So I have wanted to try something for a while and I finally got around to it! It has only been a day and I already have neighbors and friends asking about it, so I told them I would put all the info on my blog.
I have heard of turning old entertainment centers into kitchen play sets and I thought of doing that but we already have one and my older girls don't seem to play with it much. What all my kids do enjoy doing is making a buck and doing it in style. And honestly I was not looking forward to dragging that ugly card table up from the basement every other day this summer. So a lemonade stand seemed perfect. Now that its done I think I will do another one as a puppet show, if that tickles your fancy a little more. So here are the details to "DIY"ing it yourself.
1. Find a center that is real wood. Don't waste your time with plywood or particle board. It is going to be manhandled (or kid handled, which is worse) and the fake stuff will crumble. I found this at a local thrift store. They wanted $35 but I talked them down to $20 since the doors were busted up (I was taking them off anyway). Try to find one on wheels. It will save you $$$ and a huge step.
2. Pull off the back. It's pretty flimsy board and easy to do with a hammer and flat head that you can wedge in there. You will need to use needle nose pliers and pull the staples out. Leave none behind.
3. Take off all hardware. I save all mine for future projects.
4. If you are indeed making it a lemonade stand or something that will get moved around a lot add wheels.
5. Sand it. Sand it super good so that there is nothing that will give your babies little splinters. Focus a lot on the back where you may have left bits of backing and glue.
6. Clean it up. Wipe all your sawdust off. Get a clean surface.
7. Paint it.
8. The fun part is embellishing it. You can do whatever you want and every stand is a little different. Here are the things I did.
a. I measured the cabinet opening underneath and bought a piece of scrape wood from Lowes. They cut it for me and it cost me a buck. I painted it with chalkboard paint. (Then sanded it down and painted it again because my son decided to paint it while I was inside making curtains. Keep kids out to save yourself this mishap) Screw it on.
b. My daughter found cute fabric with lemons and I made curtains.
c. We put rick-rack on the edges of the shelves.
d. We added a sheet of metal to the side for hanging stuff with magnets.
e. I made the flag banner to go around the top in matching colors or the curtain fabric.
So once you have that done the kids can have storage from the back of the cabinet for all there paper supplies and money jars. We also named it and I didn't get the Vinyl letters on before the pictures. We called it ONE SWEET STAND so they would always have the option of selling anything, not just lemonade. As you can see they even got some bows out that they weren't using anymore and sold them for quarter. They have plenty of other space to sell cookies and candy.Hope you enjoy making yours!
