Classroom decor comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, and styles. There are a million choices to make and you could spend hours and hours looking for a classroom theme, or trying to piece together a theme from resources all over the internet.
One decision you have to make when choosing a classroom theme is if you want a classroom theme from a store or one that comes as a digital file that you can print on your own. For the last 7+ years I’ve been creating printable classroom decor. Over that time, I’ve heard from so many teachers that they prefer classroom decor they can print for all the reasons this blog lays out. Here are the reasons I prefer printable classroom decor over pre-printed decor. To save time, checkout the table of contents to skip to exactly what you want to read!
One of the best things about being a teacher is making the classroom your own. You get to choose your own classroom management style, how the desks will be organized, what systems you’ll use to grade and give back papers, etc. As a teacher, you have the power to make the classroom your own!
Why not carry that personalization over into your classroom decor? If you purchase pre-printed classroom decor, it’s much harder to personalize. Not everything has space to make it your own, and products like desk nameplates require you to write in your student’s names with a sharpie. (Anyone else ever stress out about messing up the spelling or not having perfect hand writing?)
Printable classroom decor takes all the stress out of personalizing your classroom by letting you type exactly what you need directly into the products! No more sharpies, no need for perfect handwriting – just type and print!
This is perfect for creating a personalized Meet the Teacher or Binder Cover from my Nature Classroom Decor Bundle.
To help make this process even easier, I embed the fonts I use right into the Powerpoint files so you can create files that look just like the PDFs I provide in the bundle! Ninety-nine percent of the files in all my bundles are text editable giving you the power to create what you need. Use posters to create your own classroom rules posters, create your own jobs for the classroom job chart, add student names for the birthday board. The options are limitless!
Being a teacher often means you’ve got to purchase what your classroom needs out of your own pocket. Why not choose classroom decor that gives you unbeatable value? Purchasing pre-printed classroom gives you a bundle of many different products. But what happens if you don’t need all the products? You’re going to have to throw away things you paid for. What happens if the pre-printed decor comes with student nameplates for your 25 students and you get 3 new students throughout the year?
Using digital classroom decor that you print yourself gives you maximum value because you only print what you need! If you don’t need something in the bundle, you can save paper and not print it – you don’t need to throw any excess away!
Last year I did a Classroom Makeover for an incredible Math and Science Teacher using my Modern Neutrals Classroom Decor Bundle, and I was able to print exactly what I needed! The project took multiple days, and after working for the first day I realized I need more items from the bundle so I was able to print them and have them right away! I saved so much time from going to the store!
I’m writing this in 2024, and as of right now nearly all my bundles have 40 products or more. Printable Classroom Decor can’t offer that many products without charging you an arm and a leg. Not only are there a lot of products, but many of the products come with multiple designs. Which means you can easily use the same theme for multiple years and still have a different look. Checkout some of the different options from my Space Classroom Decor alphabet set!
Over the last 2 years I’ve added 15+ products to each of my bundles, and everyone who purchased got those updates for free! Digital classroom decor offers immense value in getting future updates for free – it truly is a gift that keeps on giving 🙂
One of the products I’ve added to some of my bundles is Google Classroom Slides! Using digital classroom decor allows you to easily pair it with digital products like slides that match perfectly! Here’s a small sample of the slides included in the Vintage Vibes Classroom Decor Bundle. Having the synergy of classroom decor you can print and digital resources like classroom slides that match is the ultimate value!
Setting up a classroom with a cohesive look puts every teacher’s mind at ease, and having one bundle that has everything you need is the best place to start! Unfortunately because printed classroom decor has to be packaged, shipped, and sold at an affordable price they don’t always have everything you need to decorate your room.
The end result is that you have to look all over Pinterest to get classroom decor that looks similar and hope it all goes together. This could take hours and hours looking in every nook and cranny of the internet hoping you can get colors that are similar enough to “make it work”.
