Xavier's Play Table Makeover

We bought the Ikea Latt table and chairs from Amazon since Ikea is a 2 hour drive from us.  We painted it and added a roll of paper underneath to make it extra functional.  This was such an easy and cheap DIY project and we are so happy with the results!

Here's a quick how-to:
The table comes unfinished so we added some white spray paint we had in the basement for touch up trim work.  We used the glossy finish for easy wiping.  The paint was applied after putting the pieces together, but if you aren't using spray paint, I highly recommend painting/staining before assembling.  We used two coats of spray paint.

Steve added a dow rod to the bottom of the table, width-wise, using a couple dow rod hooks we found at Home Depot.  The roll of white drawing paper is from Michael's.  

At some point, we plan to put a piece of chalkboard paper (which I saw at Michael's) on top of the table so Xavier has the option to draw with chalk. I think we will wait until Xavier understands that we don't eat the chalk!

We cut some pieces of trim and placed them on the tops of the table so Xavier could easily pull the paper through and it would stay in place.  Shim were placed between the trim piece and the table to create a small space of the paper.  I recommend using thick shims because it's kind of a pain feeding paper through the small thickness we allowed for the paper to feed through.

There are tons of options for adding flair to this project!  I've seen scrapbook paper cut and affixed to the tops of the chair seats with double sided tape.  You can also get fancy with the painting.  Just google it!

I hope this inspires you to get creative with your kids' play table!  This one is so cheap, durable, and easy to put together, I highly recommend it!

2nd Birthday Wishlist

Our little man’s SECOND birthday is coming up next month.  I can’t believe how time is flying!  We are planning a special birthday party at the babysitter’s house, complete with a delivered pizza lunch, juice boxes, cupcakes, balloons, and goodie bags.  He’s got real friends now!!  So rather than having a party for our adult friends, we decided to focus more on him this year.  We will, of course, celebrate with him on the day of by throwing him a special family party of our own!

We have a few gift ideas in mind.  Since he loves helping us in the kitchen, he's getting this KidKraft vintage play kitchen.  We will lend him some of our pots/pans/spatulas, but also like this toaster and this toy Keurig.  He loves planes and cars, so he's getting this Cars sticker book and this book about planes.  We also got him several new pairs of jammies, including Steve's favorite, these with the monkeys.  He'll also get some new bath paints for the tub.

The things Xavier picks up on at this age always amaze us.  On our walks around the neighborhood, he routinely waves and shouts out "Hello!" to everyone we pass.  Then he will say "Bye, love you!" just like how Steve and I talk!  He is very sociable and active on the playground.  He especially enjoys sliding down twisty slides and stopping at the bottom so he can jump off.  He likes swinging from the bar that's above the slides.  He just hangs, tucks his knees to his chest, and swings.  We never knew at this age he could hold his own weight.  And if there's a group of kids playing, it isn't long before Xavier is right in the middle of the group, playing along too, even if they are middle-school-aged!

See more favorites here!