My Creative Escapes - photography, crafting, DIY and more: March 2011

I took my kids craft area from this:

To this:

My craft room basement was all over the place (see here and here)

And now it is at least a little more clean. I want to build out a table and make it a little nicer. Make it look special for them - they love their crafting.

This container is filled with Playdoh on the top, random stuff in the middle, and all the painting supplies in the bottom drawer.

This table was left in our house when we bought it. I still need to find place for the stuff on the top. That is wood stuff and ceramic's to be painted.

I got this desk for like $8 at a thrift store. I love Amvets! That place rocks! There are markers on top, paper on the side and then coloring books on the other side.

The top drawers have markers, crayons and color pencils. Love myself some organization.

Bottom has random paper cut outs, finished art, paper, ect.

I made this for my younger daughter. Still need to make it for the older one. I took a piece of drywall, some fabric - vinyl letters cut with my cricut. Then I took paint, and when it was wet - covered it with glitter. I outlined it with glue and added more glitter.

Close up of the writing container.

Overall - I am happy for now. It has a ways to go - but the girls love going down there and doing crafts with mommy - what's better than that!

And - side note - this evening was great. I was sewing and my oldest was down there (4.5 year old). She was so excited to see me do it. She wanted to learn. Mommy - how do I learn to do that. Did you learn that it school! I laughed and said - yeah - I did. Her eyes got wide as she is getting ready to go to kindergarten, knowing school might mean learning to sew - it was SO CUTE. I love my kids and their eagerness to be creative.

First - this is how it started...if you want to see all of the after - go here for my before's and afters.

Here is the table emptied.

And then primed,

And then with all of the drawers in it. In it's finished state. If you want to see how they were made - go here.

Here are the upclose of the drawers.

I looked at the layout - and figured in each section - I could do 4 drawers that were 16 inches wide and 6 inches tall and 2 that were 12 inches wide and 6 inches tall. All the drawers were around 26 inches deep.

So I made a list of materials for my hubby to pick up. 6 - 1x4's, then 6 - 1x3's and I think 5 - 1x2's. Then for the drawer assembly I used 2 sheets of 1/2 stock of plywood I think it was. Glad I went with that over 3/4 MDF - that would have been heavy! Home Depot rocks and made the 6 inch rips for me - and the drawer bottoms. For the drawer bottoms - the 12" ones they were 12" wide by 25 inch's deep (one inch less than the depth I wanted to take into account my drawer fronts and backs.) I had 4 of those total. And for the 16" ones - there were 8 of those - and they were 16" by 25 inches deep.

So here is the basic construction. You can see I only painted the fronts :) it's all you see! So I made all of my cuts - that was a lot! I had to cut 4 sides for 12 drawers! Lots of saw dust was flying!

I first glued and nailed (I think with 1 inch brad nails), from the bottom of the base into the drawer front. Then I glued three sides to the side's of the drawer (all but the top). I nailed through the front into the side, then the bottom into the side of the drawer. Then I did the other side of the drawer. Lastly I put the bottom on. The glue was already on the sides of the drawer for the back- a few nails into the sides and through the bottom - and we are good to go.

Here you can see the depth.

Ahh yes - sometimes I should measure as I go instead of just cutting. But - it still works - and this is another reason you can totally tell it was made by me - not perfect on the outside - but perfect to me.

Here is the basic construction of the table turned cabinet. I used 1x3's 1x2's and 1x4's mostly for the overall construction.

So across the middle - I took the 1x4's - measured across - I believe it was 54 inches long.

Used my awesome Kreg Jig. Really gets it secure in there! I used three 1 1/4 screws on each side to make it stable. I did one in the front and one in the back for the supports.

Then I went looking through all the wood we had in the garage - and found two pieces that fit across the top - they were about 54 inches long and about 26 inches in depth. Perfect! I think I used wainscoating on one - and left over plywood on the other.

Then for the dividers. I used 1x3's as the gliders. I wanted each drawer to "fit" perfectly into it's own home. So I put these here. Funny story - as you are looking to do this. Keep in mind - your nailer will only go so far before hitting the top of where you are trying to squeeze into. I nailed it into the wood sideways.

I had every intention of using the 1x3 across the bottom row of drawers - not just the top. But - then I would have miss-measured. The two sets of 6 inch height drawers would have been too tall - it worked perfect not using them anyways - so they get to get returned!

You can see here that it rests right on the plywood

On the top row - I used 1x3's on the bottom for the drawer to sit on to glide in and out. And then the 1x2 is standing with the 2" side going up and down - so the drawer and slide against it. (Hope this makes sense - I should have taken pictures and notes along the way).

Then I used 1x4's as support. Because the weight of the drawers will be heavy. So I nailed into the top of the long 1x4 the first time. Then I realized that it would have been easier to use the kreg jig before I put all the long 54 inch long 1x4's in. I learned the 2nd time!