Cardboard! Lots and lots of it! And about a bottle of white glue.
I cut and glued some cardboard boxes together along with old mat board.
The little one an I collaged some old books onto the outside.
My toddler insisted that we needed a shelf for his puzzles so I found a couple short boxes and added those to the base....
...and then I was up all night creating a pull our parking garage shelf for his toy cars....which led to an entire series of mix and match roads...
The next morning he walked into his classroom for "school" and was in awe and started playin with the cars.
I got a little carried away with personalizing it, so there's a place for his cup, some flash cards, his number Legos, some magnets, and some tactile shapes cut from an old yoga mat
He is not the most gentle without prompting (neither am I) so I quickly discovered that I nee to reinforce a couple of the front facing shelves but that will come with time. For now I stuck a couple pieces of cardboard in to hold them. I will also need to create somewhere to store the extra road pieces.
There are a plethora of videos on YouTube with ideas for creating some pretty awesome furniture using cardboard and pool noodles.
Please let us know if you give it a try!
