Room Design: Kids Activity Picnic Table

Earlier this month I shared on Instagram my son and I putting together this picnic table kit from Home Depot. It was $34.00 and comes with everything that you need, making it super easy! I didn’t want just a picnic table for my son and his friends to eat at, I wanted it to be a fun little table where he can play and create things. So I decided to turn it into an activity table where he can be play and be creative while mommy gets some time to do things she wants to do too! Win Win for both of us right?!
With the kids going back to school soon, this would also work great for a homework station!

After assembling the picnic table, it was time to make some changes. In the middle I wanted a space to keep colored pencils, crayons, stamps, or whatever the little guy decides to put in there, hmm cars maybe? He is obsessed with cars! So to make this possible, I decided to use a plastic planter box that I found at Home Depot and have it be inlaid in the middle of the picnic table.
With the help of my husband, we started off tracing the planter box in the middle so we had an outline of where we needed to cut it out.

diy kids activity picnic table, crafts, organizing, outdoor furniture, painted furniture

To make the cutting process easier, we drilled 4 holes in each corner and then used a hand saw to cut it out.

Now for the fun part, staining, and painting!

I stained the table with one coat of Rust-Oleum wood stain in Dark Walnut.

I waited about an hour or so until the stain was complete dry, then sealed it with 3 coats of Spar Varnish to protect it since it will be outside and being used often.
Then I spray painted the black plastic planter box with Rust-Oleum spray paint in a pretty turquoise blue color. (not sure the name of the color as it doesn’t say it on the bottle)

To make things more organized and not have the middle filled to the brim with pencils, coloring books, stamps, and paper, I added a file/paper sorter that I found at the Container Store. The only thing about these are the material they are made out of will not hold up well in weather conditions. I wanted some plastic ones but the only ones I found were to large and clear. I wanted something colorful and smaller. So I opted to still go with these and hope that I remember to cover them when weather prohibits. To secure them to the sides, I simply screwed them on each end of the table.

I filled two painted mason jars with colored pencils and placed them in the middle console, one on each end. Then filled the center with stamps. The file/paper sorter I filled with colored paper, stickers, and coloring books. I am sure at some point these will all be filled with something entirely different, as Beckham I’m sure will be adding things to the mix.