This project has been on my to do list since forever, well actually, since some time in February after I gave Immy a collection of dress ups for her birthday. The dress ups previously lived in an ‘always-very-messy’ basket but now they have a new home which makes it a whole lot easier to get to the dress ups and makes the play experience a whole lot more fun.
1. Select a large cardboard box (ours was 60cms x 45cm x 98cms), it should be thick, sturdy card.
2. Cut your box in half so that you form two cavities for the wardrobe, this will give it strength and an additional surface to attach the knobs or hooks to. I only cut the box through on three sides, scoring the fourth side with a knife so that it would fold back on itself.
3. Decide how you will decorate your box. I used a combination of paint and self adhesive book covering (Contact paper). I painted the outside of the box, the inside side walls and inside floor white and added a painted stamping effect with one of Immy’s butterfly paint stampers.
4. I then made a false back for each of the wardrobe cavities by cutting two large pieces of box cardboard from another box to size. I covered these in self adhesive book covering and then fixed them in place with thick double sided tape.
5. Decide where you will position your knobs or hooks (I used a set of 10 cupboard knobs which were on sale at the hardware store) and screw them through the layers of card into position. You will most probably need to buy shorter screws for your knobs as you are only screwing through cardboard, not thicker wooden cupboards or drawers. I made holes through the cardboard first with a small screwdriver.
6. Finally I used white tape to seal all of the box edges and to tape the two box halves together.
7. Fill with dress ups 🙂 I added a couple of baskets for smaller items which sit in the bottom of the wardrobe. You may also find it useful to sew ribbon loops into any dress up items which do not hang easily. You could also attach a mirror to the outside of the box if you wanted to, we have a cheval mirror now stands proudly next to our dress up wardrobe.
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Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.
Sarah, I would think Harvey Norman would be a good option. Our box was from a bar stool, my Mum and Dad have recently renovated their kitchen so we have quite a collection of cardboard in the garage!
And looks so beautiful!