I consider myself to be rather crafty. I can hold my own when it comes to DIY projects. But the one thing I hadn’t mastered, hadn’t even thought to try, was building something. I mean something legitimate, something that could be considered furniture. All that changed when I decided I had to have a helper tower for Logan. Logan loves to be part of the action, and especially loves seeing what I’m doing while I’m in the kitchen. Since cooking one handed wasn’t exactly the easiest way to get dinner on the table, I had to figure out a safe way to put Logan down, but prevent him from feeling left out. I first saw helper towers at a baby store. I forget which one. I thought it was an awesome idea! And then I saw the price. They charge like $150 for these things. There went that idea out the window… Until I stumbled upon some plans to make one myself (thank you, pinterest!). The plans seemed simple, and while I didn’t have all the tools I needed, my husband had been harassing me to let him buy new tools anyway, so it seemed like as good a time as any. The rest of the materials were pretty straight forward, and cheap: some wood, some screws and paint pretty much rounded it out.
I spent an hour or so gathering supplies and getting all the wood cut to size, then searching for and procuring non-toxic paint. I ended up choosing a bright, almost neon green color, and I love it.
Then came the building. There were some creative solutions that came about out of necessity, but everything ended up working out. The tower was built over the course of a couple nights on my dining room table after Logan had gone to sleep.
Though not perfect, I think it turned out pretty great, especially for my first attempt at something like this. Logan wants to pull it out and climb on it all the time, too, so all in all, a success! Not only that, finishing this project has definitely given me a boost of confidence in what I think I’m capable of doing. I imagine I will be trying my hand at building some more pieces of furniture in the future.
What have you done lately that surprised yourself? Anybody else recently get started with carpentry?
You should do it! Not only is it better and safer than using a chair or step stool, you’ll get such a sense of accomplishment when you finish 🙂
Great job! I’ve seen this piece of furniture on Pinterest and have toyed around with the idea of building one, but always get a bit intimidated…you may have just inspired me!