Friday, March 16, 2012

Crib turned Craft Station!



To VOTE head on over here and scroll through the bottom of the projects and click on the blue vote now. I'm #10  Thanks!!

I can't believe I'm back for week 2 of American Crafter!! All of the contestants are SO talented! I have been having so much fun with this contest. It really makes you dig into the creativity bin from within! But so far, this has to be my all time favorite project. This week the theme was "KIDS" so I just knew that my kids would be thrilled to know that they would benefit from what ever I chose to make. A couple of months ago, while searching Pinterest, I saw this:
{source}

How creative is that?! Well, I love a Pinterest challenge (as you might already know from this post), and this was the perfect time to take this one on!! I had a crib in the garage that someone had given to me for my daughter, but it was a drop front crib, so I was nervous to use it.

It really is a nice crib and had I thought about it before getting my daughter a different one, I could have just put brackets on the front so that it wouldn't go up and down. Good thing I didn't though! Because now it looks like this:

Here are the supplies I used and what I did to achieve this:
a crib
ASCP Pure White
ASCP Graphite
Valspar gloss luscious green spray paint
Krylon Chalkboard Spray Paint
Sanding blocks fine/medium
grow grain ribbon
Sharpie Oil-Based Medium Point Paint Marker
dark wax
chalk
2 chairs
polyurethane
plywood
circular saw
2 hinges
4 corner brackets
painters tape
hot glue
glue gun

I don't have pictures of the entire process because I ended up in a time crunch, but I'm sure you can picture it. I started by painting the sides of the crib with the pure white and wanted them to be distressed a good amount. Then I spray painted the back with the green spray paint. (I'll warn you, I have a lot of pictures!!)









This crib had a slide out drawer which is what I used for the table. I painted it with Graphite and used dark wax to seal it. All of these things were easy! It would be the table top that would be the challenge. My friend had a huge piece of press board that she didn't need, and I knew that would save me quite a bit of money, so I was determined to make it work. I set the drawer on top of it and traced the size I needed, leaving about an inch in the front to have an area for the kids to be able to lift it up. Using a circular saw (for the first time!) I cut it down to size.

It obviously doesn't have a finish on it that could be sanded smooth, and splinter free. So my options were to cover it with something hard and smooth, or figure out something else. Since I didn't have anything on hand to cover it with, I had to think of the something else. I decide to put multiple coats of polyurethane on it to "fill in" and seal the wood

To my surprise, it worked!! So now that the wood was smooth (for the most part), I sprayed 2 areas with the chalkboard paint.


Using painters tape, I taped off the 2 sections that I wanted for the chalkboards and painted the rest with ASCP Pure White. I decided not to seal any of the top, so technically the entire thing is a chalkboard. 
Since this is for my son and daughter, I wanted to give them each their own area. Using the ribbon that had pink in it, I framed one side for my daughter Drew, and using a brown ribbon with blue polka dots, I framed the other side for Nick. (Sorry there aren't pictures of any of these steps) Then using the hinges, I attached it to the drawer, so they could use the drawer for storage! Now it was time to turn the crib into a craft station. Since the kids aren't so little anymore, I wanted to make sure that it wasn't only high enough for them to use now, but to be able to use it for quite some time. I drilled new holes into the sides of the crib and bolted on L shaped corner brackets. Then I was able to just set the "table" onto the brackets and secure it all with screws underneath.
That took care of the table, but now they needed somewhere to sit! I have a pretty big collection of chairs to redo, so that was no problem! These would be perfect!
I used 2 coats of ASCP Graphite and with a Sharpie Paint Pen I put their names of the back. And tada.....they have a great space to do their homework and crafts!!














 I loved doing this project so much! And the kids are THRILLED with it!! I hope you like it as well! You can see it at naptimecrafters.com  and I would LOVE  it if you would vote for it! The contest is based on votes, so I can use ALL the help I can get!! Voting is open NOW! :-) I hope to make it to next week and show ya what I come up with! Thanks so much for stopping by! I would love to hear what you think!!

