DIY Farmhouse Doll Bed {from Ana White}

Farmhouse Doll Bed, Final, before paint

This past December I made my nieces farmhouse doll beds based on this DIY from Ana White. If you’re into DIY, let me tell you, her site is the most amazing rabbit hole I have ever been down. I want to make just about everything on it. It’s a super fun place for inspiration so I wanted to shout her out and these doll beds in specific. They are no joke. Perfect for an American girl sized doll. I’ll let you head over to her post linked above for the materials list and instructions but here are a few notes and add on’s from my experience.

Notes:

• I followed this one to the T which is rare for me. So my only note is to definitely include the optional support beam across the bottom. My toddler got right on this bed as I was making it and so did my nieces when they saw it. It’s small for them but large enough where they think it can support them. And with the beam, it can!

• I painted them with a white chalk paint and am really happy with the finished look but I also think a wood stain could look beautiful.

• If you’re having Home Depot do your cuts for you as I did, just make sure to double check them all before you leave. The second from the top piece for the headboard and footboard are a good 1/2 inch short and it’s not my favorite look, but I was already home when I realized this so I went with it anyway. Obviously, during this quarantine, stay home!! I’m not advocating to go buy and cut for this or any other project, but I’m keeping this here in case you read it in the future when hopefully, we’re all back to a normal, safe environment.

Add On’s:

• Foam Mattress: I bought foam to make a mattress and it really completes the look. I was in a time crunch and am not an expert sewer so I used an old sheet and hot glue to cover it. It was really easy.

• Bedding and Pillows: I used that same sheet, pillow stuffing and hot glue to make some pillows, and just cut a fleece fabric for bedding. You want the fleece to be the length of the bed and a few inches wider on each side so that it hangs down. Going back, I’d have made my a little wider. I did mine in a Christmas theme because it was a holiday present but it could be cute to get a few different fleeces to change it up based on the season.

• A Doll: If you’re giving this as a gift, you could definitely pair it with a new doll.

Okay, get to it!

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Have you made doll or barbie furniture or accessories? Right now a friend of mine is making miniture things for her daughter’s dollhouse. Think books for the bookshelf, miniature wall art, etc. Lots of felt. I love it.

A note on carpentry and the root chakra - I’ve mentioned before that wood working can help bring the root chakra into balance. I know it sounds a little hokey but why not give it a shot? And definitely check out my last post for more activities to ground yourself and your child. It’s a weird time. Stay safe.

A note on toys and gender - My mom asked me a fair question of why I didn’t make one for my son as well and the truthful answer is time and work. Making three of these at once was no joke. I finished just before the holidays so the focus was Christmas presents. Mateo does have a doll and she came with a little cloth bassinet so I also didn’t think this would be so exciting for him as he already has a little bed for her. I also have one nephew and offered to make one for him but he was only just a year old at the time and my sister didn’t think he would be into it from an age perspective. Hopefully, he can share with his sister as he gets older. All this said, definitely make this for a boy as well!

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Did you make this DIY? I’d love to see it! Comment below or tag me on Instagram.

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Farmhouse doll beds

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A note on affiliate links - This post contains affiliate links. The amazon items linked above are the same price to you, but a small portion gets kicked back to me if you purchase through these links.

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DIY Wooden Truck Garage - Functional and Aesthetically Pleasing - Fits Green Toys Brand Trucks Best

The dump truck, flatbed and fire truck are all Green Toys brand. The garbage truck is not and is a bit longer.

I’m excited to share this DIY Wooden Truck Garage with you. I don’t want to admit for how long I had held onto these wood bed frame slats or just how many trucks we have accumulated, but I can say that it felt really great to finally upcycle the wood and have a nice looking display for my son’s trucks. I made it well over a year ago and it’s held up great. These pictures are from just the other day. It’s both functional and aesthetically pleasing. I chose to keep the wood finish but you can definitely paint or stain this piece.

There is a lot of flexibility with this piece. It’s essentially a box with three sides open. I measured his most used Green Toys brand trucks and decided to go with three slats wide by four slats tall for ours. So feel free to do the same and pick your size based on what would be most helpful for your toys, in your space. Just make sure to give a little extra room to grow, especially on top, as dump trucks in this household are often piled high.

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Here’s what you’ll need to get started.

Materials:

• 10x Slats - 1 x 4 x 38 inches

• 6x Support Posts - 1 x 2 x 10.5 inches

• 6x Straight Metal Brackets with screws - Mine are 8 inches with 4 holes

• 4x Corner L Metal Brackets with screws - Mine are 2.5 x 2.5 inches with 4 holes

• 1 inch wood screws

  • Note: I always buy a box because if you’re into DIYs, you’ll need the common sizes again and it’s way cheaper than buying the exact amount needed.

• Optional wood filler or putty to fill the screw holes

• Optional paint, spray paint, or stain and brush

  • Note: These are my favorite paints, stain and brush. I use this brush all around my house. It’s the best.

