Super Simple DIY Train Board

Alright, so I've an insanely simple DIY for you today. A train board! 

My youngest loves her train set, and in our old house I kept it downstairs so she'd just set it up on our hardwood floors and it was fine. But in our current home we keep it upstairs, and upstairs is carpeted so I've been wanted to  make her a simple train board she can set the tracks on. When my teenagers were her age they had an actual train table. The thing was big. And don't get me wrong, it was super nice and super cute but over a decade later and it's not ideal for our current way of life. First off, I'm totally a minimalist (I just recently stopped calling myself a wanna-be minimalist but that post will wait for another day) so the thought of having a massive train table like I did ten years ago for the big kids annoyed me for several reasons...one being the footprint it'd take up; the bigger our family has gotten and the more psychotic passionate about minimalism I've gotten. I want to do more with less and I knew there had to be a way to incorporate the function of a train table without it taking up the space of a train table which is essentially the size of a toddler bed. 

So I did some thinking and I was like, "Eureka! I can make something that can just slide under her bed when it's not in use!" This way she had something to put her trains on and yet it wasn't taking up a valuable floor space when not in use. I knew to move it easily in and out from under her bed I wanted it to have wheels. Then I thought about what it should look like and I immediately was like "all white". But let's be honest, like most of our house is white. So then I thought it'd be fun to paint trees and water and what it on it but that felt too limiting because I started to imagine her also using the board to build legos or stack blocks, etc on. Finally I decided to just use paint I already had because who really cares what color it is, right?

So here's what you need to make this yourself:

• Piece of wood cut to desired size 
• Paintbrush
• Paint
• Polyurethane 
• Wheels
• Screws
• Sander

I had everything on hand already so this project cost me a whopping $0. Pro tip: if you have a Kelley Moore Paint store you can get a free quart of paint from them using a coupon (that's where my paint came from and was left over from painting the baby's dresser). 

Directions:

1. Measure the underside of the piece of furniture your train board is going to be stored under. Take into account you want a bit of wiggle room
2. Cut your wood to size. If you're buying from Lowes or The Home Depot they'll cut it for free. I usually take advantage of that but since I was using left over wood I just used our jigsaw for this project. 
3. Sand the edges of your board really well, you don't want little fingers getting splinters and you don't want sharp corners. I use an electric sander and it's one of my most used tools and still going strong after almost 10 years, if you DIY a lot it's a good investment. 
4. Attach wheels. I had these left over casters from a previous project and like how chunky and sturdy they are. 
5. The fun part! Paint or stain your board! I got away with a single coat of paint but usually you want at least two. 
6. Let paint dry fully then add a few coats of clear poly if you want the paint to stay as is. If you like the chipped or worn look then you can skip this part and your board will get nicks and scraps naturally with use. (Note: Obviously don't apply poly to the board if you use chalkboard paint and want it draw on it) 
7. Admire your work! 

I hope you found this tutorial simple enough and gained inspiration to recreate it or to put your own twist on it for some other use. 

Avery loved helping me with the project (especially the painting) and was so excited to put her trains on it when we were done. 

Total cost for this project if you didn't have any of the materials on hand would be around $30. But chances are if you take on DIY projects you probably have most of this on hand making it even cheaper. 

Free, functional, and I can wheel it under the babe's bed when it's not in use. My kind of project. 

Hugs, guys.