Wooden toddler laptop

I was drawing with Kiki when I had an idea, wouldn’t it be fun to build her a wooden laptop she can use for drawing. Something that is part easel, part pencil container. I took my felt tip to my piece of paper and started sketching a toddler laptop. I hadn’t got a clue if I had the materials needed and if my idea would work but while Kiki was playing with her dad I headed into the workshop to see if I could build my sketch. Have a look and see how I got on in the video below.

I think it turned out really cute! And it goes perfect on her mini me desk! (If you missed that little table I build Kiki that is a copy of my desk have a look here. ) She can now sit at her desk with her own little laptop while I try and do something work. Well thats the idea but with a toddler you never know what the day will bring :D

The toddler laptop is A4 size (roughly 30 cm x 21 cm) and to make it I used:

• 2 A4 pieces of 3 mm plywood

• 1 A4 piece of 9 mm plywood

• 2 25mm butt hinges

• 4 small screws

• little wooden peg

• super glue and wood glue

• jigsaw and hand saw

• palm sander and sandpaper

• Drill with a 9 mm wood drill piece

• paint (I use Rust-Oleum Furniture paint in Teal)

• black sharpie

• measuring tape and pen

Kiki really likes playing with her laptop but at one point she got angry with the pencils so they all ended up on the floor and the laptop got filled with her wooden ice creams instead :D

The wooden peg holds the paper in place and the laptop is the perfect size for pieces of A5 paper, just cut an A4 piece in half. You can also put pages from a colouring book in the peg or stick little post it notes on the ‘screen’.

I initially wanted to draw a pear on the front of the laptop but thought that might be a little bit cheesy so I went for a little bear and Kiki’s name instead. You can paint the whole laptop if you like but I rather liked the colour of the plywood and opted just for a small painted ‘logo’ detail.

In case you didn’t hear me clearly in the video the measurements for the rectangle you cut out from the 9 mm piece of plywood to have a space for the pencils, and for the peg to fall in, are 1.5 cm from the front, 2.5 cm from the sides and 4 cm from the back. Mark these measurements, draw a rectangle and cut it out by drilling a hole next to your mark line big enough for your jigsaw to sit in and slowly cut out the shape.

Now that she has a desk and a laptop what is the next thing I should build my little intern in her office? :D

I hope you are all keeping well during the lockdown, if you need DIY or craft idea’s there are more then a hundred makes on my website. Can’t find what you are looking for? Send me a note and I can see if I can turn your idea into a future tutorial.

Stay safe xx Hester