Hey guys!!! I took a break from furniture building this week and built our little miss something pretty cool! If you follow us on Instagram, you may have seen a sneak peek of this! I have been wanting to build her a dress up storage cart for a LONG time now but I made myself wait until every member of our house had a bed!
There were times that I thought…eh, I have so much furniture to build right now, maybe I should just buy her one but, I’ve bought her a play kitchen and a bassinet and sadly, they haven’t held up well. The cart I debated on purchasing was $150 plus shipping and tax and I just couldn’t bring myself to do it again!
Not only was I able to customize this to match her room, I was able to build it for $70 and that was with a 1/2 sheet of plywood left over so really I consider it a $50 investment 😉
Of course, we have the FREE Printable Plans for you guys! You can click HERE or the image below to print yours!
And as always, I’ve got the step-by-step pictures to help you along the way!
We got all of our supplies at Home Depot and had the nice man rip our 3/4″ Purebond Plywood down into 4 – 11 1/4″ boards. You can substitute 1×12 boards for this but, the cheapest boards were $20 each and there were not two the same width and the select pine boards were a whopping $30 each. I opted for ripping Purebond because I was able to get 4 – 1×12 boards for $49!
We brought our lumber home and got to work! I cut the four boards that will construct the frame of the cart, first.
Then, I used my K5 to drill pocket holes in the bottom board.
I drilled 3 – 3/4″ pocket holes on each end.
Next, I attached the side pieces to the bottom piece with 1 1/4″ pocket hole screws and Gorilla Glue Wood Glue.
I cut my shelf pieces and drilled 2 pocket holes in each side
and attached them with pocket hole screws and wood glue. This is a very customizable part. You can refer to the plans to see where I set my shelves. If you have bins that you want to put on the shelves, you can set the shelves accordingly.
Then, I added the center board. I attached the shelves to board and the bottom of the board to the base of the cart.
This was a snug fit for my drill so, I used my Ryobi Right Angle Drill to attach the shelves to the center board. If you don’t have a right angle drill, you could use a short Kreg bit too!
I attached the 1×2 trim, to the shelves with my 18 ga. Airstrike nailer, 1 1/4″ nails and wood glue. Measure as you cut for a perfect fit with these pieces.
Attaching the trim to the bottom of the cart.
To attach the dowel, I predrilled into the outside board, the center board and the center of both ends of the dowel and attached the dowel with 2 1/2″ wood screws and wood glue.
That’s it! For the construction part – now for the fun 🙂 I painted this to match the trim and her bed in her room. It’s Ivory Lace by Valspar.
I wanted to add pretty knobs for her to hang her necklaces, wings, wigs…. you know the necessities so, I predrilled from one end into the shelves. This way, you won’t have a screw sticking out in each cubby.
I used Gorilla Glue Super Glue Gel (this stuff is the BOMB) and applied a generous amount to each knob
and pushed them through the holes. These babies aren’t going anywhere 😉 I added 2 rows of 6 to our cart. Bought the knobs at Hobby Lobby when they were on sale!
I also found this mirror at Hobby Lobby – and purchased when it was on sale.
I removed the foam pads from the back of the mirror and glued it to the top of the other side of the cart, along with a “T” for her name 🙂
I added 4 small casters and a cute pull so that her dress up wardrobe can follow her wherever she goes! (and yes, I may regret that when I have dress up stuff all over my house)!
I built some cute crates with some scrap lumber 🙂
And the green cube is from Target 🙂 It matches her bedding perfectly!
This was so much fun to build, I saved a TON of money and it’s built to last! This could be easily modified for an adult if you need more storage in your closet too 🙂
Well, it’s back to the shop for me – I still have lots of furniture left to build 🙂
Thanks so much for stopping by!
~Ashley
