I’ve been so concentrated on building the new house that I haven’t done a project in a good long while. I finally have one for you today though, a Lego table!
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Last month Levi (my middle son) turned four. Four. I remember blogging his birth story like it was yesterday, and now he’s my four-year-old middle son. Crazy.
Anyway, I made him a Lego table for his birthday. He loves it, my other boys love it, and I kinda love it too…despite the fact that it lives in my living room and has a million pieces.
It started when my mother-in-law (the one that was flooded) gave me this old coffee table.
It was missing the glass and kinda beat up, but sturdy. I had no idea what to do with it when I took it, I just collect old furniture castoffs because I have no self-control. It didn’t take long to decide it would make a perfect Lego table though.
So I started Lego shopping, and quickly decided that there was no way I was going to buy the regular tiny ones…those suckers would end up everywhere, scattered. I will step on them and curse the day I welcomed them into my home. And most importantly I have a very mobile eight-month old who puts everything in his mouth. I decided that the Lego Duplos (for kids five and under) would be perfect. My kids have never played with Legos so they won’t even know the difference, the baby won’t choke to death, and I will be able to hold onto my sanity for a short while longer.
So one day I’m shopping online for Legos and Elijah (5) says (super causally, while licking his applesauce spoon) “I know what you’re doing mommy.” I immediately get defensive and a little nervous, as if I’m I actually doing something wrong. “What do you mean?” I ask. ” I know what you’re looking at on the computer. You’re looking at Legos.”
What the…how did he…can he see through my computer?
So I divulged my plan, and explained that it was a surprise for Levi’s birthday and it had to be our little secret. As it turns out, sharing a secret with your five-year-old is pretty darn fun. Every day he would come up to me, cup his little hand around my ear and whisper something like “I still remember our secret, and I haven’t told anybody. Not even Grandma!”
Anyway, enough story time….do you want to see how to make a Lego table? Post contains affiliate links for your convenience, click here to read my full disclosure.
Materials needed –
- Table of your choice
- Lego baseplates
- Mod Podge or any decent glue you have on hand
- X-acto knife for cutting base pates
- Legos
- paint (optional)
- storage bins (optional)
How to build a lego table –
First I added plywood to the underside of the table, making a place for the Lego baseplates to sit. I just cut some scraps to size and used glue and screws to attach them. (This step probably won’t be necessary on your project, our table was just in particularly bad shape.)
Then it was given a light sanding and I primed and painted it.
I normally use a brush, but I recently got my hands on a paint sprayer from HomeRight and I have to say….it is awesome. Easy to use, super quick, great finish, not expensive ($70 bucks on Amazon!). The spindly legs were even fun to paint, and I usually dread them.
After the table was dry it was time to add the baseplates. I bought the biggest I could find, which was a 15 x 15 inch square.
It still wasn’t big enough to fill the space I needed, so I bought three and cut the third one down to fill the extra space.
So how do you cut a Lego baseplate? It’s actually really easy. First decide where you need to cut and add Legos just to the right of the that. Use an xacto knife and run it along the side of the Legos, pressing fairly hard.
After a few passes you will have a deep cut, then you can just bend and break it. The results are a perfectly straight edge…I’m actually surprised how well this worked.
Next I attached the baseplates to the table. Here’s the trick to joining to base plates – you need to first attach them with Legos to make sure the gap is correct. If you just mash them together you may not be able to snap the Legos on after its glued down. That would be bad.
To attach it to the table I used Mod Podge, but you could use pretty much anything you have on hand.
While I was working Judah made sure to inspect the Legos, tasting each one to make sure it was safe for play. He was very thorough. I’m glad I got the big ones.
I made the table on Levis birthday, and finished it only about 30 minutes before I had to pick him up from preschool. Extreme procrastination is how I get my kicks.
Here is a video of the big event. I didn’t plan to post it, hence the messy house, no makeup, and general video blurriness…but here it is anyway. (I know, quite a sales pitch.)
I love Judah’s eyes at the end of that video, he’s just so dang excited about those Legos. He was so determined to play with them that he (at a fresh 7 months) taught himself to pull up on furniture just to get to them. You can find now find him at the Lego table approximately 90% of his waking hours.
Anyway, if you’re looking for a Christmas or birthday gift for your kids (or perhaps just something that they will play with for hours on end and forget you exist) this is a great option.
It doesn’t hurt that it’s nice to look at either!
That is a perfect table for the little ones, so clever…Millie
http://www.frugaliciouschick.blogspot.com
You still amaze me with what you can do. Wish I had little ones in my life to make one for I would be all over it. You have a beautiful family…and that includes YOU !!!!!!!
Aww, you’re so sweet, thank you!
I played on the floor. This is better especially for drawing and coloring.
