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Pink Divided Lego Storage

Psssst... this post *might* contain affiliate links: see my disclosure here.

November 2, 2017

Under the Bed Lego Tray

under the bed lego storage

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Minwax, but all opinions and pink reveal are my own.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a fun event at the Philadelphia Restore sponsored by Minwax! Truthfully, I wasn’t sure of the specifics, but when I walked into the room and saw tables with wood and samples and paint brushes, I KNEW it was going to be a great afternoon! The experts at Minwax gave us a crash course in all things wood staining, wood preserving, and furniture finishing. Guess what. This 5 year DIYer was doing all SORTS of things wrong when it came to my staining.
minwax wood stains

1. I wasn’t pretreating my wood. Which makes for a blotchy stain. No bueno. Use a wood conditioner.

2. I was cleaning my brushes wrong. Alll wrong. When you turn them upside down in the faucet? All that paint just gets shoved down into the nape of the bristles. Also no bueno. Just hold the bristles pointed down, and rinse/ flick until no more paint.

3. No idea about water based and oil based nuances. Oil based stains have a much longer working time, but can smell a lot. Like a lot a lot! Water based stains will dry much faster which can be tricky, but they also come in amazing colors like, ahem… my pink lego tray!

4. Shaking my cans. Don’t do it, folks. Bubbles are bad. Always stir your stain.

5. Brush type. I typically grab the cheapest brush unless it’s one of my favorite angle brushes. Synthetic bristles should be used with water based paints and natural bristles should be reserved for oil based products… the water can cause natural bristles to swell and change their shape.

organized lego tray

I could go on, but five major staining mistakes seems like enough. My friend Cristina wrote a great post on all the other tips I forgot to mention here!

One of the products I fell head over heels in love with was their pink wood stain. PINK! As you know, Eleanor’s room is a plethora of fuchsia and we had a bit of a lego situation going on. I decided to build her a simple storage bin for her legos and stain it… yep… pink!

Eleanor with her pink lego tray

The tray itself is very simple. I used a 3/4″ 2×4 piece of sanded plywood and framed it out with some mitered 1x3s.

mitered corners on lego tray

I mitered the corners of the 1x3s and lined them up to the edge of the plywood with wood glue and a brad nailer.

mitered corners on lego tray

To split the tray into two halves, I glued/ nailed a 1×2 down the middle to act as a partition to help her divide her lego creations from all the lego pieces.

assembling the lego tray

assembling the lego tray

I sanded and pretreated the wood to start. The Minwax pre-stain helps prep the wood so that any stain applied will be a smooth even finish.

stained lego tray

The wood frame of the tray is stained with the water based stain in Perfectly Pink. I brushed on the stain with a synthetic brush, and then wiped off any excess with a cotton rag. To finish, I went over the stain a day later with a flat finish Polycrylic to help preserve the stain.

For the inside, I used some leftover white paint to keep the storage area crisp and clean. Casters and 2 lucite handles later… I’m in love.

lucite handles on lego tray

Eleanor is actually VERY organized so I figured I’d give her a head start, and bought her some small plastic containers in which she can sort the various legos. One corner at a time, folks… keeping this house quasi-organized!

plastic containers for lego

 

 

lego storage for under the bed

One side of the tray is for the legos she builds and the other is for her spare pieces. I’m not sure whether it will be easier for her with or without the lids, but I love how pretty all the containers look with their rainbow legos!

minwax-lego-tray-20

lego storage trays for under the bed

I was able to use three 1x3s at $3 each. The plywood is about $10. A pack of four casters was maybe $3 and each handle was about $4. I could have used simple grocery store containers, but I went to Marshalls and got these ones that were all about $3 a piece. Doing the math… that brings the whole project to about $50. I know that’s not super cheap, but… the alternative is a dresser or a file cabinet and this is just too perfect not to love!

pink lego storage tray

pink lego storage tray

pin-me-pin-me

easy under the bed storage solution

XO Charlotte

4 Comments · Builds 1, Organization, Sponsored

Comments

  1. Karen @ The DIY Bungalow says

    November 7, 2017 at 3:38 pm

    This is freakin genius!! My daughter’s legos are everywhere – this would not only organize them but then hide them when she’s not playing with them. You are my hero! 🙂

    Reply
    • Charlotte Smith says

      November 8, 2017 at 3:29 pm

      Hahaha! Thanks, Karen! You could make it in an hour! xx

      Reply
  2. Rosemary says

    February 16, 2019 at 12:19 pm

    This is awesome and can be used for so many things other than legos.

    Reply
    • Charlotte Smith says

      February 18, 2019 at 10:02 pm

      Yes! Such a simple build and you’re totally right… would work for lots of things!

      Reply

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Lover of color, wrangler of chaos, thrifter of all the things.

head-shot-1 Hi, I'm Charlotte! I'm fixing up our 100 year old house and artfully hoarding armchairs in the garage. I love color. I love flea markets. I love a little mess. My days are spent writing, painting, sanding, laughing and negotiating with our 5 kids. You can read more about us here
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