  • Note: A smaller size stain would be plenty. I just can’t find a link on amazon. But again, if you plan to DIY often, maybe the larger one is a good investment.

Tools:

• Drill

  • Note: I like Dewalt brand and definitely go corded versus cordless. They’re typically more powerful and how annoying is it to have to wait for a battery to charge, or have the battery or charger go missing?

• Drill bits

• Screwdriver bit set

• Measuring Tape - Although, I eye balled a lot of this one.

• A pencil! Your kid’s colored pencils would work just fine.

• Sander - Either an electric sander or piece of sand paper or sand paper block

• Optional - Tack cloth to clean up the saw dust. You can alternatively use a rag.

• Optional - Clamps if you’re fancy or a perfectionist with alignment. I am neither.

A note on materials. The only thing I bought for this piece was the wood for the vertical support posts. I had the other wood pieces and hardware. The hardware is a little clunky so if you can find something slimmer, great. This piece is rarely empty in my house, so I don’t end up seeing the hardware often.

Steps - See photos.

• Assemble the sides - Line up your three sides one at a time - the top and the bottom have three slats and the back wall has four slats. Place your straight metal brackets about four inches in from the ends, mark your pilot holes with your pencil. Remove the bracket and drill the pilot holes. Place the bracket back on top and drill in your bracket screws. Repeat on both ends of all three - the top, bottom and back wall.

• Attach the sides - Line up a top or bottom piece (they’re the same) with the back wall piece. The back wall should sit on top of the bottom piece. Place an L bracket in place, mark your pilot holes with your pencil. Remove the bracket, drill the pilot holes. Replace bracket, drill in bracket screws. Repeat with the second top or bottom piece. It should rest on top of the back wall piece. This will make a U shape.

• Attach support posts - Determine how wide you would like your openings to be. Mine are approximately 9.5 inches wide. For this distance, you would want to mark off at the 9.5, 19, and 28.5 inch marks on the middle slat and the one closest to the edge. This is one of the only times when measuring actually is important as you’ll want to line up your top and bottom pilot holes and screws. To be totally truthful though, I did mine mostly by feel.

  • You could also do just one post in the middle at the 19 in mark. You could also add two at the ends, about 1 and 37 inches.

  • I like having at least three support areas because my kiddo climbed on top in about .2 seconds after this was finished.

• Fill the holes - Optional - You can put putty or wood filler into the holes to give this a smooth finish. Let it dry and sand off any excess in the next step. I skipped this but it would look nicer if I hadn’t.

• Sand - You’ll now want to sand down the entire piece so that it’s smooth for the kiddos. Most important will be the ends. Brush off any sawdust. If you have a tact, use that. If not, a rag is fine.

• Stain or paint - Optional - I typically do stain my projects and I love a deep walnut color but I was planning to put this piece by my dark fireplace and liked the idea of keeping it lighter and visually very simple. When I do paint, I tend to go for a white chalk paint or a matte black chalk paint. But feel free to get creative here!

• Set up with your child’s favorite trucks, planes, trains, or other toys. You can even have a nice bin or basket in one area.

Add on ideas:

• I thought about drilling in a little train track to the top to make a permanent track but ultimately decided against it so that the top could be more functional and so that the train set could be used in varying configurations. I do think it would be pretty sweet though.

• A cool idea would be to customize to your child’s favorite theme. I think this could make for a great airplane hanger or fire station. You could paint on details too.

• Make it two or three tiered. Include storage bins, etc.

A note on toy rotation - In all honestly, my son has dozens of trucks and this fits just four of them at a time. So, either he picks which ones he wants or I observe which he is playing with the most, what themes he’s really into and pick which make it into the rotation (i.e. collecting things - dump and garbage truck or playing fire chief - fire truck) and try to change it up about once a month based on if the toys are getting played with or not.

A note on open ended play - One of the most helpful adages I have heard for children is that active toys make for passive learners and passive toys make for active learners. Basically, a plain wood box would inspire a lot more creativity and active imagination play than a box that lights up and makes sounds. This piece is almost more like furniture rather than a toy but still, it is amazing to see the things that he comes up with for it, mainly “vrooming” cars on top and building train tracks attaching from the coffee table. I love watching him play with open ended toys, including furniture.

A note on carpentry and the root chakra - Right now, the world is at an upheaval. The Coronva virus threat has us all self quarantining at home. A shelter in place is no joke. It’s scary. There is a lot unknown. There is a threat to our basic survival. So in this time, along with following the obvious CDC recommendations of staying home, frequent hand washing, and wearing masks if you do go in public, you can also do a lot for yourself while at home to balance your root chakra to bring yourself some calm. Located at the base of your spine, it is known as the survival chakra and some activities to help balance it include working with wood and dirt. I highly recommend DIYs like this one to bring you a sense of security, as odd as it may seem. You can also see my last post for more activities to ground yourself and your child.

