DIY: Homemade Kid Table Sets

Choose the material you will be using. Cardboard is extremely cheap and readily available but you will need a lot of it to glue together to make furniture. The good thing about cardboard is that it is extremely light and flexible so you can make virtually any shape out of it and most children will be able to pick up the furniture. Wood is easier to use, although more expensive. Wood works best for exterior use and its heavy, solid weight will be hard for children to break but you must ensure that each piece is secure and too heavy to move since it may cause injury if it falls on your child. A simple alternative is to use a premade table such as a low small coffee table and foot stools to repurpose into a children's set. Do not use a glass top table.

Prepare your material. For cardboard this can be as simple as applying heavy duty glue to one side of a long (refrigerator sized) piece of cardboard, rolling it to make a fat, round stool and securing it with rubber bands until it dries. It is also possible to make complex projects like shelves and dressers out of cardboard but this involves a great deal of measuring and time. For wood, fill in the cracks and sand down the rough top. If you want to use cushions, apply Velcro to the wood to hold the cushion in place. For repurposed adult furniture, check all the nuts, bolts and screws, ensure it can hold the child's weight and is of a safe material and sand off any corners.

Make the furniture child friendly. For example, once your cardboard rolls have dried and you have cut them to an appropriate size with a saw, cover them in a cute fabric or paint them in bright colors that your child loves. You can even wrap them up to look like round present with a bow on the rear. For wood chairs you can make small cushions in the shape of mushroom caps in bright colors like red polka dot. Paint repurposed furniture in child friendly colors, with the cushions replaced or recovered with cute cloth.