Wild Card Wednesday: Guest Post by Bridget Sandorford

Hey all our readers! We have got a special treat for you today! Today we have a guest post by Bridget Sandorford who's bio information is at the very end of this post. Some of these ideas are pure genius and I'm sure any kid would love to have any of these toys/beds! Thanks Bridget for contributing!  

Best Ikea Hacks for a Kids’ Space

Ikea furniture is a great choice for a kid’s room. Not only is it inexpensive, but it is also infinitely customizable. With a little bit of paint, some fabric, and some creativity, you can create pieces that are beautiful, interesting, and uniquely yours.

Ikea hacks – as customized Ikea furniture is known – are also great for creating kids’ play items, such as play kitchens, train tables, and puppet stages. A look through Pinterest or a search on Google will turn up hundreds of innovative ideas that will fit any budget. Here are some of our favorite picks for the best Ikea hacks for a kids’ space:

Kitchen from a Sideboard (http://krighanna.blogg.se/2013/january/mera-vimplar.html)

A little paint and a few modifications turned this sideboard into a fun and modern play kitchen.

Nightstand Play Kitchen (http://www.smallfriendly.com/small-friendly/2012/01/diy-modern-play-kitchen.html)

Two Ikea nightstands were converted into this play kitchen with a sink, stove, and backsplash. This conversion required a little more muscle work, with a hole cut for the sink, a new door made for the stove, and a lot of painted details.

Bookcase into a Train Table (http://www.ikeahackers.net/2010/11/dreaded-kids-train-table-with-new-twist.html)

This bookcase was turned on its side and put on casters to become the perfect train table with under table storage.

Tractor Bed (http://www.ikeahackers.net/2013/04/tractor-bed.html)

This bunk bed was converted into a cool tractor bed with a few modifications to the height, the addition of the wheels and other elements, and a coat of new paint.

Firetruck Bed (http://www.ikeahackers.net/2013/03/kura-firetruck-bed.html)

This makeover turns a boring toddler bed into a fire truck. With a little extra elbow grease, the bed has even been transformed to include working headlights!

Your Feedback

What are some of the best Ikea hacks you’ve seen? Do you have any that you’ve tried yourself? Share links to your favorites or tell us about your own projects in the comments!

Author Bio:

Bridget Sandorford is a freelance blog and culinary writer, where recently she's been researching top chef schools. In her spare time, she enjoys biking, painting and working on her first cookbook.

DIY Thursday: Chalkboard Table

My kiddos love to write with chalk. Usually its outside on the sidewalk and then the chalk gets left outside and stepped on or the sprinklers get it. Luckily the dollar store has cheap tubs of chalk :-) The past while I have noticed that in the mornings before I get up they have been playing school and using these tiny chalkboards i found at the dollar store ( I like that store :-) ) They don't quite work with 2 kids trying to write. So I had the idea of turning a coffee table into a fun chalkboard table. So I started keeping my eye out for people selling old beat up tables for cheap. (In case you haven't noticed, I'm super cheap) It took a few months but someone was selling the almost perfect table for $5!!!

Can't beat that! The only thing it was missing was a drawer (I wanted a drawer to be able to keep the chalk supplies in).

Once I got the table it was time to get to work. I turned out easier than I thought.  All I had to do was lightly sand it to.get the top shiny coat off.

Then once that was done I got some cute spray paint and sprayed it. Once it was dry I noticed there were bubbles in some parts so I sanded those down and sprayed over those parts. If you look close you can still see them but since this is just for my kids I wasn't worried about getting it perfect.

 Then.I got some chalkboard paint from the craft store. There are recipes to make your own but I didn't feel like doing that.

It took about 4 coats of it to get it covered but I blame that on my crappy paint brush....I thought I had a good paintbrush but I didn't and I didn't want to go to the store again. Once you let the paint dry, the bottle said 24 hours, you are good to let the kids have fun!! This will be great in the winter or those days the kids wake up at 6am in the summer......