Lego Coffee Table

I have yet to meet a kid that doesn’t enjoy Legos.

Heck, I love Legos!!

I remember my sister and I receiving a case of Legos for Christmas one year…….BEST gift ever.  We played with them almost as much as we played Barbies (and we played a lot of Barbies in our day).

Well my kids both have developed the same love of Legos that I had when I was a kid.  We started with Mega Blocks and have recently graduated to Legos.  My son is traditionally a bit young for Legos, but after he saw The Lego Movie it was over…..no more Mega Blocks this kid insisted on the real deal!!

Luckily, while my son does not have a good track record when it comes to licking things……..the dog, floor, vents, doors and any other gross thing you can think of, he is actually good about not putting things into his mouth so the Legos haven’t been a problem for him (supervised of course).

My husband and I purchased a coffee table about 10 years ago…..before kids when we could have nice things.

Once our daughter came along we moved the table to her playroom as a “play table” for her little people.  Once our son came along the table was moved to my daughter’s room to keep her dollhouse off of the floor.  After the bunk bed project my daughter didn’t need the table anymore so it was moved to the basement in storage.

I decided to give the table yet another life.

Our table before it’s makeover…….

Disclosure:  I made this Lego table a few months before starting this blog so there are not pictures of all of the steps, but I do plan on making additional tables and documenting better with pictures.

I went to work getting my materials.  I found out quickly that Lego baseplates are pretty pricey.  I bought mine online, which was a mistake when I saw that they are actually cheaper at the Lego store (who knew?) and there is no shipping cost.  We are lucky to have a Lego Store nearby so I now buy all of my Lego supplies there directly.

My Project List:

• Table
• Spray Paint
• Gorilla Glue
• Lego Base Plates
• Acrylic Paint
• Paint Brush
• Painter’s Tape

I started by taping off my table.  I knew that I wanted to keep the top black and paint the bottom shelf green, so I covered both top and bottom with newspaper and taped the edges down.  Then I sprayed all of the exposed table a dark blue and about 5 min later I removed my tape and let the paint dry.

After the blue dried good (I waited about 5 hours…..but letting it sit overnight is even better), I then taped off the blue section and I taped off a road for the bottom shelf.  Once the tape was down I spray painted the bottom green.  I removed the tape and let the table sit over night.

The next day I arranged the base plates on top of the table.  I had to cut a couple of them to get them to fit properly.

To cut the baseplates, I put a long Lego piece on the base plate where I wanted to make the cut and then ran a knife down the baseplate against the Lego……

After a couple of swipes with the knife, the base plate snapped in a perfect straight line.

Once I had all of my baseplates cut, it was time to start gluing them down.  I put gorilla glue on the backs of my baseplates (be careful not to get the glue close to the edges as it does expand).  I set my plates on the table.

Next it is important to make sure the plates are the right distance apart in order to build on them as one big plate.  In order to do this, I placed Legos on all of the seams while the glue dried…….

I did pull up the Legos a few times to make sure that the glue was not coming up through my seams (you definitely don’t want to have the Legos glued to the seams).  After I verified that the glue was not coming up through the seams, I placed the Legos back on the seam while the plates dried.

Next I took my acrylic paint and painted the road lines on the top and bottom of the table.

After letting the table sit overnight, it was time for the kiddos to have at it………

My original intention was to move this table to the kid’s playroom but it became a permanent fixture in the living room.  We play Legos everyday…… not just the kids either……

This table has really given us a great opportunity to play together as a family.  We have frequently all sat around this table and just started building.

This table is something that I can see us having around for years to come.

Watch out for additional Lego tables coming soon………