Play Workbench

Another Christmas goody, this one is for my nephews. I felt like I needed to step up my game for my nephews after I built the play kitchen for my nieces (if you missed that post you can view it here).

I found this old roller cabinet (probably used for a microwave or tv) at a local thrift store and decided to make it something new. I wanted to build them a play work bench for all their, soon to have, tools.

First thing is first, it needs a couple coats of paint. I used a dark gray chalk paint from Americana decor.

Then I began to make the back. I cut 2 strips of 2" wide boards I had lying around down to 20" and another 2 to 29" and made a frame. Then I laid the peg board on top to see how much I needed to cut and I trimmed that down to size also. Then I screwed the peg board on to the frame.

Next I spray painted it white. I was reading articles on how to transfer images from paper to wood/canvas/etc and thought I'd give it a try. So 1 powerpoint print out later...

I read that you could use acrylic medium to transfer images. I really wish I would have practiced first but here's what I did. After printing out my logo I made (backwards) you brush on the acrylic medium on the ink side of the paper (just a thin layer). Then you press it down on the surface you want to transfer to and make sure to get most of the wrinkles and air bubbles out. Now you are supposed to let it dry over night, and I wish I would have. Instead, we all know that I'm impatiently impatient, I used a blow dryer.

After I thought it was dry, you take water and spray the paper. I'm not sure why I thought I could just peel the entire paper away and the image would be there but that's not how you do it. What you are doing is actually taking little layers of the paper off. The edges that don't have the medium on it will tear away super easy and that's fine. What I found to work best was once I sprayed the paper with water, use a damp towel and lightly rub off the layers of paper. NOTE: you don't want all the paper to be removed (if you do your image will quickly go away, you can see that where I started at the bottom of the logo). Once you get it where you like it let it dry...again I used the blow dryer and followed that up with a coat of polycrylic spray.

I also attached the peg board to the work bench cart. I set it down about 8" in the back so that I had enough places to anchor it to the cart and not worry about it falling off. By the way, how cute are those new handles? Here's a little closer view of them.

So for the sides of the workbench, I decided to make 1 side a chalboard using chalboard spray paint, and the other side is painted with the gray chalk paint and has a sheet of cork (you know to hang up your building plans and things).

Little push light has been installed in the bottom. More storage bins added to the pegboard. Chalkboard wall is complete. All we need now are some play tools and a giant bow.