Neat idea!

[ajmom]

OK, I will admit I did not make this idea up- I saw it at a friend's house- she and her husband made one for their little boy. It looked really easy to make (although time consuming) and I wanted to pass it along if anyone else wanted to try their hand at it...

They made a "car table" of sorts for outside. They used a large piece of plywood (probably 8x4) and on it they painted streets, water and grass (think aerial view of a city). Then they took 2x4s and cut them into different sized blocks. They decorated the blocks to look like various stores/offices/shops you might have in a town and they glued them onto the plywood so it made the cutest little town. They also glued down plastic trees. They set the board on top of 2 old tires and now they have a huge play space for their little guy when he's playing cars. They named all the shops after family members. Also, the way it's painted, half of it is a city and the "roads" lead into the other side that's "country" (with windy roads, animals, and more "grass.").

We went to a bday party over there and all the kids loved it. It might be hard to visualize, but if you're good at this sort of thing, it was so cute!!

[kayte]

That sound very cool.. I'll have to have DH read this post!

[rlu]

That is totally awesome and right up DH's alley. He made DS a sandbox this year and made me a "barn" siloutte (sp?) out of plywood, all painted up nice.

Do they leave it out over the winter or store it inside? I'm wondering how the paint holds up to weather exposure.

[Corie]

I am having a hard time visualizing this car table. Would your
friend mind if you took a few pictures of it?

I would love to show my husband!

Thanks! :)

[ajmom]

I think they are planning to store it in the garage this winter, just b/c the weather here is usually pretty rainy- even in the cold, they can still go play with it without getting wet. They just made it so I can't say how the paint will hold up- they used regular acrylic craft paint.

[ajmom]

Yes- next time I'm over there I will try to get a picture. I know it can be hard to visualize, and I'm not the best "describer." :)

[Meatball Mommie]

That is a very cute idea! I just lurk here (mostly looking for Christmas gift ideas!) but I had to post to say how great that was. I am going to suggest it to DH. Last Christmas we did 2 different things like that for our 2 boys.

We live in the Boston area and the Children's museum had this "workbench" that was made out of a large electrical spool set on its side. They drilled holes in it and put these bolt anchors in the holes so the kids could take bolts and screws and screw them into the table. My boys love construction stuff and they'd always spend a lot of time at this particular exhibit playing with the real tools. We happened to have a smaller electrical spool in our basement from when we built our house and we used that to make our own version of the exhibit. I bought wood tool boxes at our local unfinished furniture place and just polyurethaned them. We got the boys their own set of tools, including a small hammer, rasp (file), screwdrivers, pliers and an adjustable wrench. We also set the table up with some bolts, nuts, washers and sandpaper. Finally, I took an inexpensive set of wood blocks and DH drilled holes in them so they could bolt a couple together. They have had so much fun with this and their friends love to come over and play with it too. My DH loves it because now the boys don't steal his tools - they have their own and they stay in the basement.

The other thing we did was paint the floor in our basement. We don't really use it since we have a storage space in the attic above our garage plus a shed to hold tools, so it was mostly empty. I washed the floor first so the paint would stick better (that was the hardest part!) then I painted the whole thing (minus our storage area) with gray porch/floor paint. I actually just poured paint on the floor and used a roller with a broom stick attached. It only took 1 coat and 1.5 gallons of paint. Then DH taped out a road for me. It's a large kidney shape with a cross in the middle. I painted the road black with a yellow dashed line in the middle. I also painted a hopscotch "board" and colored squares with the alphabet as a border for the whole space. The alphabet squares are about 1 ft per side and are red, yellow, green and blue. It took a while to paint those since I needed to do 3 coats of yellow paint. I free-handed the letters on the squares. The boys (and all their friends) totally love this space (they are 2 and 4 this year). In the winter, they ride their bikes down there. Our basement is actually pretty warm because our furnace is there, and we have an old rug and couch there too. There are 2 areas that aren't painted and the boys know not to go in the unpainted areas (one is the utility area and the other is where some lumber and my gardening stuff is).

I am the type of person who always thinks "Gee, I could make that myself instead of buying it"...not that everything gets made, I start a lot of stuff and never finish it :) This xmas I was thinking of making dress up clothes for the boys (capes, and some career vests) for pretend play, but I still haven't committed to it...

Karen
mommy of 2 boys (4 and 2 yrs)