Kid's Pretend Store

Have you ever shopped for wood at the Home Depot scrap bins? You will find 'imperfect' wood cuts upto 70% off retail value. I get tons of my wood there. This time, I got all the wood I used for this store for less than $5. A few boards were free, hurray! They were really badly cut and had a few holes in them so I cut off the bad parts and used the good parts; I am happy they worked out great. I mean, you can see the imperfections in the store but they are minor. I am sure my kids don't mind.

This picture was taken on my phone but I just had to share

 

 

This grocery store/lemonade stand was my inspiration, Source

... and this DIY play stand found on Ana White

Here is my cut list:
Wood:
1 x 7 @ 26″ (2) – side boards
1 x 11.5 @ 30.5″  – Counter top
1 x 7.5 @ 28.5″ (2) – shelves
1 x 4 @ 28.5″  (1) – rung below counter
1 x 2 @ 28.5"  (1) – rung above bottom shelf
1 x 2 @ 26″ (2) – side posts

Plexiglass 28.5" x 18"
Cardboard box - 33" x 12"
Fabric - 34" x 24"

Tools:
Hammer
Finish nails
Glue gun
Jig Saw

Join the two side boards (1 x 7 @ 26″) together with one 1 x 4 @ 28.5″ rung, using wood glue and nails.

Attach the second support board 1 x 2 @ 28.5" on top where the counter will rest

I am sure there is an easier way to make this store but I had to make use of the wood I had on hand, remember most of it came from the scrap bin thus the markings and uneven cuts

Attach the shelf (1 x 7.5 @ 28.5″) right above the 1 x 4 @ 28.5″ rung. Then attach the counter top.

Here is how it should look after the bottom shelf is attached. Once I had my basic box completed, I painted it using a regular paint brush with the colors red for the counter top and white for the rest

Now, cut the tops of the side posts about 3" off at a 90 degree angle (as indicated in the picture). This will make the roof slope once added.

Attach the posts onto the 2 side boards using glue and nails.

I added plexiglass using my hot glue gun. I only attached it at the top and bottom (on the 28.5 x 1.5 strips).

I added the plexiglass just for fun (its totally optional)

This is the roof. I used a piece of cardboard box 33" x 12"

Wrap the fabric as shown and once again I used hot glue to attach the fabric to the box. I use hot glue for almost everything:) It has never failed me

Then using a single nail, I attached the roof to the side posts

It's a good size, my kids love it and I am glad it turned out well..

Check out my other popular DIY kids' pretend kitchen here, the doll crib here and Diana's Apron here

 

This store was featured on:



 

 

Baby Doll Crib

A doll crib was a perfect birthday present for my 3 year old daughter, Diana. She turned 3 on the 05/26/2013. I had all the supplies I needed for this little crib. I only spent $6

It turned out well and it is very loved. It's cute to see her put her baby to sleep every night after bedtime stories

Diana's favorite thing this past spring was picking up flowers. She picked every dandelion she could find around our home and gave them to me. Diana is the best daughter ever. She constantly cracks us up with her humor. She has a cute personality and is loved every where she goes. She is an awesome big sister to Eli and I love to watch them play together. I feel very blessed to have this little girl in my life.

For her birthday, I went online and searched for a perfect gift for her. I came across these cute doll cribs and knew Diana would enjoy playing with one. 1 - Overstock/2 - Pottery Barn

Then I went and searched for DIY cribs and I came across this awesome plan from  Ana White, pictured below.

I tweaked the crib plan because I don't have a Kreg jig. I am noticing that almost every project calls for a Kreg Jig and its definitely on my Birthday/Christmas wishlist. I added a changing table and a place for her to store her baby's blankets and accessories.

Here are some pictures of the doll crib I made:

 Instead of using the kreg jig, here is what I used:
1/4" Dowel pins
Drill driver with 1/4" speedbor flat bit 
Wood glue

Using a drill driver with a flat bit, I made 1/4" holes in the rails and the base and top

Then I put together the 2 pieces (the rails and the bottom and top rails).
Then I stuck the dowel pins into the holes and added some glue.

The crib is very steady and am glad I didn't have to use the kreg jig. You can find the rest of the tutorial here

The doll crib from Pottery Barn and Overstock are around $75 each. The price is very reasonable, and I would have purchased either one of the cribs  if I didn't have the supplies I needed to make one on my own. My doll crib cost $6, not too bad, right?

The instructions on how I made the changing table can be found here.

 

Whale wall decor

Remember the  nautical nursery storyboard for Eli's room? Well, this is the one piece I was not so sure I could pull off. I must say it was very thrilling to make, it looks awesome and its quite big. The whale measures 34" x 20" long

This is what you will need:
2 red cedar fence board
Newspaper (or any large piece of paper)
9 mending plates
Minwax wood finish
Picture hangers
A rug or paint brush
A pen or pencil

Here is my inspiration picture from PBK. I have no idea how much it costs. I even wonder if they ever sold it, it was just part of the room and I loved it. I found these kind of whales for $100 on Etsy and it only cost me about $12 to make my very own..hurray!

Cut boards in half and arrange them like above. Draw a picture of a whale on the newspaper (if you look closely, you will see I had to adjust and redraw mine several times). Cut out the drawing from your paper and using a pencil draw alone the edges of the cutout onto the boards.

Here is how it looked like after

Then I whipped out my favorite tool of all times. My saw, this is one item I would take with me to my grave yes our relationship is that deep. I have used it on all my wood cutting projects, love it love it love it!!

source

Cut up all my pieces, one board at a time

Is that cool or what? The jig saw cut through this board like it was butter. It's the first time I have used it for something this precise and it delivered:)

I turned it around and screwed in the mending plates where the boards came together. Then I nailed in the picture hangers, one on the tail and the other on the head (not shown in picture).

I used this stain, love this stuff

Love it!

Christmas Wood Poster

This was a fun project for me. I have seen these boards everywhere on Pinterest and I was dying to make one. It turned out pretty good and I am excited to do a few more in this ally:)

It was very easy to make but a little time consuming. At the end of making this, we had a lot of our furniture painted white because my little helper was very eager to help out in her own special way.

If you want to make one for yourself, here is what you will need:

• 2 fence boards 5/8" X 3.5" X 60" each from Lowes (my new favorite store) and I had them cut the boards into 6 pieces for me. So each board was 20" long.


• Harmer


• Stain paint


• Paint brush


• Nails


• White graphite paper (not shown in picture)


• White acrylic paint


• Small paint brush

1. I aligned my boards and fastened them with 2 boards and nails on the back as shown below

2. With the 2 boards on the back, my poster had a spine and it could stand

3. Here is the wood finish, I got dark walnut - used it for the first time and loved it.

4. I used the brush to paint at first but didn't like it. It was laying it darker than I wanted so I used a dish cloth to finish it off.

5. I just dipped the rug into the stain can and rubbed it onto the wood. I really liked the effects because I could see the grains of the wood better:)

6. Here is how it looks after its been painted with the rug

7. I don't have a picture, but next I used Microsoft word to type up my wordings, printed it on white regular paper and used my white graphite paper to trace my words onto the wood. You can get the graphite paper  from Hobby Lobby  (white for dark surfaces and black graphite paper for light surfaces)  really  awesome stuff! I'm excited to do a few more projects with it:)
After tracing, I hand painted all the words with a tiny brush and white paint.

Enjoy!