Knockoff: DIY Land of Nod Kid's Activity Art Table

Are you all familiar with Land of Nod?  They have the most radical stuff and I want all of it.  Not awesome?  The damn prices.

Land of Nod Kid's Play Table

Have you seen this activity table? Pretty sweet, huh?  Well, that sweet little piece of playtime fun will run you $450.  But in their defense, the two rolling storage bins and leg extensions are included.  Still, there's no way I could drop 450 clams on a play table. I mean, let's be real, I'm a stay at home mom with a budget to keep. So, what is a girl to do?  Copy it, of course, and I had the perfect table just waiting to be converted.

Supplies:

• Table ~ ours was our old college drinking game coffee table
• Wood filler
• Paint
• Dowel
• Wooden end cap for paper roll
• Stanely brand Safety Cup Hook (used to hold the paper roll)
• Screws
• Hanging Rod & Hanging Baskets from Ikea

Once again, I got to work sanding.  And, once again, I started to get the shakes when it came time to paint.  So, I moved the table to our laundry room and it sat there for months.  I was just not sold on painting the entire thing the Behr "Rolling Hills" green that I had picked up at Home Depot.  Until, I had a light bulb moment (ding!) and it dawned on me that this would be the perfect piece to paint a chevron design on (another thing that I find myself being obsessed with.)

And finally, after filling the ridges with wood filler, I was painting. Because I'm more of a "wing-it" type, I traced out the chevron pattern with a stray binder the hubs had laying around and then started painting the first of three coats "Rolling Hills" and leftover "Glacier Blue" (see a trend here?  Note to self:  A gallon is overdoing it.)

 

After a few weeks of just sitting in the laundry room (again!) with only one coat left to paint on only half of the table, I finally got my butt back in gear to finish.  I threw the last coat on the top and sides and then guess what happened?

Yep, you guessed it.  It sat there.  Seriously folks, It sat for MONTHS.  And while it sat, I worked on other projects, we celebrated Luke's 1st birthday, we moved, we worked on our new house projects, and WE sat.  I was so unmotivated to do anything aside from laze around on the couch that I hid the project from sight.  And then our little artist lit the fire under my butt by drawing on the walls.  The next day, I was up and painting the legs.  After a few coats and some hardware installation...

This art table was FINALLY finished!  I'm excited to start our first art project and just in time for Valentine's Day!

Check out those mini-beanbag chairs.  They are Land of Nod, but I scored them on Craigs!

So, what retail item have you thought, "I can totally make that!"?