dress up cart

 

My niece is just starting to play dress up with hats and shoes so for her 2nd birthday, I made this dress up cart from the wonderful Ana White website (project plans here).  The original plan calls for a closet rod for hangers.  I didn't think my nice would be able to hang things on hangers yet - she is only 2 after all - so I altered it for hooks. 

Loaded up with her birthday gifts

Project Details

Time:  About an hour to cut and build and three hours to sand, paint and attach the hooks.

Type of Wood:  Pine

Finish:  2 coats of primer and 1 coat of semi-gloss paint (white mixed with a little yellow from previous projects)

Project cost:  $60 total.  $32 for the lumber (Lowe's), $17 for the hooks (Menards) and $11 for the letters (Michaels).  The paint, screws and glue was leftover from a previous project.

shoe dresser

Our entry from the garage to the kitchen is small.  Tiny, actually, when you consider all of the functions that fit into a 5' x 3' area....entryway, shoe and coat storage, trash can area and the dog food/water bowl area.  It's also right next to the stairs.  We used to store our shoes on the floor, all piled up and pushed against the wall.  This didn't work for several reasons, but mainly because the shoes on the bottom would get gross from the snow and dirt on the top shoes.  Oh yeah, and there's the minor problem that we would sometimes trip over shoes when we went downstairs.

Enter the fabulous Ana White formerly of Knock-off Wood and her ingenious shoe dresser.  It was love at first sight.  I didn't even have to convince my husband, and he's not a fan of extra work.

 

  I made bin liners from oil cloth so protect the dresser from wet winter shoes.