water tables for kids

DIY – Sand and Water table

Posted by Miriam | Filed under Musings, Solutions

My husband is an accountant. I love him dearly, but it isn’t a stretch to say that I am the more creative one in our relationship. So when he took me aside a couple of weeks ago and stated that he wanted to build a sand and water table for our son, I thought I would be helpful and send him some plans that I found online for DIY sand and water tables like this perfectly simple one from Cara75 that I found on flickr:

…or this slightly more complex one from Handyman Wire…

…or this one over at Bumble and Bean that I thought was the perfect combination of the two ideas:

My husband was patient with me while I sent him email after email of what I deemed ‘doable’ DIY sand and water table plans and then promptly explained to me that he wanted to make his own plans. I TRIED to explain to him that was a bit like being a novice knitter and deciding to create a knitting pattern for a sweater….or being a new sewer and trying to make a new pattern for overalls…but in the end, his persistence paid off.

This past weekend, we debuted our son’s new, custom DESIGNED and MADE-by-daddy sand and water table complete with storage compartment for toys:

My husband DID decide to keep one element that I had suggested to him and used plastic bins for the actual sand and water:

…see…nothing fancy here, just a good ole’ under-the-bed storage container from the Container Store!

The corner of the unit has a toy bin on hinges for easy access. We’re thinking we might add a hydraulic lift option to keep fingers from getting squashed.

Of course, all this beauty took a bit longer than ONE weekend to build, so our son got to try it out before it was finished. It was definitely a hit!! In the end, I have to say, I am super impressed with not-so-handy-hubby’s skillz and I have promised never to doubt him again. Ok…maybe not never, but not as often, I pinky swear.