Hello beautiful people!
I am FINALLY posting about this activity cube that I finished for Ava over a year ago…YIKES. Yes, I know how terrible I am at keeping up with my blog. But here I am, finally writing about it! This project was pretty fun to do, so I hope you enjoy reading about it and doing your own DIY toddler activity cube makeover!
I got this activity cube off of Facebook Marketplace for $10. It was ugly and way too colourful and didn’t go with my decor at all. But for $10 I said “screw it” and bought it anyway. All it needed was a new coat of paint and viola! SO MUCH BETTER.
Here’s how I did it:
STEP 1: Take it apart.
Get out that trusty allen wrench and take the whole activity cube apart. Yes, everything. Take pics before you do this though! You’ll need to remember how it’s supposed to look when you put it back together again. And make sure you have some ziplock bags handy so you don’t lose any of the pieces!
STEP 2: Decide what you want to paint and what you don’t.
I loved the look of the parts that were natural and unpainted wood, so I left those alone. These pieces were put off to the side because they were good to go!
STEP 3: Prime everything you want to paint.
If you really want, you can sand everything down and take off all the original paint. But you don’t have to. I sanded maybe 10 of the little pieces, then gave up and just primed the rest (the sanding was just taking sooooo long). Thankfully, I can tell you that the ones I primed are holding up just as well as the ones I sanded. I used Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch spray paint primer in flat white. The spray paint primer made it super easy and fast to do, especially with all the little pieces! I put everything in a single layer in a cardboard box, sprayed a couple coats of primer, and turned everything over! The box made it super easy to paint everything, plus it kept the overspray contained – WIN.
STEP 4: Paint all the primed pieces.
I bought a bunch of different colours of Craftsmart acrylic paint from Michaels to paint all the pieces. I wanted some of the colours to be more pastel than what they had available, so I mixed some of the colours with white acrylic paint in order to tone the colours down a bit and make them *chef’s kiss* the perfect pastel. After painting the little animals on top of the activity cube, I went in with permanent markers and redrew their faces back on.
STEP 5: Seal everything.
I then sealed all the pieces with Americana Duraclear Satin Varnish. After trying many different types of varnishes, this is the one varnish that actually stays clear and doesn’t yellow. It was also super important to me that it was water-based and non-toxic since this toy was for my toddler.
STEP 6: Put it all back together!
Get out that allen wrench again, and put allllll the pieces back together. Then sit back, relax, and marvel at your handywork. Also, enjoy the fact that your kid’s toy is no longer an eyesore in your home.
And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed this DIY toddler activity cube makeover!
2. Only use the pliers for very sharp angles and bend the wire as much as you can before using pliers. When you use the pliers, make sure that you are using the flat part of the pliers – closer to the wire cutter – and not the ridged area (see pic 1 below). The ridges will make little bumps in your wire and show the dark and not-so-shiny area underneath the coating. Moral of the story: it will look really sloppy and unprofessional. If you don’t trust yourself and think you might forget to use the flat part, or you’re worried you might accidentally snip the wire with the wire cutters, I recommend putting masking tape over the ridged surface of your pliers (see pic 2 below). This will protect the wire and ensure that you don’t get any ugly little bumps or dark wire innards showing up.
Get an estimate of how far the wire goes in, and then measure where to cut the wire. If you’re nervous about this part, cut a little bit at a time. Do this until your word is centred in the hanger when the wire is placed in the hanger’s hole.
Using a hot glue gun, superglue or another type of strong adhesive, dab a small amount in the hole and then immediately insert the wire. Once the wire is inserted, bend the wire so that it is parallel with the top of the hanger.
And you’re done!
The first step of this project is to place the tape on the coasters where ever you don’t want paint to go. Press down hard so that no paint seeps underneath and make sure your piece of tape is long enough to extend past the sides and onto the back of the coasters.
Once all the paint is fully dry, slowly peel the tape off, and violà! Affordable and super cute coasters that no longer look like you bought them at the dollar store for $1.25!