IKEA kids table re-do

I love being able to mix in adult pieces and spaces in with kid spaces in the main living area of a home. I think you can really achieve the best of both worlds when it comes to having a kid-friendly room without making it entirely a playroom.  I bought this IKEA kids table for $20 a few years back and it has migrated around the house.   Logan's reading and writing ability is developing so rapidly, and he loves practicing writing words.  I wanted to give the kids a space they could go if they got the itch to be creative, and not have to wait for me to get out paper/markers/etc.

Enter IKEA LATT Table. It is solid pine frame with a fiberboard top.

I told Logan he could choose the colors, and he went with black for the table, and a light blue for the chairs.  I went with RustOleum Universal Satin Spray Paint in Black. The can is great since it has an ergonomic nozzle (read: user friendly), and the product itself rocks because it is a primer and paint in one (read: less work for me!).  I took my opportunity on Sunday to get this project started because it was over 50 degrees outside. Holla! 

A couple coats of paint and we were looking good. 

{Notice the snow on the ground. And 53 degrees. Crazy weather}

Logan requested "some green" to be added to the chairs, so rather than increasing my workload with taping and painting, I did some Mod Podging! 

(Is podging a word? no?)

So I got some paint swatches, cut them into squares (removing the color information) and Mod Podged those suckers straight to the tops of the seats. It took quite a few coats, and in retrospect, I should have hot-glued the corners down first, but in the end it turned out cute. 

Finally, I bought Martha Stewart Chalkboard paint in black from Michaels with a 40% off coupon, which meant that little bottle was under $4. Not bad. I painted about 3 coats with a foam brush, and in about 24 hours was left with this fun table top. 

Doesn't it look inviting?

I put a $2.50 Target dollar bin bucket, with smaller $1 buckets that house crayons, markers, paper, stickers, a calculator, some English/Spanish flash cards, a box of colored chalk and a rock. Yes, a rock. Why? Because my kid likes rocks.

 And my kid rocks. 

Gettin' busy. 

By the end of the first night, the table looked like this. 

And I love it! That is exactly how it SHOULD look. Fun, creative, and whimsical, and now I want to chalkboard paint all sorts of hard surfaces throughout my house! 

And there you go. Under $40 from beginning to end, and *maybe* and hour total of work.