I am always on the lookout for free furniture, so I can repurpose them into something new and exciting.  This old study desk was offered to me and straight away I knew it was going to be a Lego desk/ activity table.

I had a similar desk awhile back and repurposed it into a unique sandpit desk.  It was a huge hit with her so I thought I would try and make a desk to store all her Lego blocks. When she is not playing with her blocks the desk can be used for other activities.

How to Make a Lego Desk

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This style of desk is most suited to this project because the desk can be lowered enough to suit the height of a toddler without losing all the storage space.

Removing the stickers

My first job was to remove all the old stickers that were all over the desk.  I tried to peel them off first but that just made a mess and half stayed behind.  A heat gun works perfectly in removing them, just wave the heat gun over the stickers and they just fall off. 

Cutting the desk shorter

If you are making this lego desk for a toddler, you will need to adjust the height to make it more suitable. The toddler I made this one for is 3 years old and a suitable height for her was 50 cm high. You can mark out the correct height with a pencil and ruler so that you have a straight line to work with.

 

Using your pencil line as a guide you can now cut all the excess away.  Before you jump in with a saw make sure there are no nails that will be in the path of the saw.

Once my table was cut I realized that the table sides were hollow.  To give the sides more support I remove the wood from the section that I cut away and glued it into the hollows on the sides. To make your desk sturdy again you will also need to replace the support bar across the back of the desk.  

Sand the desk

You can use an orbital sander to sand it smooth ready to be painted.  Any large dents and holes can also be filled with wood filler. A neat trick to remove small dents in the wood is to use a wet towel and an iron.  You place the wet towel over the dent and rub a hot iron over the towel.  The steam from the iron and the wetness from the towel will cause the dents to swell back up. 

Decorate the drawers

The idea I had from the beginning was to make the drawers look like lego blocks. The shape on my drawers was a bit posh for what I had in mind. To remove the fancy ridges, I used a sanding disc on a grinder an removed the fancy ridges.

Making the Lego circles

To make the circles for the lego bricks you will need a hole saw and some scrap wood. Cut out how many circles you need to cover your drawers. You can use a sanding block to remove any rough edges from the circles.

 

Cutting the circles using a hole saw will leave a small hole in the middle of your circles.  You can fill these with wood filler and leave them to dry. To smooth out the wood filler rub the circles on a sanding block.

Painting the drawers

I used Unicorn SPiT Gel Stain & Glaze and foam paintbrushes to paint all the discs and the drawers because it was what I had at home.  Any paint suitable for wood would be fine. I used two coats of unicorn spit and sealed them with Oil-based clear varnish. 

For the desk, I used Annie Sloan Blue and green chalk paint and sealed it with 2 coats of water-based polyurethane.  For the top, I added another 3 extra coats to make it a bit more toddler-proof.

Build the drawers

When everything was all painted and sealed I used epoxy glue to attach the circles on to the drawer fronts to try to make it look like a LEGO block. 

You can now fit all the drawers back in place.

Lego Baseplates

My original idea was to have the Lego baseplates glued onto the surface of the desk. But on second thoughts, I thought the desk would be more functional if they could be packed away.  If they are not in the mood to play with the blocks they can colour or do other activities at the desk. The advantage of a lego desk is hopefully no more standing on the painful lego block.

Finished Lego desk

More great projects

Are you looking for more ideas for toddler furniture check out these other cool projects? This craft table was made from an old table, it now is and activity table with storage.

Or this really cute zebra bench.

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