Review and giveaway: Ikea Måla art supplies

Just over a week ago, some packages arrived from Ikea. They contained two sets of Måla art supplies – one for us and one for you (well, one of you, at least).

I opened the packages up in the morning, when both girls were up at some ridiculously early hour, in the hopes of keeping them occupied for a bit, while I could wake up with a cup of tea. It’s still keeping them occupied, over a week later – and me!

The best part of the package was the easel, which has a blackboard on one side and whiteboard on the other, with a tray for art supplies and a rail for a paper roll. We’ve thought about getting an easel a few times, but never did in the end – concerned that they take up too much space and wouldn’t get used much. Well, yes, they do take up a fair bit of space, but not getting used much is definitely not a worry. I really do wish we’d got one a long time ago.

Both of the girls love to draw and having two wipe-clean surfaces on which to do so, saves on a lot of paper and a lot of mess. Rosemary is a bit of a perfectionist and can go through 10 pieces of screwed-up paper before she completes a picture as she wants it, so being able to easily wipe out her mistakes is a huge benefit. We’ve taken to capturing the ones they’re particularly proud of on camera, so that they can wipe the boards clean and start afresh. Though every now and again there is a little bit of a meltdown about a picture having been wiped clean or ‘ruined’.

I’m enjoying the easel myself and have taken to wiping it clean every morning, ready for the day’s new pictures and words. But then I usually end up drawing a picture myself or writing messages to Rosemary. Having a wipe-clean, always-there drawing surface is great for me, as well:

There was also a big roll of paper (that fixes to the easel, for ease of access), a box of chalks, a box of whiteboard pens, a box of felt tips, a set of paintbrushes and a set of paints. We’ve only used the paper once, because both girls wanted to play with the roll – Eleanor just wanted to pull all the paper off like a huge roll of tissue and Rosemary wanted to keep dolls in a gap created by pulling the paper out a little. It’s going to come out now and then for special pictures, I think, at least until Eleanor’s a bit older. We haven’t used the paints and brushes yet, because I have this big fear of mess from painting (yes, I know, it’s irrational considering the amount of other mess in the house, but most fears are irrational). They’ll probably come out when there are grandparents around to supervise and clean up. The felt tips are of a good quality and Rosemary enjoys the stamps at the other end of the pen.

I was astounded at how cheap all of this is. To be honest I thought there was probably around £100-worth of stuff in the package, it seemed so good. In fact, it’s less than half that and the easel itself is only just over £15, which is very good value.

The only real disappointment with this collection of art supplies is that they’re not available for sale online and have to be bought in store. This is the case with far too many Ikea products, in my opinion – this is the opinion of someone who doesn’t drive and doesn’t live close to an Ikea store, admittedly. I was actually thinking that I’d get another set of the whiteboard pens (one of them has been broken by Eleanor, while I was dozing on the sofa at 4am one morning) and maybe some more chalks (quite a few of them have been – mostly deliberately – broken and we’re getting through them pretty quickly) when I place the order for the storage units (that I’ve almost definitely settled on), but I’ll just have to get some different ones from elsewhere.

Ikea have a Facebook page, with a couple of interesting/fun bits to look at in particular:

• The Play Report is a global survey into children, families and play. There are some interesting findings.
• Toy Stories is a fun Facebook application which allows you to build a story with your child.

For your chance to win the same set of art supplies as we have, leave a comment below about your own children’s (or your) experience with play and/or art. Winners will be drawn randomly on 4 February, in remembrance of my father who would have been 66 on that day. He would have loved seeing his granddaughters’ burgeoning creativity and probably would have had a scribble himself.

The competition is open to UK residents only, and if you live round the corner I’d be especially pleased to see an entry from you, because I forgot to ask for them to be dispatched direct to the winner and they’re currently sat in my basement. But I’m happy to send it out to anyone in the UK.

This giveaway is now closed.