One of the best pieces in the boy’s room is the little stackable storage cubbies that I scored for a big discount. They were a thrift store find and still had the Pottery Barn Kid’s price tags on them. I got them for $30 a piece…making the purchase for all four pieces $120….and the original price was well over $700. They were in used condition (close to something you would find at the outlet) but obviously anything that you put in a kid’s room, you should expect to get well-worn. I’ve had to teach myself to not get too attached because ALL THE TEARS should not be over furniture. The only problem I had with the storage cubbies was the bottom two deeper big cubbies….regular baskets (aka cheap baskets from Walmart or Hobby Lobby) would not fit down there and I was not about to spend $30 a basket online. It just became a place to throw spare books and randoms.
Well, now I am happy to announce that the bigger cubbies have two very fun costume boxes.
Side note…have you noticed on Pinterest how almost all the costume storage solutions are princessy and pink and ballerina-y? My boys just haven’t gotten into that. They want to be “Dark Vader” and “Skeltiens” and “Super-reros”. And I am all about costumes…so obviously I needed a designated costume box for the boy’s costumes and masks and weaponry.
This journey for costume boxes began a VERY long time ago….like right after LJ was born. We started by building the boxes out of 1/2″ plywood.
The assembly was pretty simple….four sides with a bottom laid on the inside.
glue…
and brad nail together. (note that this picture was taken ten days after LJ was born….sometimes these projects take us a long time!)
There is my little LJ! So small that he fit in the box! Also….Max wore those jammies last night 🙂
I painted the insides white and primed the outsides before putting on a coat of Benjamin Moore’s Hale Navy paint.
Once the outside was done, I really wanted to add a cool textural element to the fronts.
I cut out a scrap 1×1 to make these little squares and sanded them all down before adding them to the front.
The effect looked really great….I loved it….up until the squares started falling off.
It was so frustrating. I tried a bunch of different glues and should have just brad nailed them on….but then I realized that they would probably crack if I tried to pre drill for handles….so I ended up scrapping the entire idea and went another route. I still think this is a cool effect though…I definitely want to use it somewhere else…
So rewind back to the regular boxes….ready for a cool front effect….
I decided that different widths of scrap lumber would be cool too….
Laid them out on top for a pattern alternating fat and skinny…
And then traced the box onto the boards….
Once I had my cut lines, it was relatively simple….
cut the boards on the lines…. (picture taken in January when I didn’t know I was pregnant!)
glue and brad nail in place….
Then I sanded all the edges and stained the boards Rustoleum’s Dark Walnut.
Then came my favorite part….the knobs!
I saw these at Hobby Lobby for $3 a piece and knew that Will was going to FLIP HIS LID when he saw them.
Predrilling action…
Doing a little touch-ups on the edge where I got too excited about the staining process….
And then came time for making the bottoms slide-able on the wood bases. I used fleece that I could just cut to size.
Once I laid the fleece out and trimmed the excess, it was ready to be adhered.
Spray adhesive on…
Fleece ready to be rolled on….
Placed the edge on first and then gently rolled it over to the opposite edge.
Smooth and press firmly! This was actually the easiest part of the project and it makes the ‘drawers’ more like drawers on a slide….but with no drilling or hardware required.
The knobs are so awesome, right?! I love Hobby Lobby for hardware. I think they are on sale almost all the time and the variety is great. These are big enough that if you wanted to make a coat hook out of them, they would work for that too.
The boy’s stuff fits really well….even the big stuff like Ninja Turtle shells and Captain America shields!
And they are easy to slide in and out. Will and Weston can both do it. We purposely made these boxes a little small (we left an inch clearance on each side instead of making it a tight fit) because we wanted to make it easy for the boys to push these in without banging up the sides.
Overall…they are a really great addition to the boy’s room….
I feel like the biggest challenge with kid’s spaces is just finding ways to store their stuff. It’s always awkward or super colorful or plastic or has a million pieces. It’s almost like you get a bunch of stuff for them and then you have to figure out how to store/keep/make it accessible. It’s a challenge for sure!
So that is our boy costume boxes and how we built them….do your kids get into costumes on the daily or is it more of a Halloween only thing? I know my family loves costumed play growing up….my sister and I were constantly playing with mom’s old clothes from the 60’s or being cheetah girl or SheRa! I wonder if that is a genetic thing?!
These are SO great! My seven year old (boy) has always loved to wear costumes, year-round. In fact, I spy about 4 to 5 of the same items we have in our own costume box. Of course, ours are kept in a pleather storage bench in our playroom. Not as cute as yours. I ADORE those knobs. When I had a girl, I thought she would dress up as much if not more than him, so I recycled her dresser into a dress up wardrobe. Check it out!
http://www.casadecolella.blogspot.com/2013/10/dress-up-wardrobe.html?m=1
How cute (and such perfect knobs)! I envy your ability to put things away and have them still be played with – my kiddo is definitely an “out of sight, out of mind” kind of guy. I had to go crazy with the 3M command hooks to get our costumes corralled! http://halffinishedhouse.blogspot.com/2015/04/superhero-station.html
wow! great costume boxes! we like costumes too- and the boys’ room is looking excellent!
Ah yes! This boy house has most of the same costume pieces! TMNT – check! Cap – check! IronMan – check!
And you are so right that the storage is really tricky! Those drawers (and knobs!!!!!) are so cool!! Tucking this idea away for our new house!
