Tag Archives: projects

Pinterest and My Inner Crafter

So I’ve become somewhat addicted to a site called Pinterest. It’s a place where you “pin” your “interest” onto boards. You title a board (I have a board called “For the Kids” for example) and you pin things you find around the Internet to it. On my “For the Kids” board, I’ve pinned things like sewing patterns for skirts for Elle, creative food presentations to make eating lunch or dinner more enticing, and fun crafts to do together.

Addictions aren’t always positive, but I think that this one is. It has helped me to be more creative and to make an effort to make things more fun for the kids and for me. Ted and I bought a few items at IKEA the last time we were there shopping for Rhett’s furniture and one item that was never assembled was a very plain toy box. It’s finished exactly like Elle’s table and chair set in her bedroom: plain, unfinished light-colored wood with white seating and table surfaces.

So I stumbled on this awesome find on Pinterest:

And I immediately knew that I wanted to do this with unused toy box. I got the toy box out from under Rhett’s dresser, started thinking up ideas, made a trip to Michael’s for some spray paint for the wood and chalkboard spray paint, and got to work last night. I was able to get the wood spray painted thanks to Ted driving to four different stores to get me some more of the exact spray paint I had picked out (and for future reference, Walmart carried Krylon spray paint – I had picked up the last of the almond satin finish Krylon at Michael’s). I let the paint dry outside over night.

This morning I taped off the spray painted areas of the toy box cover and spray painted the chalkboard on. It’s sitting the garage drying right now and hopefully tonight I’ll have time to assemble the toy box. I’m excited to see the finished product.

I have more plans in store for the plain white sides of the toy box, like Martha Stewart’s stencil patterns that are $16.99 at Michael’s, but it’s a little too pricey for me right now so I’m waiting until we have a little more expendable income. I’d use the stencils for so much more than just the toy box so it’ll be a good investment. I have designs on using it for wall patterns when I’m feeling extra ambitious. 🙂

I also saw a spray paint that creates a magnetic board so I’m pondering making one side of the toy box magnetic so it can also be a learning center for Elle as well. I’d buy those little magnetic alphabets and using that a letter recognition teaching tool.

I can’t wait to share the finished chalkboard toy box with y’all!