Renovating an outdoor toy cabinet

With baby number 3 on the way, I’m feeling like I really need to get my small house organized! I’ve started a little “wish list” of small projects to complete around the house, most of which are based around organization of one kind or another. One place that seems to be a catch all for everything is our mudroom. I have some big plans to get this space organized, but in the meantime, I the girl’s outdoor toys were really starting to pile up back there. I decided it was time to get those balls, bubbles, and whatever else I could justify being stored out of the house… OUT!

First we did up a very rough design draft.

 We already had these lovely cabinets built onto the side of our garage so we had been storing some of the bigger outside play toys out there, along with various tools.

And as you can see from this side view, there were a few serious safety issues so I wasn’t too keen on having my 2 and 4 year old rummaging around a closet with nails poking out of the walls in every direction!

Our neighbor gave us some old pine boards from equipment packing boxes. The wood definitely could be stained or painted, but we really like the character some of the pieces have and chose to show those off front and center. The pine also smells fantastic when cut, so the whole closet now smells amazing!

And voila… the finished product. My husband trimmed out all of the sides so no more sharp nails. Then he added shelves and a cage to hold all of the bats and balls. And best of all, the project was FREE!

The girls love that they can open up their outside toy cabinet and grab whatever they want. I love that the mess is out of my house and contained in a somewhat orderly fashion!

How do you store your kids outdoor toys? What do you think of our mini outdoor toy cabinet makeover?

Stay tuned… our mudroom makeover is in progress so hopefully I’ll have an update on that in a few weeks!

Have a great week everyone!