The Proverbs 31 Wife: Kid's Tool Workbench

I absolutely love watching my older son play using his imagination. He is so creative and comes up with some of the funniest ideas. My husband and I decided that we were going to stop buying so many of the electronic toys that take away the imagination and start giving him more creative/imagination inducing toys.

I noticed that he loves to copy his dad and grandfathers by working with tools. He will go around all day fixing the chairs with his screwdriver or hammering nails in the wall.

So for Christmas, we decided to give him a kid's toy workbench. I started looking around and all the ones I could find were $60.00 or more. Now, we are willing to spend some money on the kids for Christmas, but within reason. We realized that a toy workbench will be used hard and eventually will be forgotten about when the next best toy comes around.

Ever since my boys were babies, I have always given them a handmade gift. My oldest son's first Christmas handmade gift was new pajamas. My youngest son's first gift was a blankie! So, this year I decided to make the tool workbench. It seemed a little intimidating, but it was so easy and I spent 1/2 the price!

I started this project by searching for a suitable table. I found ours on Craigslist for $3.00. It was a small entertainment stand with laminate covering. The first task was to prime the table with a white primer made for laminate wood. If you use a table with laminate, I would recommend 2 coats of the primer. I was in a hurry due time constraints, so I only primed it once.

I then found some left over paint that I had from another project and finished painting the table. My next step was to stencil the top of the table with tools. I had several ideas for the stenciling, one being stenciling his name, however, I realized that my younger son would most likely be playing at some point, so I painted tools on instead. I used my Silhouette Cameo to design the tools and make a stencil on contact paper. Using acrylic paints, I stenciled the table and then my mistake happened!! I removed the contact paper and accidentally peeled away some paint as well. After a few minutes of fretting, I decided to just go with it. I pulled out my coarse sand paper and sanded it down even more. It actually turned out great, it made the table look well used!

Once I was completely done with painting, I sprayed the table with a matte polyurethane spray to protect the table (although I'm not sure anything can protect it from 2 boys!)

The next part was quick and easy. I purchased a peg board and it's attachments from a local hardware store. There are severals ways to do this, but I chose to buy the pre-cut board with the attachments to save me a few steps. However, this project would cost even less if you bought the peg board and cut it yourself!

I screwed the peg board to the back of the table at the bottom and top to keep it secure. Be careful if you buy a table that is made from particle board. It is a little hard to screw the peg board on to, but it does work! I added all of the different attachments to the boards to hang his tools on and it was finished!

All it needed was some tools and he was ready to create! We asked other family members to purchase play tools for him for Christmas and he was thrilled!