Little Project

A few weeks ago, I was driving down the street when I spotted some free stuff for kids on the side of the road. There was a Little Tikes table with two chairs, and two other little plastic chairs. All of it was filthy, covered in sticker residue, mismatched, and in colors that I didn't find too attractive. But all of the pieces were still solid and, while not aesthetically pleasing, were still usable. Then my mind flashed to a post I had read on "Ohdeedoh," one of my favorite design sites (I posted the link below). The post was about a couple who took a very worn and very faded plastic playhouse and car, and gave them a makeover with some paint. "Why not?" I thought.

I took the fact that everything fit perfectly in the back of my car as a sign that it was meant to be. I stored everything in my garage until I could find time to begin the project. In the meantime, I did some research on paint. I found that Krylon makes a spray paint for plastics that is ASTM approved for children's toys. I bought three cans from Home Depot for about $4 a can. Score! A "new" table set for $12!

When the day came to do the labor, I found that the most time consuming part was the cleaning! First, we don't have a hose hook-up, so I was making trips back and forth from the kitchen to the back porch with buckets of water. After realizing what horrible idea that was, I hauled everything upstairs and washed it in the bathtub. It actually worked really well (of course, I had at that point added the task of having to clean out the tub afterwards). That damn table with its bazillion little mildew filled holes took forever to scrub (about 30 minutes really, but it felt like forever). Totally cleaning time, including my trips to the porch, was about an hour and a half.

After everything dried, I was ready to paint. I decided to not paint the molded red chairs and drawers. They were in decent shape and I liked the color. So all that was left was the table and the two mismatched chairs. They were a piece of cake to paint. I did about three coats, let them dry for two days in my garage and voila! Holden has a fancy "new" table set.

The whole project was so much fun that I can see myself becoming obsessed. It combined a few of my favorite things: frugality, recycling, and creativity. So, if you see a lady scouring the trash for children's furniture and toys, it could very well be me.

* http://www.ohdeedoh.com/ohdeedoh/my-great-outdoors-2011/two-tremendous-little-tikes-makeovers-my-great-outdoors-149379

Before

After

I asked Holden to smile, but he said,"No." Haha.