We made a Lego table years ago for our oldest, and our youngest is still playing with it. We just took a square frame of solid wood, put coasters on the bottom so it could roll under the bed when not in use, and glued the Lego bases on it. It has been well used and well loved now for twenty years. At this point, I think grandkids may eventually enjoy it. Love how you took something already made to do yours. We started from scratch, but it has certainly been worth the time and materials. Thank you for sharing a great reno idea.
That’s a GREAT way to build a Lego table, and so simple. Any giant kids toy that can disappear on demand is a winner in my book!
This Lego table is awesome! The thing I like about it most is it looks nice…..so if it sits in the living room, it looks pretty.
The most shocking part of the post….that baby is 8 months old??!??!? I can’t even believe that.
How time flies.
Keep up the good work!
Oh I know, it baffles my mind that he is eight months already. I wish I could stop time and keep him like this forever. Actually (as long as we’re wishing for unrealistic things), I wish I could have stopped it a month or two ago, before he was mobile and into everything. Also, I wish for a full time maid.
I’ve been wanting to make one of these for a while! (but we moved last year & have a long list of projects going already) I love your tips on cutting and connecting the boards.
Happy Birthday Levi! It really doesn’t seem like 4 yrs. ago. Great table! Your kids are so adorable!! That little babe is sooo cute! Thanks for sharing them with us :)
Ahhhhh! Happy birthday sweet boy! Love this table too! That video had me missing you guys! Those handsome boys are getting so big!
That coffee table looks almost exactly like mine except mine doesn’t have the lower shelf. Great job! I’d actually thought of taking our traditional lego table that the inlaws bought the kids and making some kind of cover for it so it could double as our coffee table when the kids weren’t playing with it. Maybe instead I should just make lego inserts for the coffee table that could be taken out easily. Cool! My 9-month old girl said hi to Levi, btw. :^)
How genius and creative this is! I might do something like this very soon. Thanks for giving me some sort of inspiration on what project to do next.
Hi, I loved the lego table idea! Maybe I should make one for my boys, now I just need to find an abandoned table that will work. I also wondered what your thoughts are on the paint sprayers you have used? I am looking to purchase one and need an opinion I can trust. Thanks!
We’ve had three paint sprayers. The first was one from Ryobi, and while I love every other one of their tools (we have a lot) I was not impressed with their paint sprayer. The second is this one from HomeRight, and it works really well, especially considering it’s only $70. Recently we bought a bigger one for painting our new house, it’s a Graco X5 that is almost $300. I’ve only ever watched Adam use this one, but he loves it and he’s hard to impress.
Thank you for taking the time to reply!
What a great idea! I have been saving the HUGE red lego baseplate that came with the lego table we had for my son then daughter YEARS ago. he is 21, she is 14. It was from step 2 or one of those companies. If I get my hands one another baseplate like it I could sooo do this. Thanks for the idea!
This is awesome! Thanks for linking up to Merry Monday! Pinned & Sharing on Fb! Have a great week!
Kim
This is such a great idea. Hours of hands on building fun.
What a great Lego table! It seems like every table in our house turns into a Lego table. This would be a great way to corral them all. I just need to find an old coffee table like yours!
This is so perfect!! Some of my grandsons have so many Legos and this is another excellent idea to go with them! I will pass this on to my daughters.
First of all … you have beautiful children! Secondly … brilliant idea! You just made a play space that not only is functional but it looks nice too! I hope you have a great day! If you would like to inspire some more, Making Broken Beautiful is starting right now over at The Curator’s Collection and I would love to host you amazing talent!
Smiles!
Terry
The Curator’s Collection & Making Broken Beautiful Thursday
http://thecuratorscollection.wordpress.com
This post escaped me somehow, so I just found it. What a great project! I don’t have space in my house for one, but I could see making one for my grandkids. It’s just fabulous!
The kiddos are getting so big! O_O They’re so sweet.
Where did you but the Lego bsseplate? I can’t find them anywhere..by the way your table is amazing!!! I have an old end table im gonna do this to….
I bought them on Amazon, here is a link (the duplo was was hard to find, but Amazon has everything!)
Great idea how to use my old table.
Thanks a lot.
I luv luv luv your idea. GO MOM!
THIS idea is great for preschool as well.
Thanks for sharing.
how do u use the modge pod? do you put over the baseplate, as well as under? what a great idea. am making one tomorrow for gr. daughter birthday. please let me know asap. thanks so much.
Ugh I didn’t think to use a Lego to hold the plates together while glueing them!
What an awesome idea. I love how it turned out. Thanks for sharing.
It’s perfect! I love your idea so much!
This is a really great idea thanks for the reference to putting the Legos on before gluing the bases together I wouldn’t have thought of it and would have been disappointed have birthdays coming up the girls are much older than yours but they do some bigger better projects and sometimes leave them I think something like this for their bedroom possibly at the foot of the bed wake me up really cool thing
Thanks Ashley! I LOVE the idea to make a Lego table out of an old coffee table!! Totally doing that soon!