Toy Shelf – Inspired by Land of Nod

Hi and welcome back!  For this project I teamed up with some friends to make a piece inspired by something from Land of Nod.  Land of Nod has beautiful kids furniture and accessories, but the price tag is a bit hefty.  I have to be honest, this project did not go as I had planned. Sometimes, I have plans and they turn out well and sometimes not so much ;).  But, my son ended up loving his new toy shelf and so it’s staying.  And I was thrilled at his reaction to it!  Thanks so much to Melissa at The Pig and the Rabbit for hosting this challenge! 

So, my inspiration was the radial wall shelf from Land of Nod.  It is filled with little tons of little shelves which I thought would be perfect for housing Lego mini figures.  Sometimes I will recreate furniture and it turns out to be not as hard as I thought.  This was not the case.  First off, I had a hard time finding circles to use.  I looked around but really couldn’t find any the right size.  Then I found this shelf at Target and thought it was perfect!  I could build little shelves inside the ones already there.  Easy, right?  haha….

So, it was actually very hard to find wood that was thin enough to fit and yet sturdy enough to hold anything.  Then I had trouble with the balsa wood “legs” and keeping them in place.  It was starting to look really chincy, so I threw it all out and decided to go simpler with it.

First off, I spray painted the whole thing with a couple of coats of red spray paint.

Then, I cut some very thin wood boards, found in the architectural section of Hobby Lobby to fit on each shelf.

I stained them with 3 coats of Jacobean by Minwax.  Then I just glued them onto the shelf.  Because the metal was already there, I could use very thin wood, which looked good and it was still supported.

That was so easy!  I ended up spending about $40 on it – the toy shelf was $30 and boards and spray paint were about $10.  That’s way better than the $189 price tag on my inspiration shelf, but it’s not quite the same.

However, my son thought his new toy shelf was the best thing ever.  I was actually shocked at his reaction when he got home.  Here he is styling it…

And he wanted this pic to be sent to “everyone we know”.  That’s his new thing that basically means he wants me to put it on Facebook ;). My daughter is now begging me for a shelf, so maybe I’ll try again and go for something a little closer to inspiration.  Stay tuned!

Stop by and see what my friends made!

Hobnail House – Designer Inspired DIY Lighting

Uncookie Cutter – Simple Toy Shelf Upgrade

Pocketful of Posies – Rainy Day in Paris Play Tent

Pig + Rabbit – Easy DIY Kid’s Table

Knock It Off Kim – Chromatic Wall Clock

My Life From Home – DIY Wall Cubbies

I take requests, any Land of Nod, or other designer piece you’ve knocked off or would like to see knocked off?  Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for stopping by!

April