Instead, the benefit of printable classroom decor is that it doesn’t have to be packaged and shipped. That means I’m not worried about the bundle being too big, I pack it full of goodies so teachers have everything they need to decorate their room. All the colors and clipart sync together perfectly because everything was designed to match. For example, look at how put together this Space Classroom Decor Bundle looks when it’s all put together!
Anyone who has taught knows that kids get fidgety. They peel their desk nameplate, they pull decor off bulletin boards, they have to touch everything. Literally everything.
If you buy pre-printed classroom decor and something rips you’re out of luck. You might have one or two extras in the pack but it’s a long year to hope only one or two things rip. Instead, if you have printable classroom decor it’s no problem because you can print a new copy by lunch! The peace of mind of knowing you don’t have to perfectly protect everything in your classroom to make it through the year is priceless!
When you purchase classroom decor, you want to make sure you think about more than just one year through. Filling your walls with decorations requires a lot of tape, hot glue and sticky tack. At the end of the year as you take that down, there’s going to be a lot of decorations that aren’t usable anymore. If you only bought pre-printed decor you’re guaranteed to have to buy a new theme next year. But if you but printable classroom decor then all you need to do is reprint your decor for next year. You can save a lot of what you’ve already printed and just fill in the gaps. No need to buy a new theme every single year!
As I mentioned earlier, 99% of every bundle is text editable. This gives you maximum flexibility to make your classroom exactly what you need! What I didn’t mention is that this also gives you the opportunity to add a different language if you’re an ESOL teacher!
Imagine how easy organization becomes when you can use labels that match your classroom theme and allow you to type exactly what’s in the storage box! Below you’ll see some labels from my Bright and Simple Classroom Decor Bundle. The photo shows you options with typed font and what they look like blank so you can easily add whatever you need to using Powerpoint to fit your organizational needs! If you need help editing your classroom decor, be sure to check out my blog – 5 Tips to Editing Classroom Decor.
Beyond just changing the text, for some files such as hand signals and some primary alphabet posters I provide blank copies so you can add your own clipart if you need even more options for personalization! My goal with every product I make is to make your classroom perfect for what you need!
My favorite thing about printable classroom decor is that you have immediate access! I know we all want to be the teacher who begins planning for the next school year in May and buys their decor way ahead of time. In reality, most of us are spending summer recovering from a crazy year and decorating our classrooms isn’t a thought until pre-planning! There’s usually a moment of panic and then we choose our decorations just before it’s time to decorate. Anybody else ever make this face when you realize you need your decor now, not two days from now?
If you’re using printable classroom decor you have immediate access to your purchase! No need to make time to take a trip to your local decor store, or to wait for Amazon to deliver your classroom decor. Less waiting means more decorating and getting to lesson planning so the rest of your year can go smoothly! Not only do you have immediate access, you also have lifetime access so you can save time each year by not taking a trip to the store and reusing your printable classroom decor!
Every teacher knows the feeling of having to move schools or move to a new classroom. There are countless manipulatives, books and resources that have to be packed up and moved. The last thing you want to worry about storing and transporting is flimsy paper classroom decor. You don’t need to have the stress of trying to take everything of the wall perfectly (and being careful removing the tape) so that it stacks neatly inside of storage bin to be moved to the next room.
Instead, if you have printable classroom decor all of your decorations are on a thumb drive or your laptop. You can easily reprint it after moving to a new classroom and you don’t need to worry about saving every little piece. The best part is even if the file gets deleted on your laptop (or you have to turn in your laptop to the school), you have lifetime access to your file by logging into your account on my website, Teachers Pay Teachers, or Etsy. You’ll never lose a digital copy of your classroom decor, instead you’ll spend your time sipping coffee knowing your classroom decor is always safe!
Decorating your classroom is always a difficult decision. Make the decision easier by considering printable classroom decor over pre-printed decor. This option gives you the best value, the most flexibility, and helps you transform your classroom into exactly what you need! If you need help choosing a classroom theme, take my simple Quiz that will tell you in 2 minutes or less which classroom theme is perfect for you based on your decor style!
Let me know in the comments below – do you use printable or pre-printed classroom decor for your room?
