DIY Craft Table

I finally did it!  I have been wanting to build my son a table that he can color and do crafts on for some time now.  At first, I was just going to buy one.  Except I was pretty particular about how I wanted the table to look and I wanted it to be built sturdy, so that it would last him a long time.  The one that I found was from Pottery Barn and it was going to cost me at least $220.  I was having a hard time with that price.  I did not pay that much for this table, however...I did have to buy a few tools in order to make this, and I learned that if you want good quality materials, you are going to have to pay a little to get it!  Throughout my journey of making this table I learned a lot and sweated a lot (I made it outside in the 32 degree Celsius heat!).  I love how the table looks and most importantly I know that this table will stand up to a lot of fun for years to come!

The actual process of building the table took me an hour and a half.  No joke.  I was shocked!  And I even learned how to use a pocket hole jig for the first time during that 90 minutes.  Here's how I did it:

I used the plans from Ana White's farmhouse play table and simply chose a different style for the legs.  For the top of the table I used a 4' x 2' birch board.  The aprons are 2x1 poplar boards cut to the same dimensions as outlined in Ana's plans.  Finally, for the legs I used 2x2 poplar boards cut to 18".

Here's the table before I added the paper roll:

We just couldn't wait to try it out!!

It took me a few trips to Lowes and some brainstorming to come up with how I was going to add on the paper roll holder that I wanted the table to have.  I finally came up with attaching a wooden closet rod holder (definitely the technical term), to two small pieces of wood that I screwed to the top of the table using my new pocket hole jig!  Then I trimmed a piece of a wooden dowel to size and plunked it into the rod holder.  By using the curtain rod holder I am able to easily change the paper roll when needed.  I get my paper rolls from IKEA because they're cheaper, but I think Melissa and Doug also carry replacement paper rolls for their easel, which could be used as well.

The last step was to put one coat of primer and three coats of white paint on the table.

The two chairs are from IKEA.  I think they look great with the table.  I may have some future plans to paint them, but for the space they are in right now, they're perfect!