IKEA Trofast

[Raidra]

A year or two ago, we were at IKEA and saw a really cool play table made out of Trofast shelves (the three horizontal cubes) with some sort of surface on top. It looked like a tabletop maybe. We want to do this in the kids' playroom, but I have a few questions.

First.. does IKEA sell just tabletops like that? It fit on top of the shelves perfectly..

Secondly.. I saw that IKEA sells a real wood version of the Trofast shelves and also a particle board version. The particle board version is much cheaper (obviously), but I'd like to paint them. Has anyone painted particle board successfully? And do you think it's okay to buy the cheaper version, or will they fall apart quickly?

Thanks!

[sidmand]

A year or two ago, we were at IKEA and saw a really cool play table made out of Trofast shelves (the three horizontal cubes) with some sort of surface on top. It looked like a tabletop maybe. We want to do this in the kids' playroom, but I have a few questions.

First.. does IKEA sell just tabletops like that? It fit on top of the shelves perfectly..

Secondly.. I saw that IKEA sells a real wood version of the Trofast shelves and also a particle board version. The particle board version is much cheaper (obviously), but I'd like to paint them. Has anyone painted particle board successfully? And do you think it's okay to buy the cheaper version, or will they fall apart quickly?

Thanks!

I'm wondering if this is what we saw/now have. Sounds similar, but not quite...it was four Trofasts though put together to form a train table. They had a wooden table top that I assumed they just made for that. I don't believe they sell it. We're not that handy and just put a cardboard box on top and then (they had) and we put the kid's floor rug that looks like a road scene on top (it fits perfectly). So the four Trofasts form a square with a hole in the center, the board/cardboard goes across most of the top and then that rug goes on top. As long as there isn't anything too heavy in the middle it works fine like that. Not sure about the particle board vs. wood version. I'm assuming we have the particle board one and just kept it as natural "wood."

I'm going to try and see if this works as a link. It's a public link and should work even if you don't have a Facebook account (and you don't need to sign up for one): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...2&l=de027949f6

[katydid1971]

That is awesome!!!!!! How creative of you, I bet your little ones love it. The ones in the picture are solid pine. The particle board ones really don't hold up as well. The particle board ones have plastic rails that get damaged and stop working the solid wood ones have the rails routed out. About the table top, look in the office area. They have desk tops that might work for you.

[Raidra]

Yes, that's the exact setup! Thanks so much.

I'll check the office section.. if we can't find anything, I bet a big sheet of MDF would work, we could add some molding to the sides and paint it.. hmm.

Thanks for the info about the particle board.. I guess we'll have to go with the solid pine. I don't want this breaking in a few months.

[DebbieJ]

A friend of mine has the Trofast setup with the table top. She got it all at IKEA. I'm sure if you find an employee they can help you out.

[edurnemk]

They do sell tabletops in different sizes, We were about to get one a couple of months ago but the size we needed was sold out. I don't remember the name of the tabletop but they had them in the same aisle as the kids tables and chairs.