IKEA HACK - Play Gym

Now that E and I are having a baby, we get to spend lots of time and money on kijiji to get all our baby gear.  Baby gyms are one of the more common "first items" that you use with a baby for tummy time and.... whatever. I don't have any kids yet so I am pretty clueless.

What I am not clueless about is the cost!  The nice ones are really pricey but oh so cute - see here for only $160!  Most of them though are the standard "fun" ones with lots of green, blue, red, and yellow happening for about $60-$100.  There are lots you can get second-hand but they are mostly cloth, so you've got a "how can I really get this clean" issue since I don't think the whole thing can go in the wash.  Plus, they are hideous!  It's always too much red for me on kids toys.  After a bit of searching, I found the Ikea Leka Play Gym but it was still a bit expensive and I suspected since it was wood, I could do better getting is second hand, especially if I planned to "hack it".  I found one for $10 on kijiji so I zipped across town and picked it up!

There were a few great hacks of the Leka on the internet.  See here, here, here, and here for some fantastic examples and guidance.

What did I need:

- non toxic paint

- non toxic gloss glaze

- macrame cord (3mm)

- some brushes, some water, some fine sandpaper, some patience

- cardboard and paper scraps

Step 1: Break it down to the base

- unscrew the sides

- take off the wooden/plastic parts and cut the cords to seperate the pieces

- wash/wipe everything down

No pictures of this stage, its pretty self explanatory!

Step 2: Prep!

- sand down the parts you intend to paint.  For me, that was the bottom, and the wood pieces.  I just did a light sand so that the paint would "stick"

- put cardboard underneath the swirly things on the sides.

Step 3: Paint!

Soooo many layers.... of your chosen non toxic paint.  You might want to use painters tape to get your patterns on the swirly things looking sharp.

The best advice came from my husband - remember to water your paint down.  Otherwise you'll end up with globby parts.  It's more time consuming but produces a far better result.  I did it all on an upside down cardboard box so it doesn't need a lot of space.

Step 4: Add the gloss glaze. Ideally, this will prevent the paint from coming off the pieces in the long haul.  I took the suggestion from one of the blogs I linked to above.

Step 5: Once everything is dry, use your new cord to do up the pieces in a new way (or the same as it came, if you like).  Cut the loose cord ends and add a bit of gloss glaze to help the knot set.

Step 6: Admire your work!

Steps 3 and 4 took a lot of time and patience.  I think if I had watered my paint down it would have been less painful though (I ended up re sanding and re doing parts....).  I love the final result though!  I also really like that if I want to change it up with stuffed animals or similar, that option is totally available to me (I do have about 48 yards of macrame cord left...).

Have fun!