Sensory Table Make Over

When I taught pre-school once a upon a time ago, I had this beautiful wooden sensory table.  You know the kind that kindergarten teachers dream of . . . it had a nice sturdy removable insert with a solid plug, a heavy wooden top that hides everything when it’s on and even sported a shelf under it to keep all your sensory table extras and equipment.  Behold, my dream sensory bin . . .  But . . . that was then.  Now I use everything from large under-the-bed clothes totes  . . .

to smaller easier-to-handle totes for sensory work.  I must have at least three sensory totes in use at any given time.

 

But I am  also lucky enough to have one large-sized table.

I inherited it with my room and, while I am grateful to have one (I know that so many of you don’t have this luxury), it was less than aesthetically pleasing.  It needed a make-over and this year, it finally got one.  It’s not that it was ugly . . . ok maybe it was.  I couldn’t do anything about the RED removable insert or the fact that it was cheap-o plastic, but I could change the color of the outside to ‘fit’ my classroom a little better instead of stand out like a sore thumb.  I certainly didn’t need to get rid of it, it functioned just fine.  It just needed a little “something-something.”

I had seen all those Pinterest photos of plastic drawers made over with spray paint, so I thought, why not try it with my sensory table.  I didn’t have anything to lose. So I picked up a couple of cans of Rust-oleum Plastic Furniture spray paint and went to work.  Make sure if you’re going to do this, you prime your table first, then use the Rust-oleum Ultra Cover 2x in Satin.  I used the ‘seaside’ shade for mine.

It was super easy.  No I didn’t add a coat of primer.  I just left it as is, and it’s been used everyday since the start of school without any peeling.

What do you think?

Here’s a little before and after . . .

Who knew it would be so easy?  I liked it so much I went and bought four more bottles and painted the ugly prime colored bins on the bottom of my easel pink, blue, orange and lime.

It’s amazing what a little paint can do to change things up.