Mini Supermarket Shelves, Restaurant, School, ...

Hi all,

I’m from the Netherlands. And if you have ever visited my country, you know we live in those tiny houses ;)
Among other things my children like to play mini supermarket, restaurant and school; most of the time all at once. Small space and a diversity of activities, made me come up with this project.

I divided this project into three steps. In each step you will make something:

1. Mini supermarket (shelves)
2. The magnetic - school or restaurant - blackboard
3. Your own magnets.

For every 'product' I made an overview of the materials & tools needed and which steps to take to make it. Everything is also well documented with a lot pictures; all moments in the process.

Ofcourse you can use each product for something totally else. For example: 1. You're hobby display, holiday trophees, ... ; 2. For displaying drawings or photos; 3. Make your own clay figures & stick them to the board or a fridge.

And ofcourse you can put the blackboard next to the shelves in order to use everything at once; the perfect restaurant for instance :)

Note:

1. Unfortunately I lost my Iphone (or it was stolen, I don’t know) and my pictures of the built of the Children’s Mini Supermarket are lost ;( So therefore I ‘staged’ a little. The paint of the shelves on the pictures is damaged because the shelves are already two years in use;
2. Please bare my English, I did my best. My Dutch is much better ;)

If there is anything that needs better explenation, please let me know!

Step 1: Children’s Mini Supermarket (shelves)

Materials needed

• 1 wooden storage box for letters - in my case from the attic.
  Lot’s of charity stores have these old boxes for less than 2 Euro;
• Primer - in my case from the attic;
• Paint (colour of your choosing) - in my case from the attic.

Tools needed

• Sandpaper (optional a sanding block; I used a piece of spare wood)

• Brush

• Swizzle stick

• Old cloth

• Turpentine (optional)

There are several ways for mounting the shelves to the wall. In the way I did it, I needed:

• 4 screws

• 4 plugs

• 4 caps

Tools needed

• Pencil
• Leveling tool
• Drill
• Screwdriver

Building steps:

1. Sand the wood lightly. This can be best done with not too coarse sandpaper. I used a home-made sanding block (a piece of wood from 3,5 by 5 cm to wrap the sandpaper around) to sand faster and better; this way you can sand well in all corners. Make sure you smooth the wood and please sand not too hard.
2. After sanding wipe the wood with an old cloth. Dip the cloth in a little turpentine to make the wood completely clean and free of dust.
3. Now you can start painting. For a better result, apply a coat of primer. With a coat of primer the normal paint remains better in place. Apply primer like normal paint.

Some tips for better paint results:

• Stir with a swizzle stick to make sure there are no lumps left in the paint
• Spread the paint as evenly as possible onto the wood. Use a back-and-forth or up-and-down movement and dip the brush into the paint regularly. Make sure that you regularly wipe the brush on the edge of the pot in order to make sure not too much paint is coming onto your brush.
• If you are dissatisfied with the result, make sure you do not extra paint the spots you have already applied paint
  on! Just let it dry thoroughly and then apply another coat of paint.
• I used three coats; a layer of primer and two times a layer of normal paint
• Make sure that you always have a cloth nearby, even turpentine is convenient. This allows you to quickly remove before the paint dries up.
• Mount the shelves to the wall. My wooden storage box had already four; one in every corner. Therefor I decided to just screw it to the wall.

a. Hold the box to the wall

b. Put the leveling tool on top; when you have a horizontal level just use the pencil to mark the holes on the wall

c. Drill & put in the plugs

d. Screw the box to the wall

e. Put a cap on every screw

Let’s play: organise the shelves with what you have got :)

Tip: You can also use this to display your lego, playmobil, clay figures, holiday trophees,…….

Step 2: The Magnetic - School or Restaurant - Blackboard

Materials needed:

• MDF (ofcourse other types of wood are also suitable; I had this lying around)
• Wood
• Glue and 8 screws
• Wood putty
• Primer
• Magnetic paint
• Blackboard paint
• Protective caps

Tools needed:

• Drill
• Putty knife / spatula
• Brush + paint roller

Building steps:

1. Saw the pieces of MDF. Keep this in mind:
   • Some mini market products will stick out of the shelves. Therefore make sure that the depth used for the cover is deep enough.
   • If you use the cover also as a storage for the magnets: you will need extra depth in order to put the cover over the shelves; do not forget to paint the inside with the magnetic paint ;)
   • The depth of my shelves is 3 cm, therefor I took 5 cm for the cover.
2. Glue the MDF plates together and then put two screws on every side (see pictures). Glue the big plate on top. No screws on this side!
3. Paint it all. See tips for better paint results under Children’s Mini Supermarket (Shelves)
   • 1 layer of primer
   • 3 layers of magnetic paint
   • 2 layers of blackboard paint
4. Divide the protective caps over the Cover (see picture). I use these caps to make sure the paint does not damage the Mini Market and my white wall.
5. Let’s play!

Step 3: Your Own Magnets

Materials needed:

• Magnetic sheets
• Glue (gun)
• Whatever you want to stick on the magnetic sheets.
  Some examples: pictures, toy coins, carton figures, mini market products, lego,....

Tools needed:

• Scissors and/ or hobby knife

Building steps:

1. Do the test 'which side sticks to the board and which side does not. In my case the shiny side sticks to the board. So I had to put the glue on the not shiny side.

2. Glue your 'items' on the magnetic sheet.

3. Let it dry :)

4. Take your scisoors or hobby knife;yoy know waht to do.

5. Put the magnets on the board, your fridge,..... .