This is such a cool piece!!! I’m loving all of the deals that you found for the boys room re-do. And also I think its amazing that you can find any time to post with a newborn and your boys! Tiny LJ in that picture, so precious!!!
These look awesome. Did you use wood conditioner before applying the stain? I’d love to get such nice grain detail in a project I’ll be staining soon, so am curious how it is done! 🙂
I love the texture fronts! Yea my boys love their costumes… When my oldest was 4 and we had just moved, he was obsessed with Spider Man and wore his costume everywhere! One day there were some neighbor kids playing outside so we sent him out to introduce himself… he did but as Peter Parker!! I’ll never forget it! However now if they want to dress up as someone whose costume we don’t have, they change their clothes, which leads to even more laundry than I already have to do!!!
I just got over the bargain drape fabric and now BAM! Shazam! Awesome “tickle trunks” 🙂 Nice work Momma!
These are awesome! I love the wooden plank fronts- beautiful! Also, those knobs are perfection. I’m sure the boys loved them! We have dress up in my preschool classroom, and boys and girls love it equally. I think the most popular things for boys tend to be hard hats and construction vests, a Dr. outfit, and Woody from Toy Story. I love that your boys love dressing up, too! 🙂
Went to a Hobby Lobby grand opening yesterday and saw those knobs. I tried to figure out a way my 17 Year Old would love them. ;). So cute.
Looks great! I love the treatment on the front and those knobs of course. Awesome job 🙂
Love this! We have the same bedding and I’m just going to have to copy this room!
My now nine year old grandson has been costumed addicted since we first met him (adopted at age 3). And I have a costume closet myself. Clearly we were fated to be related.
When his parents first started the baby process, I promised them I wouldn’t carpet the kid’s room with toys; but with the caveat that excluded costumes and books.
Honestly the best reason to have a party is to make everybody else dress up in costumes too…right?
Loving this room – I only have girls, but I love boy rooms for ideas on kid friendly spaces that don’t look like Disney vomited all over the room. I was wondering if you’ve considered adding shelves to the W to use it a decorative shelf? If it is deep enough, maybe it would be cute for books or action figure display/storage?
Looks great – I have to say when I was watching the step by step instructions it seemed like so much work but the end result is a really big pay off! I’m amazed you were able to pull this off with all you have going on in your house! Pat yourself on the back!!
I considered it but in general, we keep a lot of the toys in the playroom instead of the bedroom so it’s not needed.
xo – kb
All Rustoleum stains have a conditioner included in them…but if you want, you can always apply it…it wouldn’t hurt 🙂
xo – kb
You look so pretty in that picture with the felt! These turned out great 🙂
Those look awesome! And my kids love dress up–my daughter loves being a princess, my son is usually a superhero or a construction worker (or some mash-up of both), often also sporting his “butterfly wings” from Dollar Tree 🙂
Got it – thank you! 🙂
My 4 year old LOVES costumes. We need to get him more. The few that he has we just hang up on hangers. Plenty of hanger space in the closet; boys don’t hang up many of their clothes. As opposed to my 9 year old daughter; her closet is filled with dresses, shirts, and other hang up items. Neat idea for felt on the bottom of the drawers. No way I’m going to attempt to make traditional drawer slides!
Love how you customized this piece. The drawer fronts and knobs that you found are just perfect. You guys always have the most creative ideas!!
These are awesome! I’m a mom to both a boy and a girl and my girl is a total diva some days. She’s not huge into dress up but when she does do it, she goes all out. It doesn’t help her that my mother-in-law is the world’s best seamstress and made her high quality princess gowns for her birthday one year. Unfortunately, they’re probably too small but I’m not getting rid of them!! They will be worn by my grandchildren some day! As for my son, he’s only 1 1/2 but I can totally seem him doing it because he’s a crazy kid and likes to get into things. I’ll have to look into those knobs… they’re great! (totally just read that in the Frosted Flake tiger’s voice).
I played “dress-up” all the time as a child with my best friends. We all had large trunks full of our moms old clothes. So fun!
These came out fantastic. Love every single thing about them.
Wow- this looks so awesome and different!. I need to update my costume storage- something like this would work!
Very cool! I like the wood effect on the front of the boxes. And I would never have thought of fleece as a buffer underneath the drawers.
My girls LOVE playing dress-up. They had so many costumes and accessories that I built them a space in their playroom to have everything on display, and yet organized at the same time. http://623designs.tumblr.com/post/101949054907/the-playroom-floating-bookshelves-dress-up-wall
Adorable. Just ftr, use WeldBond for future applications like your original idea. I’m taking a mosaics class and that’s what they recommend for this sort of thing.
WeldBond would do well between slick painted surfaces and other wood?
xo – kb
When my son was four I made him vests: bright orange for road construction, a police vest with a badge, a cowboy vest and a firefighter vest. He loved them!!
these look really great! have you considered switching out the other knobs on the cubbies to those superhero ones, too?
I considered it but I think they would look a little big…also, there wasn’t any other versions…like no more different superheros at least not at my store 🙁
xo – kb
Our kids dress up just about daily. Everything from gorillas to knights to doctor costumes. My son has wore the Link costume I made him just about every day for two years. It actually just wore a hole through it. And general, we let them wear it in public. Yeah, we’re *those* parents.