Uh… Why yes, because scrawling on the furniture with permanent ink/ paint marker seemed attractive…
This is an untreated wood cabinet from Ikea, that the Rockstars are scrawling all over. Cost of this thing in the wall + delivery and installation (well, re ~HKD 100 delivery this cabinet wasn’t the only thing we bought, and installation is HKD 60 apiece) ~ the price of your average Artjam.
Remember these from our Artjamming days? Yup, rearranged as one bigger art piece…
Don’t get me wrong, I still love Artjamming very much, but Rockstar hasn’t been very interested in canvases recently and the Miss goes through a 90-or-more min (when Rockstar was into canvas he could spend like, 4 hours there) Artjam session in about 40 mins (they charge largely by size of canvas if I recall correctly). And then I have canvases to cab home. (And yes going there and back also incurs a substantial cab fare…) With the cabinet installed professionally into our wall, the kids can scrawl every 15 mins here and there, as the mood takes them. <sheepish> more recently I’ve been the one unable to leave the thing alone, “polishing” their various scrawls, like the Enderdragon (cut me some slack la, I did that free hand with permanent marker in one go :P)
Just one caveat on the paint markers though – you may want to leave the doors and windows open because of the chemical smell from them things… Goes away quite fast, and we don’t spend long drawing on the cupboard in one go…
There’s various pieces made of untreated wood, and I was originally eyeing the under-HKD 300 chest of drawers that didn’t even need any installation (and is just about small enough to impulse-purchase), but after poring through the catalogue I went with the above much roomier one after rationalising the cost of an Artjam, because I also wanted to do…..
…this.
Obviously work-in-progress, I’m kinda holding out hope for being able to afford the space for two of these after I finish spring cleaning (one for each child! The Ikea catalogue showed a lavish four of them for tween kids! Drools) but for the moment the Miss naturally has the bottom of this “fantasy-world-in-a-cupboard” that we will deck out on a rainy day, occupied by a fabric rag doll (no Barbies with impossible bodies and makeup! Sorry Barbie, I played with you briefly as a young tween too, but I know several mums with girls who are having at least mild “Barbie Problems” now – from the cartoons etc – and my daughter happens to be a real hard-head at the moment s-o……) that converts from mermaid to jeans-and-top girl…
Like so…
Cardboard backdrops are really easy to switch around, the one in the pic above is from Ikea Kids, and I have a couple paper cutout books with under-the-sea and unicorn backdrops as well… The whole cupboard can look very different in a matter of minutes and blue tack…
Rockstar wanted one of his sections to be all diamond ore – easily doable with extra diamond ore wrapping paper I bought online on the cheap months ago for his birthday party favours…
…And then his top shelf is a “den” for his pet ocelot, a party favour from a friend’s birthday party and the only plush toy Rockstar’s ever had time for 😛
The outside of the cabinet currently looks like this:
Notice anything? Yup. The drawings change. Partly because the Miss likes to stab all over it with abandon. As for the Rockstar? That diamond ore block and one of the trees were because he drew a few skins and then really hated them…
Hence the “disposable” bit… I have wood varnish if we decide to keep the end product, whatever that’s gonna look like… Will keep you updated…
ps: we did it with these things from a ma-and-pa stationery shop… HKD 12 or under, each…
How did you get such a good idea? I think it is every child’s dream to scrawl on cupboards and walls and you made that dream come true for the Rockstars! 🙂
Wow, Rockstar really drew all those minecraft inspired art? Very nice. He must be very patient for a child his age to draw those. I like the planets and the little unicorn. Can’t wait to see what else get drawn on it. This cupboard will be a keepsake once the varnish gets on when it is fully covered with drawings!
There were some mentions in the Ikea brochure that they had untreated wood furniture you could paint any way you wanted… They didn’t actually show any scrawlings or anyone doing that but paint markers are already much easier than say, brushes… At least for Rockstar who doesn’t paint much in general…
He didn’t do the whole tree all by himself, I started converting it because he originally drew two character skins and then hated them and asked me to change it into something else… But after that it’s not difficult because you just add squares or cubes gradually… Like, he sees it all the time and then periodically walks by and adds a few blocks here and there…