Did you make this DIY? I’d love to see it! Comment below or tag me on Instagram.

Real life

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A note on affiliate links - This post contains affiliate links. The amazon items linked above are the same price to you, but a small portion gets kicked back to me if you purchase through these links.

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For inspiration from our day to day life, follow us over on instagram @plantbasedbaby.us. Here’s a preview below of what you can expect.

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DIY Learning Tower {Ikea hack from Happy Grey Lucky}

Learning Towers are a pretty amazing thing. They, quite simply, bring children up to our level. And in doing so, they give them independence and access. My two year old absolutely loves to help out in the kitchen. We cook together nearly every day and he is by my side for all of it, pouring and stirring, involved in the whole process. Sometimes he’ll have a meal standing in it. Sometimes he plays with other things on the counter top like his lentil tray. {More on that activity in another post.} Needless to say, he uses it multiple times a day.

But, when I first looked into buying one, I was shocked by the sticker price. I could not believe how much a simple gated stool would cost. So, I took to facebook marketplace and craigslist and I did see them from time to time but the resale value was still high for me and anything reasonable was gone in a flash. So, I thought I’d look into making one myself. I am fairly handy, but not an expert by any means so I always read about and gauge the challenge level before starting a DIY project. {Okay, that might not always be true. I might sometimes abandon ship or phone a friend. But, mostly, I am prepared.}

So when I found this tutorial from Happy Grey Lucky, I was absolutely thrilled. It’s not just a DIY, it’s an Ikea hack, meaning part of the piece is already there for you and you’re just adding onto it. Using the Ikea BEKVÄM stool, it was really simple to make. My only caveat is that the platform for this one is significantly less wide than most that I’ve seen so it may not last as long if you have a bigger toddler. Mateo is huge for his age at 35 lbs and 3 feet, and he’s still able to use it nicely, although getting up and down has become a bit tight. I may take off the back dowel at some point. And, I’d recommend to get the plain wood stool instead of the white stool. Ikea didn’t have that option when I got mine but I have seen it since. The white looks nice but the paint chips and I had to spray a coat of paint on top of it recently to stop the little bits of paint from flaking everywhere. So, skip that and just get the raw wood because it looks just as nice, or maybe nicer. And, then you don’t have to paint the DIY part because it will already match. Annnnd, go! You got this!

Update: I recently saw Ana White made this larger sized kids’ tower. Check out her The Littlest Helper DIY blog post. She’s wonderful.

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Comment below if you’ve made this hack or a similar one or if you bought one and love it like I do!

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For inspiration from our day to day life, follow us over on instagram @plantbasedbaby.us. Here’s a preview below of what you can expect.

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Resource Round Up

I absolutely love youtube. I started subscribing to inspirational channels around the time my son was born because while I mostly stayed present and off my phone for nursing and snuggling, he’d also have many hours asleep on me and when I couldn’t sleep myself, I loved watching little, 5-20 minute clips. I never really knew how much time I had so these sound bites of wisdom and fun were really great for me.

As I think about it now, they truly have changed my life. For example, I actually didn’t really know much about Montessori principles until I came upon The Hidden Gem. I learned so much about Montessori at home and the philosophy overall. And, Gemma recommended the book The Montesorri Toddler by Simone Davies which was incredibly helpful, and beautiful, and an easy read that taught me so much.

And, after being a vegetarian for 20+ years, activist Ellen Fisher, along with her sister, Hannah McNeely, truly changed my perspective and are why I converted to plant-based a few months ago. Hannah recommended Pick Up Limes and holy smokes, as Sadia says, have I gained so much plant-based cooking inspiration and dietitian advice. I love her channel so much. It’s like a little bit of peace and calm and a whole lot of mouth watering deliciousness.

And speaking of peace, I also absolutely love Do It On A Dime. Katherine is a gem. She is so down to earth and real and speaks from her heart. She is not vegan, plant-based or a Montessori follower but she is a former teacher and mother and has incredible DIY and budget friendly projects. She is lovely. The common thread? All of these channels are so real. They are authentic people, speaking from the heart. And I absolutely love them. So those round out my favorite resources to date. I hope you check them out and subscribe to get all of the love in your feed as well.

What are your favorite parenting, plant-based, vegan, montessori, etc etc resources? I’d love to hear. Post in the comments below.

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Resource Round Up Recap

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Pick Up Limes

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Ellen Fisher

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Hannah McNeely

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The Hidden Gem

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The Montessori Notebook

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Do it on a Dime

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For inspiration from our day to day life, follow me over on instagram @plantbasedbaby.us. Here’s a preview below of what you can expect.

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Follow Me on Instagram, @plantbasedbaby.us

To get this party started, I am posting inspiration from our day to day life over on instagram @plantbasedbaby.us. So head over there and check it out. Let me know what types of posts you’d find most helpful. Here’s a preview below of what you can expect.

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