One of the things we had wanted to give to Mayana for her birthday was a dress-up box. However with our big Perth trip and busy holiday, we just didn’t have time to actually make it before her birthday. Well this weekend we finally got to it.
Peter and I were inspired by this design from the Ana White website, which is where we got the plans for Mayana’s play kitchen last year. It’s a very simple design, and didn’t take my very handy husband long to knock together at all.
We purchased one sheet of ply from Bunnings for $17.50, and this was plenty to build the whole piece of furniture. Along with screws, dowel, two sample pots of paint (thank goodness we found it easier to choose and agree on colours this time!) and some new rollers for painting, the grand total came in at just less than $50.00.
I had planned to photo-document the process, but before I knew it, Peter was calling out to me that he was done!
He’s a pretty awesome fella, that husband of mine!
My job was the painting. We chose a creamy butter yellow and a very pale apple green to paint with, and used the yellow for the outside and the green for the inside, the hanging rail, and the edges. They make a nice contrast, but are lovely and soft and not too in-your-face. I got the final coat on this afternoon, and in this heat it wasn’t too long before it was dry enough to bring up to Mayana’s room.
To finish it off, I’m on the hunt for some wooden letters to spell ‘Dress-Ups’, which I plan to cover with funky scrapbooking paper and glue to the front of the box. Later, we might think about adding a shelf above the hanging rail, with a few boxes to store hats, shoes, or any other miscellaneous dress-up items that might appear when we have more than one child dressing up!
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We added a few adhesive hooks to the side to hang necklaces and headbands. The bottom of the box is a place for Dorothy Tails, masks, her Doctor’s Kit, and we’ll add other roll-playing props as we find them.
At the moment, our collection is fairly ‘fairy princess’ heavy, but as time goes on, I’m sure things will balance out a little. Her favourite dress-ups at Kindy so far have been a lady-beetle costume and a Fireman shirt.
Mayana is really into role-playing games at the moment, and I know that dressing up will really enrich those play-learning experiences for her. I’m really excited about this new little piece of furniture!
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Oh… and just as an aside: I have a very excited little girl because this week she is going to be starting dance classes! She’ll be doing them at the same dance school that my sister goes to, and is so excited that she’ll get to be in a concert ‘just like Boo!’. I found her this very cute ‘leotard’ (which is actually a pair of togs, but who could even tell!?) for $7.00 on clearance, and I think it will do very nicely as a dance outfit. Could it be any cuter? I mean, apart from when Mayana is in it of course…
Can't wait to see her in her first dance concert! Oom J loved dress ups. Loved his imagination. Lovely to watch isn't it? :)
ReplyDeleteSome hooks on the outside would also be good if a collection of bags, hats etc grows, or even one hook each side with a drawstring bag for all the smaller, non hanging items.
ReplyDeleteSo jealous of people who have access to places like Bunnings lol
That is great! You are both very clever - such a good way to store dressups but have them easily visible.
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