Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Being Cheap: A Homemade Lego Table

My kids are currently obsessed with Legos.  And I have to admit - I kind of am too.  Scouting out great deals for sets and going through our "not-so-organized" huge big of Legos when Kid #1 wants to rebuild something.

I have two different types of kids over here.  Kid #1 (who is a wise 5 year-old) loves to have instructions and will just sit there for hours building some monstrous Lego creation by the book.  Kid #2 (who is a wild 4 year-old) likes to just build whatever his heart's desire is at that moment at time.  Instructions are for wussies should be his motto.  Regardless, I have a good chunk of Lego sets ready for Santa to wrap up for Christmas.

On December 13th, the kids and I were at Barnes & Noble.  They had a Lego table and my kids immediately flocked to it.  That's when I got the bright idea to get them a Lego table for Christmas.  A quick search of Amazon only yielded over-priced pieces of crap.

Once I got them to bed, my OCD kicked in and I googled "how to make a Lego table".  I found a GREAT post about it:  Angry Julie's Incredibly Great Write Up on How to make a Lego Table.

She used a $10 end table from Ikea.  But I wanted something bigger because I always have to keep up.  So I had my heart set on going to Ikea to buy THIS $20 COFFEE TABLE TO GLUE LEGO BOARDS TO.  

My cheap self though had to do a quick sweep through Craig's List first.  Luck was on my side.  This is rare.  Especially when I get these crazy thoughts in my head about "big projects that need to be done in a set amount of time".

A very nice lady sold me this barely used Mammut Table from Ikea and 2 chairs for only $15.  Had I gone to Ikea and bought them new, it would have ran me $64.97 plus tax.  

Usually Lego baseboards (the 10"X10" ones) are around $8-$9 at most paces.  Each.  Seriously?  That much money for a piece of plastic?  Anyways, my cheap self was able to find them at Lego.com for $4.99 each.  We'll use 4 of them to make a 20"X20" work surface:


Our epic project should start tonight.  The husband was in charge of buying the adhesive.  This is what he got (it was about $3):



So when all is said and done, this table will have cost just under $40 and will have been relatively easy following the directions in Angry Julie's blog.  Will it be absolutely perfect?  No.  For instance, we have a pink chair.  Not sure which boy will get that one - but hoping the excitement of the Lego table will make that fact intangible in their little minds - and better than spending $160 on a comparable set (that would be THIS IMAGINARIUM ONE) .

**Another Lego Note - I have found that the Dollar Tree sells 15 cup "Rubbermaid" type containers which are perfect for most sets.  Of if you want to organize your Legos by color, these would be great as well.***






2 comments:

MaryAnne said...

What a fantastic Craigslist find! Your table is great!

Eva said...

The table has very low stands but unique appearance nice one.