a blushing thomas table

Jan 30

if you have little boys, you are undoubtedly familiar with this little number…
yes, it’s a thomas the tank engine table. if you own one, you know it produces hours and hours of train playtime fun. we bought this table for our oldest son when his little brother was born. it was a “big brother” gift. that was well over 5 years ago and the table is still in great condition. i love those little thomas faces – each time i see those smiles it brings back such happy memories…
however – am very sad to say – our boys don’t play trains on this tabletop anymore. actually, they barely use this table at all. *sniff sniff* since the table is in great condition and is something we hope to one day pass on to our kids, we have plans to keep it. in the meantime, the table has a newfound purpose!
our daughter received a calico critters doll house for Christmas last year…
if you aren’t familiar with calico critters, they are an adorable community of woodland creatures. they are small and furry and downright adorable! the house, animals and furniture make me long to be a little girl all over again. our daughter loves panda bears so it was only natural that Santa brought her the panda family to start off her creature community…
the house can be outfitted with the most precious furniture sets – all of them are incredibly life-like, too! like this bedroom set…everything opens!…
much like with our Lego organization challenges, the pieces that accompany the furniture are tee-niny! have a look at this little toilet, complete with its own toilet seat cover…
and yes, that is the tiniest toothbrush you’ll ever set eyes on…
adorable, right??
anyway, this table has been the perfect spot for her doll house and accessories. it’s just the right height for her 2 year old frame and has loads of tabletop space. if you’re not familiar with calico critters, their version of a play table is much, much smaller than the thomas table. the thomas table also has great storage space underneath…
since the table is now used for her doll house, i thought it might be fun to do a little DIY upgrade by making the table look more like a doll house table. i had all sorts of ideas for how we could transform it, but wanted to keep the thomas table intact. after more than a month of thinking through ideas, here is the final result….
can you even tell there is a thomas table under that?
didn’t think so!
today i’m going to share with you exactly how i made this thomas table *blush*.
and trust me – this is SUPER easy! i am by no means crafty and don’t know how to sew – which means there was ZERO sewing involved! you’ll have to believe me when i say even you can do this. matter of fact, i’m sure many of you crafty ladies can do this transformation much better than me!
what will you need? several colors of felt (i used white, green and light blue), a glue gun, sharp scissors…

…and one curtain panel….

i found the curtain panel in the sale section at target. the brand is simply shabby chic in the color pink and the panel is 54″ wide x 84″ long.

the table top has definitely seen better days, so first up was covering it…

i removed the tabletop…

the underside of the tabletop is a light cream color. this worked out really well because i was worried the colorful side may show through the white felt….

i laid the white felt on the ground and placed the tabletop color side up…

then i trimmed one end of the felt….

much like when you would wrap a gift, i slowly made my way around the tabletop, adding just a touch of hot glue and folding the felt over…

i did the longer sides first…

then i folded up the shorter sides and glued the corners in place…

glue gun glue is VERY easy to remove, so this will in no way harm the tabletop. that means when we are ready for a train table again, all i need to do is carefully remove the felt.

after letting the glue dry for 10 minutes, i inverted the tabletop and placed it inside the table to make sure it worked and the felt wasn’t too bulky…

it worked! and look at that soft, smooth, clean surface!….

then i grabbed the curtain panel…

i laid it on the floor and folded it in half over on itself…

next, cut the inner folded side of the curtain so you end up with 2 equal halves…

then, i slowly went around the table tucking the cut side into the inside of the tabletop. you will want the clean-looking seam side touching the floor…like this…

half of the curtain fit perfectly around half of the table…

then i did the same thing with the other curtain half. i left the opening on the short side of the table for ease of loading items underneath…

here it was when it was done…

once i knew the curtain was going to work as planned, i removed both and ironed each piece to smooth the long lines/wrinkles.

then i placed the doll house back on the tabletop to get a look…

sooo much better than that loud train tabletop!

using the green felt, i cut a rectangle for grass and placed it in front of the house…

using the light blue felt, i cut 2 small pool/pond shapes – one for the front of the house and one for the back of the house…

our daughter received a couple new calico critter sets for her birthday last weekend. again, see how teeny tiny these pieces are…

that little yellow dot? – it’s a lemon!…

and these? …..i just refuse to remove from the packaging = way tiny!…

that’s my vacuum’s worst nightmare right there! but now all of those tiny pieces have a safe place to live…

i realize how tiny that container is. as you can see all of those pieces are super small, so this container is going to do the trick for a while. if and when we need a bigger bin, it will fit perfectly under the table and the curtains will keep all of that eye-clutter hidden away.

when she woke up from her nap today, she was thrilled to see this…

*sigh* ahhhh, to be a little girl again!…

comments +

  1. Nadia says:

    Ahhhh such a lucky little girl! Great job πŸ™‚

  2. Lindsi B says:

    Way to go!!! Awesome!! I saw you on Tater Tots and Jello. Would you please be willing to share this fabulous post with my readers for Fun Stuff Fridays? http://www.toysinthedryer.com/2012/02/14-days-of-valentines-fun-stuff-fridays_10.html

    • hi lindsi! thank you so much for stopping by and leaving this sweet compliment/comment. thank you!! YES, i would be more than happy to share with your readers. just let me know what i need to do! i'm going to click on the link you provided to see if i can find out more info…and have fun reading your blog. thank you again!

    • ooooo-kay! i found a way to link up! thank you…i'm doing it now! πŸ˜‰

  3. When I grow up I want one of those. Heck, when my son grows out of his Thomas table I may do that for me. (I have no daughters…but I do have my dollhouse). This is just amazing. Thank you for this wonderful post! I would love it if you would share this at our What’s It Wednesday blog party. Hope to see you there.

    Paula
    ivyandelephants.blogspot.com

    • hi paula! thank you so much for the sweet comment! i know – i secretly buy toys sometimes just so that i can play with them too :-).

      i'll come check out your blog next! thank you again for stopping by! πŸ™‚

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