5.07.2011

Lego Table

I think Legos might be one of the greatest inventions of all time.  They inspire such creativity.  Recently I got on the lego website and found that you can get a free monthly magazine.  I haven't gotten it yet to know if it is just advertising or something better, but I am hoping it will inspire more creativity from my kids.  


A few months ago I made my son a lego table.  I wanted to share how I did it with you all because it has been a really nice addition to our play items.  



This lego table was really quiet simple.  Believe me, if I can do it you can!  The hardest step was finding a table to make the table from.  I looked at craigslist for months.  Luckily I am a frequent shopper to a goodwill store and one day when I went there I found the perfect thing.  I snatched it up for $5 and was ready to go.
Lego table before: The top slides open to to revel a drawer underneath


Lego Table After

I went to town organizing it, but the organization has long been tossed out and now all the legos are just tossed into the drawer.
Materials:

Gorilla Glue
Target vanity totes as well as some tackle boxes  (for separating legos by color and making them organized) -- if you have an older child that loves to keep his legos a certain way these are nice.  If your kids don't care I wouldn't bother.
flat large 10 x 10 lego plates.  I got four and cut the fourth one into thirds because my table is longer than wide.  You can get these at Toys R Us or ebay or amazon.  I got them when Toys R Us had a lego sale of buy one get one half off.
Method:

If you need to cut any of your lego plates.  I first figured out how to split my plate evenly and then marked where to cut with masking tape. 

use an exacto knife and cut along the taped edge as straight as possible
I couldn't cut straight through so I had to bend the plate until it broke along my edge


I sanded all the edges to make them that much more straight
Then I glued the boards onto my surface.  With gorilla glue you need to be careful not to get too close to the edge because as it dries it expands.  I had mine expand up through the pieces.  It still works, but it doesn't look as nice.  You also have to be sure to match your pieces by putting legos together along the edges otherwise you won't have a perfect match.

legos holding the plates together so they are correct while the glue dries.
takes about two hours to dry, but you are supposed to clamp the projects together.  I just put big old heavy textbooks on top of the surface.
Organized and perfect lego table, it was nice to have them organized for me but my kids didn't care about this and we have long ago abandoned such organization methods!
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15 comments:

  1. love your table- My boys used to have one- which we picked up at a yard sale- I've since given it away as my boys grew bigger- they still play with Lego (and we have lego from when I was a kid and from my college age cousins)
    We've been getting Lego Mag for years and it is great- they read them over and over.

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  2. What a great idea!
    My girls always love playing with the lego tables in Dr offices, we should add one to our playroom! :)

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  3. What a great idea! I so need to make something like this for my son. Thanks for sharing.
    Crystal

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  4. what a great idea! and your tutorial is very detailed! i would have never thought to use legos to keep the alignment straight. will have to remember this when Little Man gets old enough for little legos. we're still on the duplos right now. i bet your kiddo LOVED it!!

    i hope that you're planning on linking this to some link parties. take care, andie @ http://crayonfreckles.blogspot.com/

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  5. Oh goodness, this is fantastic. My son needs one of these.

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  6. That is awesome! I'm featuring this on my blog today : )

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  7. Heather, if you see this let me know where your blog is. I didn't see anything connected to your name and when I tried to email you, your email came up as noreply.

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  8. I don't know why my profile didn't appear when I commented. Here's the link to my post where I featured your lego table...http://www.localfunforkids.com/home/2011/5/11/fun-for-kids-finds-ice-cube-game-kids-gallery-wall-diy-lego.html

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  9. That's perfect. I agree with you about legos....they really are incredible. Love the table and how you actually used legos to help put the boards together....is there anything they can't do? :-)

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  10. Love your table! We were looking for ideas for Christmas for our boys and we might make one for ourselves! We also noticed your Ortho books!! My husband is an Ortho resident too! We definitely have some heavy books for the project!!

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  11. Wow! So creative and fun DIY project, eh. Love it, if my mom will also give a gift like that even though I'm not a kid anymore. :)

    Cheers,
    Cathy@lab coat

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  12. perfect! I love this idea I may use it some day:)

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  13. Thank you for the awesome idea! I have an old beatbut coffee table with 4 drawers that I was just going to give away but now I am going to repurpose it as a lego table similar to this one!

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