Simple and Easy diy kids craft table

DIY Kid Craft

Have you ever dreamed of or wanted a Pottery Barn-esque Kids Craft Table but couldn’t shell out the dollars to get one? Well I have! Sharing how you can achieve this look on a budget with this simple and easy DIY craft table for kids tutorial.

When we moved homes about 2 years ago, we went purge crazy and got rid of a ton of stuff including our kid craft table and chairs. We thought we wouldn’t need one. Boy!!! Were we wrong!

We’ve slowly watched our living room and coffee table turn into tea party central. You can check out her recent tea party here.

I love that my baby girl can delve into hours of pretend play with her dolls, however the clutter drives me nuts at times. To that end, we felt it was important to give her the space she needed to play her little heart out and work on easy arts and crafts when not upstairs in our play area. It will also serve as a mini art center for coloring books and easy crafts.

We looked into purchasing another one but decided against that for budgetary reasons, as she will most likely use it for 2 years (or maybe more if she is a girl after mom’s heart 😉) and pass it on to her baby cousins.

The trusted source Ana White had the perfect plan called the Clara table. It is a great plan because it is simple and does not require a lot of sweat equity. After some research on the types of woods for a sturdy play table, going with pine seemed to be the best option for the project.  

 

Tip: When commencing on a DIY, always look to see if there are plans available to use. There are a lot of free plans and templates and no use reinventing the wheel when you can save time.

 

Materials for project

Making your DIY kids craft table

• Supplies:
  • Pine Wood
  • Wood Glue
  • Primer
  • 120 grit sand paper
  • Paint of your choice
  • Paint Brush
  • 1 1/4 pocket hole screws

• Tools:
  • Tape Measure
  • Speed Square
  • Safety Goggles
  • Miter or circular saw
  • Kreg Jig
  • Level
  • Drill and Drill Bit Set

 

The Process

The home supply store was able to cut the wood down to reasonable sizes, so it only required minimal cuts at home.

The first step is to cut your wood to specifications. The plan is very easy to follow and you can make slight variations to suite your needs. For example: I purchased a slab of wood and cut it down to size instead of attaching 3 pieces of wood together. If you are going with this method, you need your slab of wood to measure 22 1/2 x 32

The plan also calls for legs to be 21 1/4. I made mine an inch longer at 22 1/4. We have tall genes over here 😊.

Once you are done cutting your wood to specs.

Make your holes in each piece as instructed with your Kreg Jig on all pieces.

The next step is to attach the pieces together using the the pocket screws and your drill

When you are done putting the table together using the plan, the next step is to go over the holes made by the Kreg Jig with spackling paste.

Once this is done, it is time to sand. The spackle and sanding for a smooth finish was the part that took the most time. One thing I would do different if I had to do over is flipping the wood so the holes are on the inside and not on the outside. This helps hide the imperfections from spackling and sanding.

Painting and Finishing

After First Coat

After sanding, it’s time to apply your first coat of paint. You can use a paint sprayer, a paint brush or roller.  I opted for a sprayer and used some furniture paint on hand, this had a primer already built in. Using the sprayer over a paintbrush goes by a bit quicker and requires less touch ups.  

 

Tip: Make sure to prep wood and prime if you are not using a paint with primer

 

Once this step is complete, set it to dry for about 2 hours and sand it again before applying second coat. After the second coat dries, it’s time for touch ups and a protective coat. For this project, you want to go with a water based polyurethane top coat varnish, you can also use a spray on. I opted for the Rustoleum clear coat in satin finish and left to dry overnight.

DIY Kids Craft Table

The next step was to decide chairs. There was the option to build or buy. Since this was a quick budget friendly project, it was better to build on what we had at home.

She has a Chiavari chair in pink that she absolutely loves, so we purchased another one to match. Our little girl is so excited about her new table and we’ve gotten some good use out of it already.

Here are the finished photos of our DIY Kid Craft Table

 

This completes our simple and easy DIY kids craft table tutorial. I hope you found this helpful and always don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions. Thank you for stopping by. Happy Crafting!!!

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