Mud Kitchen Crib Repurpose

Eleanor has become a sheer escape artist. What was once a once every few montha occurrence became a daily- jumping out of her crib. We were still sharing a bedroom with her, so taking the front off daybed style to leave her exposed to the whole bedroom was not an option.

Athena has already had a loft bed, but she had been sleeping in the bottom while we were potty training. Today, I had the time and motivation to clean up her room, put her back up top, and created a lovely little snuggle bed space for Nora in the bottom. This had always been the plan, but we were waiting until we absolutely had too, along with Athena being potty trained at night and Nora being able to go up and down the step ladder safely. We have hit all of those milestones in the last 2 weeks or so.

As I began taking apart her crib, I was trying to figure out what to do with it. Both girls chewed on it, and after 4 years and 2 children, I felt that it wasn’t even donate-able. And then I had an idea!

In true fashion, I search “crib mud kitchen” on Pinterest. I was SHOCKED to see 0 results. Plenty of mud kitchens, but none like my brain had in mind.

I took a quick look to make sure we already had spray paint, and loaded up to hit the Dollar Tree ($1.25 I’m not bitter). There we picked up contact paper, Velcro dots, and various silicon kitchen goodies and a few holders.

We came home and I sprayed the crib in this LOVELY green that I already had. We did take a lunch break and went on a special date out with Daddy since he was home from jury duty today. When we got back, Athena then helped me cover the wood platform that the mattress would sit on. I attached Velcro dots to the bottom of the 2 bigger containers I got to hold their various tools. I did also get a pack of hooks that I attached to 2 of the railings in case there are “herbs they want to dry,” or other accessories get added. It’s an attempt to keep things from blowing away, while also giving them semi-separate work spaces. I also wanted to be able to pull them off and hose them out as needed, so attaching them more permanently wouldn’t have worked.

PAINFULLY, we finished our project just as it was time for Ethan to mow the lawn and Nora to go down to nap time. Based on the evidence below, not only do I think it was well worth the wait, but will bring use HOURS and HOURS of entertainment for a good long time.