Comments on: SC Makeover

By: My Multi-Site Makeover | Children's Ministry Online

My Multi-Site Makeover | Children's Ministry Online — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 05:08:27 +0000

[...] SC Makeover Soul Revolution at Gateway Church and the 60-60 Experiment Dec 16 [...]

By: jonathan

jonathan — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:37:10 +0000

Where have I been? I must have missed this post…

Have you made the changes, or ordered what it’s gonna take to make them?

By: Cathy Harwick

Cathy Harwick — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:44:41 +0000

Hey Kenny! In the portable church setting’s that I’ve restructured and remodeled and launched from scratch, we used a variety of features. From what I can tell, I think I saw some “portable church” built storage containers? We actually lined one wall with the cm portable church containers in the elementary room against the glass wall for 2 reasons, one being safety because it wasn’t safety glass and the second being a sound barrier. So, you could conceivably do the same with your containers as a way to block off the a section in the room and all clutter is behind that. To build a stage/back you can also use the pipe with drape but if you want to bring color into the room what do you think about spandex. This stuff is the bomb and allows color to flow in the room and then you can get carpets to contrast against that. American carpets are also great carpets and they have some awesome colors. Do you guys have a plotter? If not, then that would definitely be a great investment. There are so many things you can do creatively with a plotter like stage design, props, banners, anything larger than life, pretty much you name it, you got it. Do you guys have portable storage for carpets? Nursery…..Yah, the “pastel” colored spandex with pipe and you can also get the vinyl mats in pastel along with the “American” brand carpets in pastels as well. We also used the fold ‘n lock storage units to store the toys, booties, etc… and I purchased white wicker baskets w/liners to place in the cubies of these fold ‘n lock storage units and white wicker hampers for volunteers to place their shoes in. The white wicker baskets & hampers I ordered from Wal-Mart online. The fold ‘n lock storage units can be ordered with wheels and also can be ordered in contrasting colors which makes the portable setting of building the rooms pop! Preschool…..the drape and frame as well either using the spandex or black and double with the snap and lock vinyl primary color dividers. Again, the American carpets in primary, vinyl mats, vinyl tumble plays and contrast with tables and chairs. We used the molded lightweight tables and the plastic stackable chairs. The kinderlinks which portable church seems to offer did not work well in the portable church setting because it really didn’t define each child their own space. We also used the fold ‘n lock storage units and also portable diaper changing stations on wheels that can be ordered in different colors. The diaper changing stations on wheels are great and allows for lots of storage as well. I personally DO NOT like clutter and am all about a very clean, neat environment for all areas. We also had the media bins made from portable church as well for the video games, etc… if this is the route you want to go. Of course, if you have volunteers who can build than you can actually do these yourself. I think I might have some pictures of these portable type settings and I would be more than happy to send them to you if you would like. Hope this helps!

By: Matt McKee

Matt McKee — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:31:00 +0000

I prefer the 8 foot pipe and drape over the 3 or 4 foot option every time. It just makes the room look more uniform in my opinion. Speaking of uniform. . . Make sure whatever you do that it is similar in each room. It doesn’t have to be exactly the same in each room but each room shouldn’t have 5 things making 1 wall. Also, when doing your set backdrop using the pipe and drape system, you can put your printed material over your black curtains if you are using a thin material. Simply print the signs with a 2 inch top border/ grommet the top and attach to the back of the drape. On your hallways: Your signs around your rooms are fine but you need more pop. I would think about using the faces of the kids that come to your church or kids from stock photos to liven up the space. They make sign holders that attach to the the ceiling grid above that you could hang some pictures of kids and it would give you heighth that you are missing right now as well. I agree with the no chairs and using carpet to add more color and for small groups. Also the diaper changing situation is bad. Seriously look into getting a portable changing station. I know I have talked about colored foam board with you in the past as well. You could simply cut out different shapes like triangles, squares, circles, etc in all different colors and give each room a shape theme. So one preschool room side would be the triangle room and the other the circle room. The space is just so white and needs some texture/color that is kept consistent in each area. You want uniformity for brand sake and simplicity for set up sake. Of course this is all just my opinion and I hope it helps.

By: Desiree Good

Desiree Good — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:47:32 +0000

I would definitely suggest using the 8 ft. tall pipe and drape. It makes all the difference in the world to hide the school stuff that would be behind it. There are so many fun color options of banjo cloth out there it can really make the room feel like a kids space. The ‘guts’ of your rooms are great, you have most of the stuff that is needed to make it feel kid comfortable, you just need to be able to hide the fact that they are meeting in a classroom/band room and pipe and drape would definitely do that.

We use at least 1 wall as a themed wall and have the room theme printed on fabric celtic cloth by Wacky Wallscapes and hang this in the same way that you hang pipe and drape. Unless you are putting the fabric in front of windows, transparancy isn’t a problem. We usually do a theme wall that is 8′ x 24′ and have tried to stay away from customizing the size to fit a certain room as we sometimes have to change rooms or locations and want the same wall to work anywhere we go. 24′ long seems to work, we’ve even sometimes had to bend a corner with the mural and it still works. We just request 4″ pockets on the top and bottom of the mural so we can still hang it from the pipe and drape, we just use sharp scissors when we first hang it and cut small slits on the back side of the pocket at the top so we can hang the mural around the upright. That way we can keep the mural in one solid piece and not have to cut it in sections. (sounds confusing but I may be able to find a pic to help explain if needed).

I hope this info helps!!