Scavenger Chic

Convertible Play Table for the Kids

• By Joan
• May 19, 2016
• 6 Comments

Earlier in the week I showed you the coffee table I made from an antique  clothes wringer rack.

After playing with it a while, I figured why stop there? If you’re short of space, don’t want 2 tables in your living room, tired of stepping on itty bitty toys…this coffee table could be easily transformed into the perfect kids play table.

If the tray was facing up, it would be a great place for the kids to stick some of those toys with a billion pieces.

A toy such as Legos.  I had 3 boys, I know all about billion piece Lego sets.

Since I’m already envisioning a play table, how about taking the play table to the next level.  How about a tabletop with roads to hold  matchbox cars.

Like I said, I had 3 boys.

Back to the hardware store where I was looking for a piece of mdf so that I could make my matchbox town.

I found the mdf, but right next to it was a 2×4 foot piece of chalk board.  It was smooth on one side, perfect for my matchbox town, and a chalkboard on the other. How great is that?  A triple duty coffee table.

The chalkboard couldn’t have been easier.  Two cuts, and I have myself a chalkboard all contained within the coffee table.

Hint: Don’t make the cuts super tight, you want to be able to flip the board over.

Now for the other side of the chalkboard, a matchbox town.

I could handpaint all the houses but printing them out from the computer would be so much easier.

On the internet I found a bunch of buildings I could use for my Matchbox town.  You can download them from here or find them on my graphics pinterest board.  The buildings I’ve shown here are the ones that I used. On my pinterest board you’ll find a few more options.

I primed the plain side of the chalk board  with white paint.

The buildings were printed out on plain paper and cut out.

After cutting out all my buildings, I laid them out roughly where I thought they should go and traced around them. This was just to give an idea of where to put the roads. You can always move your houses later.

With pencil, I drew the street lines and parking lots, then painted with dark gray paint.

With a little bit lighter gray, I then added a train bed and driveways. Whenever I used to play with matchbox cars, I mean my kids played with matchbox cars,  I would they would always pick a house where they lived and park their car in the driveway.  You have to have a driveway.

White and black paint adds details to the roads and train tracks.

I painted all the grassy areas green but left a white border around the streets which will serve as my sidewalks. 

With a lighter and a darker green, paint blobs were added for trees and bushes.

After everything was painted, I outlined all the streets and sidewalks with a black sharpie.  The sharpie gives some structure to those green blobs from the last step.

The buildings were attached with a coat of modpodge and the entire board was sealed with an additional layer of modpodge.

A great table when you have limited space.  When guests come over, simply pop the top off and you have a coffee table for the adults.

You don’t have to have the wash stand legs to make this project, any legs will do…even a chicken coop. 

Join me tomorrow as I’m guest posting over at My Repurposed Life.  See you then.

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