Sharing at these lovely parties:
Debbie Does Creations: Toot Your Horn Tuesday
Tatertots and Jello: Weekend Wrap Up
MMS
Redoux
Sweet Little Gals: Turquoise Lovin'
Creation Corner 
A Little Knick Knack
Funky Junk Interiors: Saturday Night Special
Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons
Handy Man, Crafty Woman: Wicked Awesome Wednesday
Days of Chalk and Chocolate: Latest and Greatest
Thrifty Decor Chick: March before and after
Fireflies and Jellybeans: Show off your stuff
Six Sisters' Stuff: Strut Your Stuff
Addicts (not so) Anonymous 
French Country Cottage: Feathered Nest Friday
The Shabby Nest: Frugal Friday
Little Becky Homecky: Fantabulous Friday
Family Ever After....Once Upon a Weekend
Craft-O-Maniac
A Simply Klassic Home: Simply Klassy Sunday
Flamingo Toes: Think Pink Sundays
The Tattered Tag: {k.i.s.s.}
Twigg studios: Sunday Showoff
How To Nest for Less: Just a Party with My Peeps
Kammy's Korner: Trash 2 Treasure Tuesday
The Shabby Creek Cottage: Transformation Thursday
Savvy Southern Style: Wow Us Wednesdays
Crafty Scrappy Happy: Crafty Scrappy Happy Me Thursday 
Live Laugh Rowe: Live Laugh Linky Thursday
Jillify It
52 Mantels: Thursdays Are YOUR Days
Craft Test Dummies: Kid's Craft Week Round Up
Craftionary: Friday Fun
2805: Potpourri Friday
Cherished Handmade Treasures: Creative Corner Hop
Chatty Chics: Your Turn! Wild Wednesday!

27 comments:

  1. Great Ideal. I can see why you are always chosen. You have some really creative ideas.
    Blessings!

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  2. what a sweet craft station! I've voted for you again - you deserve it!

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  3. Thanks for stopping by and for your sweet comments. This project is even better than the original. I headed over and voted for you!

    Jenn @ My Fabuless Life

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  4. Awesome idea!
    ... visiting from 'new neigbor on the block' :)

    Greetings from Australia♥

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  5. I'll bet they love using it--and hooray for tackling something from your "inspiration files" :)

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  6. This is wonderful! Thanks for sharing this post on my blog hop!
    Angie
    godsgrowinggarden.blogspot.com

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  7. So fun!! What a creative idea!
    Jen
    athomeinthenorthwestblog.com

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  8. Turned out GREAT! Thanks again for linking up at my par-tay :)

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  9. Great job! New GFC follower stopping by from the toot your horn Tuesday hop. I co-host the Creative Corner Hop every Monday. Feel free to come and link up. It is open all week.

    Sandy
    Cherished Handmade Treasures

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  10. Visiting from the Creative Corner Hop. I love this idea and currently have a crib sitting in my garage collecting dust. First I need to find a place to put it then get to work. It will make for less of a crafting hastle on my part. My kids love crafting, but they love making messes more. :)

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  11. Wow you did a brilliant job - I remember seeing the photo you got your inspiration from in blogland a while ago.

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  12. When my boy grows out of his crib I so need to do this for my boys. Love it! Thanks for sharing at Toot Your Horn Tuesday :)

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  13. How cool is this idea! Thanks for linking up at friday fun party..
    Hani
    craftionary.net

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  14. This is such a cute idea! I'm going to have to get with my D-I-L and get one made. Thanks for sharing at the Creative Corner Hop.

    The Things We Find Pinteresting Thursday" is up and running if you would like to link up your favorite pins.

    Sandy
    Cherished Handmade Treasures

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  15. WOW Jill!! This is absolutely fabulous!!

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  16. This is amazing! Thanks for joining us for "Strut Your Stuff Saturday." We hope you'll come back next week! -The Sisters

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  17. Cute, cute, cute. What a great way to repurpose a crib.

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  18. Very cute! Looks like such fun for kids to have.

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  19. Great job! It looks adorable! Good luck! Hope you win!Thanks for linking up at my place!
    Melody
    One Chatty Chic

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  20. I totally voted for this! It's going on my to do list! Thanks for linking up to the Cutesy Monday link party!

    Kathryn
    destinationcraft.blogspot.com

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  21. I love your version of our cot desk idea, just gorgeous! I would really appreciate it if you could add a link back to our original post in yours though. Thank you :)
    http://alittlelearningfortwo.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/repurposed-cot.html

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  22. This is great and if you kept and maybe extended the adjustable mattress hardware, this could grow with them for a bit.. or set to an adult level to create a cute crafting area or work station... lots and lots of possibilities.

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  23. continuously i used to read smaller articles which as
    well clear their motive, and that is also happening with this paragraph which I am reading at this place.
    my web site: cabin themed bedding

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  24. Awesome idea! I want to do this with my daughter's crib once I get her out of it!

    T'onna @ Navy Wifey Peters Aboard the USS Crafty

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  25. Thanks so much for this post! I have a crib that looks almost like this one. I am curious to know what you used to attach the drawer to the crib. I have my crib apart and now I am not sure how to attach the drawer higher.

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    Replies
    1. Hi, to attach the drawer, I used L-brackets. I screwed them onto the sides and sat the drawer onto the brackets. I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions. I'd be happy to answer them for you!

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