Cheap Outdoor Fun For Kids - Blackboards

### This is a collaborative posts ###

With a tin of blackboard paint ordered off eBay and some ply offcuts left over from a few jobs, I decided to make some blackboards for the children to play with outside.

Playing with the blackboards

 I've been planning on doing this for some time but the other day I had a brainwave about doing a blackboard in the shape of a little girl. So on a sunny afternoon I set about making them.

Blackboards For Children - Tractor Shaped

Ev and Melissa got invited to one of their friends parties the other weekend, James. He's a lovely little boy and whenever he comes over here to play he's always slightly obsessed with the tractor we've got in the field. In fact I'm fairly sure he'd spend all his time in there and be quite happy!

So for his birthday I decided to make him a blackboard shaped like a tractor. I was a little bit worried as drawing is far from my strongest point and I had visions of him not being able to work out what it was! In the end he loved it, stopped playing with everyone else and pushed it around for a good ten minutes before his parents could hide it so he'd go back to playing with his friends!

It was really simple to make, just some WBP plywood cut to shape, then sanded to remove all the rough edges and painted with blackboard paint. I drilled the fixing holes in the middle of the wheels and one on the top of the cap (countersunk as well) and included some screws and rawl plugs for fixing.

As usual with this type of thing I had people telling me I should make them to sell. How much do you think they'd sell for? Do you think they'd sell?

Can Rotator Door/Can Storage Door

 Sometimes when I make something I'm more than a little happy with it. 

This is one of those things. 

I decided that although we have little space to store food I was going to invent a way to store canned food so we could keep a bigger and better organised stock of food over the winter. A month or so ago I posted a picture of my can rotator prototype, well this is what it was a prototype for - My can rotator door.

 The doors to our understairs cupboard were pretty useless. They opened inwards, so you lost the best bit of storage, and they got in the way. I'd even taken one of them off so I could fit through the gap. 

Jam packed cupboard and useless doors

 We hadn't really been using the space under the stairs very efefficiently, I decided to give it a good clean out and realised that most of the stuff could go. This left me with a nice sized space to start to use for food storage. But I knew I needed a new door so I decide to combine the two. That way it would take up very little space and use an area of the cupboard that wouldn't usually be used.

Once cleaned out the cupboard had quite a bit of space

 I worked out that I could have six rows of cans across the width of the door. I decided that we use more than six types so I split it into two again, so I'd have six rows of ten and six rows of seven. This type of system also means that you always use the oldest cans first - no finding a can at the back of the cupboard dated pre war any more!

Once I had a few sketches drawn up I decided to start to make it in a few spare evenings.

Working out the spacings for the cans

Cutting the strips for the sides

Routing the groves to receive the ply

All the groves routed

The groves weren't too deep so as not to weaken the plywood

Starting to assemble it. All glue and pins

Setting the bottom ramps for the cans

Cutting the ramps ready to fix on

The front of the door is faced with MDF grooved to look like match board

Once painted this should blend in nicely

I painted blackboard strips so you could easily identify what cans were in what slot. A bit of masking tape made sure my lines were straight!

The door opens on a castor so the weight is spread a little bit better - not just on the hinges

When full the door it will hold 102 cans. The top section has 10 of each type.

The bottom section holds cans we don't use quite so frequently so only holds 7 of each type

I decided on a ply body and MDF front to keep the costs down and to save having lots of different materials involved and to buy. I used two sheets of 1/2" ply and one sheet of 3/8" MDF plus hinges and handle so the costs came in at around £70 but I wouldn't like to price the labour involved as it was surprising how long it took (although it always does when you make the first of something).

The door opens really nicely (there is a castor on the one side) and although you can feel it's carrying a lot of weight it's still easy to open and shut. The number of cans it holds feels about right for us and having the vision slots on the front means it's easy to see how many you need to buy to stock up. I'm really pleased with the two little blackboard painted strips as well as it makes it much easier to see what tin you are grabbing and it kind of makes it feel a little more complete.

I'm feeling a little more organised now with food storage, although I have a long way to go yet. 

Anyone else have something like this in their house? 

Pantry Storage Door

Made a door this week for a friends pantry. They wanted more easily organised storage and liked the idea of my can rotator door, but don't want to keep so many cans.

 We sketched up a design with a can rotator on one side and adjustable shelves on the other. Construction was to be simply ply and Planed softwood as the door is going to be painted when it's finished. A key part of these doors is that they have to open outwards and have a fairly substantial fame or lining to fix to to take the weight. Heavy duty hinges are also a must. 

Construction in progress

Rebating the sides so it'll open without binding on the frame. 

Fitted door from the outside

Door fitted and open

Filled with some food! 

The cans on the right hand side dispense like the door I made, so you always use the oldest one first. The shelves on the left are fully adjustable to accommodate whatever you want to. 

They're going to paint the outside in blackboard paint to give a great area for children to draw on and the ply on the inside will probably be left bare.

Who else wants me to make them one of these doors? A great way to increase your storage space and to be better organised. 

I like to encourage everyone to store a little more food.