Craft corners are a perfect addition to any toddler or play room! I’ve been wanting to put one together since Miles turned 2 (like 6 months ago :-)).  The thing is I didn’t really want to spend a lot of money, nor do we really have a lot of disposable income since I quit my job.  

Thankfully, my mother in law is obsessed with thrift stores!  She knew I had been wanting a craft play table for a while, so when she spotted one she called me right away.  It’s a great find.  The quality of construction is perfect.  AND it gave me an opportunity to do a DIY table makeover!

As you can see, the table had been through a lot.  It had tons of scrapes, scratches and marker stains.  The color scheme in Miles’ room is black and white with pops of yellow left over from his nursery design.  I really wanted to make the table one of those colors because I’m a bit obsessive with things matching. Probably too much at times, so it’s a good thing that I needed to be thrifty and stay in my budget! Looking through my paint stash from leftover craft projects,  I found two different teal colors. They would add a nice pop of color in the room.

Painting it a solid color would not be exciting enough though! I like to dabble in DIY, but I’m no expert so I went on a quest for an idea that would be easy but still unique.  I also really only had nap time to get this done. So how do you accomplish unique, easy, fast, and budget friendly? Painter’s tape! (Or masking tape in this case) There are sooo many different designs you can create with painter’s tape- from stripes to chevron, to diamonds, oh my!

(I have pinned a bunch of projects like canvas artwork and wall designs on my Pinterest DIY board if you want some painter’s tape inspiration!)

What You Need:

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• Table and Chairs
• Sand paper
• Primer (if needed)
• Spray Paint (2 cans- I love Rustoleum Painter’s Touch) or Small Can of Regular Paint
• Painter’s Tape and Masking Tape

Step 1:  Wash and Sand

Especially if you bought your table second hand, you have no clue what kind of debris is on it!  I could also tell that this table was painted before, so I wanted to sand off any loose paint.  

Step 2:  Prime

You may or may not need this step.  If you are painting over a light wood or if you are painting something a darker color- it can be skipped.  I did not prime the chairs- as I had a spray paint that covered them completely.  More on that in a little bit. I also only painted the top of the table first, as you can see in the picture. 

Step 3:  Make Design

Since I was using spray paint, I didn’t have faith that I wouldn’t get any on the table. I used a canvas art print as inspiration and started laying down my tape.  I used masking tape instead of painter’s tape because of the smaller width.  The design was pretty much eyeballed, making sure the spaces between were about the same size. I changed things as I went if they didn’t look right.

Completely spray paint the top of the table.  Take off the tape after it’s SEMI-DRY!  You don’t want it completely dry or the tape will bond on the table with the paint.  Peel it off slowly to make sure the lines are straight and no other paint comes with it.

After the top is completely dry, put painter’s tape around the edge. Finish painting the bottom of the table (if needed). If you are using regular paint, you can paint the entire table in the beginning- it took me 3 coats of white! 

Step 4: Paint

Paint the table and then the chairs.  This was the first time I spray painted something with so many nooks and crannies!  You have to look up, behind, under, over and all around your chairs to make sure you got every part!

Let it dry and you’re done! You have a brand new table!

Step 5: If applicable, don’t let it dry near your toddler

Have you ever told a toddler to not touch something because it’s wet??!! Oh man, Miles did not understand that concept at all!  I don’t advise putting yourself in that situation. Since it was painted in an outside area shared by neighbors, I couldn’t leave it out there.  City life- what can you do.  

Step 6:  Embrace Chaos

This is for kids after all.  Things will happen and it’s going to go through rough times.  I definitely thought that I should do this to a different item that won’t get ruined. Lol.  Just so you know that I’m actually letting my toddler play with this, here’s a picture. 🙂 I’ll show you how I organized his craft supplies in a later post!

What are your favorite DIY projects?