLP to put wall decals on it too (from DecorDesigns)
This is what I call, “the business bookshelf.” I keep my certificates, binders and lovely laminator here.
Here’s the fun bookshelf. Craft supplies and games go here.
With bins for prizes and my SPEECH sign in the middle.
It was a lot of hard work and sweat but in the end, I’m loving it and know I will be spending a lot of time up here.
Oh, and one more because the handsome man behind the camera (aka my husband) makes me laugh.
Thanks for stopping in! Let me know if you’ve ever been part of a renovation!
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Tamara Anderson says
August 31, 2015 at 10:04 amHey there Nicole. I loved reading this post and your speech room looks AMAZING! May you have a great school year from the comfort of your home. I’m sure that your speech kiddos will love practicing their goals in your new space! 🙂
Erin says
August 31, 2015 at 11:47 amThis is ADORABLE. Can you and your hubby come make me a speech room please? 🙂
SpeechDreams- Danielle says
August 31, 2015 at 12:10 pmOh, my goodness!!!! I would stay up there all day!! It’s just lovely.
Stephanie says
August 31, 2015 at 12:32 pmMove over HGTV! You have such an eye and I enjoyed looking at your beautiful transformation. Congratulations and best wishes for a successful year!
Paula Peroli says
August 31, 2015 at 12:41 pmLove, love, love your new room. It is so you! What a wonderful room to work and learn in. And I absolutely love the stairs..a great first impression. You look so happy! And you do have a wonderful husband for sure! Miss seeing you at school. Enjoy your year “off” !
Jenn says
August 31, 2015 at 12:43 pmI love the space and the color you chose is beautiful. It is a warm welcoming therapy space.
Ann-Marie says
August 31, 2015 at 12:46 pm<3 this! Looks great!
Carrie Steenbergen says
August 31, 2015 at 2:44 pmThis is beautiful! I would love an office like that. You are so creative. Kudos to you and your husband.
Emily Heller says
August 31, 2015 at 4:26 pmAhhhh I love it! The colors are great–so light and bright and beautiful!
Nicole Allison says
September 2, 2015 at 6:41 pmThanks Emily! You’ll have to come visit 🙂
Chris says
August 31, 2015 at 4:35 pmOh Nicole! This is so fabulously adorable!! Best of luck with this new endeavor! See you in a few weeks!
Nicole Allison says
September 2, 2015 at 6:41 pmThanks Chris! See you soon!
Heidi says
August 31, 2015 at 6:12 pmI LOVE it!!!What a fabulous room!
Jenna says
August 31, 2015 at 6:17 pmWhen I come visit can I sleep in your speech room? It looks SO inviting. And you’re the cutest ever. Love it! Way to go team Allison!
Nicole Allison says
September 2, 2015 at 6:41 pmlol yes! Or you can have your pick of the guest room too 🙂
Jen says
August 31, 2015 at 8:10 pmThis is awesome! You have such an eye for design! Your students will love it.
Nicole Allison says
September 2, 2015 at 6:40 pmAwww thanks Jen! It’s been fun but I’m so happy it’s finished lol!
Judy Hale says
September 1, 2015 at 5:15 amWOW! You and your husband are amazing and talented–this could have been filmed for an HGTV show (one of my favorite things to do is watch decorating shows). Your hubby sounds like mine, why pay someone to do it if you can do it yourself, and why buy something new if you can reuse the old–what a great guy!
Tara says
September 1, 2015 at 2:03 pmLove your new space! My husband and I also have a 100+ year old home. I know all about remodeling. We are in the middle of the kitchen remodel it is crazy!
Nicole Allison says
September 2, 2015 at 6:40 pmI wish you the best! The kitchen is the hardest! It’s so worth it though in the end 🙂
Mari says
September 1, 2015 at 2:37 pmNicole, I can just imagine the joy of climbing those steps -each.and.every.time! Enjoy your room!
AbbyG says
September 1, 2015 at 4:27 pmWhat a beautiful dream of a room! You and your husband really did an amazing job. If I was a client of yours I would never want to leave speech therapy!
Dee says
September 1, 2015 at 11:15 pmAwesome job – love your room and all the modeling/hard work you have put in it. Looks wonderful!
Teach Speech 365 says
September 2, 2015 at 9:43 amIt’s so pretty!!!! You guys did an amazing job!
Meredith Chassen says
September 5, 2015 at 2:20 amAs usual, it looks amazing! I am so happy that you have not left the schools for good. I hope you are loving your time this year and spending it with your family. This time is precious. My son is now 10 and I’m so lucky that when he was 1 I was only working 3 days at my school. Have a great year!
Allison says
September 16, 2015 at 10:13 pmHello! Congrats on your new room. It is absolutely gorgeous! I too did a remodel and changed my craft room into my private therapy room almost 2 years ago now. I love my job each and every day and wish you the best of luck. I have a very important question for you though…where on earth did you find your therapy table? I have a much smaller version for my pre-schoolers but don’t have anything very adequate for my older students. Right now I’m pulling two desks together so that we cam both fit! It works but not the best look. PLEASE let me know!
Nicole Allison says
September 17, 2015 at 1:01 pmHow exciting that you also have a private therapy room! I ordered mine on Pottery Barn. A little pricey but I love it-perfect size for both my students and I to sit at the table :). I wish you the very best this year!
Chikina says
September 20, 2015 at 4:54 pmThank you for sharing. YOur Speech Room looks AMAZING!!!!!! Keep up the Awesome work. 😉
amanda says
December 18, 2015 at 8:11 pmI love the idea of this. It is beyond beautiful. If only my child had a room like this where she goes. She happens to get very antsy.
Jennifer says
March 23, 2016 at 8:41 pmLove this! Where did you get the bookshelves and one under the window?
Jennifer says
March 23, 2016 at 8:49 pmOh nevermind! Just saw you got them on Craigslist! This is so inspiring!
Brooke says
April 3, 2016 at 9:22 pmI’m an SLP grad student currently, and I would love to hear more about this AT HOME therapy that you’re doing with home school kiddo’s! What type of company are your working for? I’ve never heard of anyone doing this! Very cool! Your speech room looks awesome! 🙂
Nicole Allison says
April 5, 2016 at 5:52 pmHi Brooke!
The company I work for is called Devon Therapy Group. They contract with me and provide me with students who are usually being schooled at home through a charter school (like an online school). The ones that have IEPs still need their services to be fulfilled so that’s where I come in. The students come to me and the company pays me for the speech they receive. Thanks for the compliment on my room. It was a lot of work lol!
Alli G, SLP says
April 8, 2016 at 4:40 pmWhoa. Ok, so once I got over how amazingly beautiful this speech room is… I then started feeling creeped out by our twin lives, lol. My name is Allison, I work as the only SLP in my k-12 district, am currently renovating our attic into an office space for home speech sessions, and am momma to 2 baby girls. See? Soul sistas. I love love your space! I also need to pick your brain about how you have such a wonderful set-up of doing speech from home, but someone else doing all of your billing without the pain of starting a private practice?! Um…Sign me up! If you have a moment, I’d love to hear more about that so I can copy your life some more 🙂
Nicole Allison says
April 9, 2016 at 12:50 amlol oh my goodness, I wish I could meet you in real life! I know we’d have so much fun! I’d love to see pics of your home office once it’s complete. Renovations can be a nightmare going through them but are so worth it in the end. Keep me updated, twinsie!
Lindsay says
April 13, 2016 at 1:04 pmO. M. G. This is stunning! What a beautiful room! I love how it’s not too much, not too little. You really have the essentials yet it’s so beautifully organized. You really have an eye for this! Thank you for sharing the process. This is really inspiring.
Nicole Allison says
April 17, 2016 at 1:28 amThank you so much Lindsay, that really means a lot to me! It was a lot of work and planning lol and I’m so thankful it’s finally finished 🙂
Annie says
February 25, 2017 at 5:22 amRandom question! I noticed you have your certifications/degrees framed in both your school & home speech rooms. Did you photocopy them? Just wondering because I bought some cute document frames for mine, but then realized my degrees are actually bigger than the frames. Now I’m debating whether to trim the originals or just frame a copy. Thanks!
Nicole Allison says
March 10, 2017 at 8:29 pmHi Annie!
I actually bought the document frames from Ikea (they have colorful ones in document size frames so no cutting needs to happen!
Stéphanie LE BORGNE says
March 14, 2017 at 4:41 pmHi from France ! I am speechtherapist for 21 years… ( private pratice ) Soon, I will work in a new office that I can decorate as I want. I was looking for ideas on internet and I find your blog ! I want to tell you that your speechroom is BEAUTIFUL !!! I love the colors you choose and all the details to organize and decorate ! Congratulations !!!
Nicole Allison says
March 14, 2017 at 6:40 pmAww thank you so much! It is wonderful to be able to have your own space 🙂
I’d love to see pictures of yours after it’s completed!
Jennifer says
May 20, 2017 at 3:07 amPrecious speech therapy office! I also love the staircase! What paint color did you use on the walls? I am looking for a calming paint color for my speech therapy room at school.
Nicole Allison says
May 25, 2017 at 7:55 pmThank you so much Jennifer!! Unfortunately, I do not have the name of the paint anymore but I know it was from Lowes!
Malka says
October 12, 2020 at 8:15 pmSo pretty! Where did you find the kiddie table and chairs?
Nicole Allison says
October 13, 2020 at 2:50 pmThank you! I found them at Pottery Barn Kids!