Tutorial: A Hook Hack with Playmobil little people

Breaking news: I got a couple hours by myself yesterday. I haven't been more than twenty feet away from my kids for twenty days now. I've been too depressed frustrated angry busy to blog. Playing babies, and animal babies, and shopkeeper of a baby merchandise store, and going on an airplane with a baby sitting next to you: full time job.

Anyway, yesterday I used my precious solo time to clean the garage and pee without bystanders. It was glorious. I also got my big girl toolbox out and did a spot of DIY. The wood was repurposed slats from a broken crib base that I painted green and fixed together to make a shallow shelf. The Playmobil people I bought off Ebay especially for this project. I power-glued the little people sitting on the shelf with their feet sticking out and..........

Snazzy new coat rack for the six billion hoodies they've amassed in their short lives.

Edited to add: So many people wanted to make something similar so here is a mini-tute!

What you need: Playmobil figures, acrylic paint, two wooden slats (mine are 23" long, 1" tall and 1/2" deep), a strong adhesive (I used UHU Power All Purpose Adhesive), hammer and nails, screws to fix to the wall)

The slats I used were repurposed from an old cot base because that's what I had handy. If you need to find something else that will work for this hack, the ultimate goal is a L-shaped shelf where most of the legs are supported but the feet overhang a bit. This means it'll be nice and sturdy with the weight of the hanging clothes being taken by the wood. If too much of the legs are overhanging and you were hanging heavier things like coats or grown up clothes, there might be too much pressure on the glue and the figures would want to tilt forward. Have a look at the top two pictures to see what I mean.

Right, use your hammer and nails to turn your two slats into an L shape. Paint the whole thing with two coats of acrylic paint and wait for it to dry. Lock your figures into the sitting position and mark the wood where you want them to sit. Apply adhesive liberally to so that the figure is glued to the wood both on the legs and along their back (i.e. wherever it makes contact with the wood, not just the legs). Firmly hold in place until the glue starts hardening, you can do two at a time. Repeat with all your figures. Once all the glue is dry, give each one a tiny wiggle to make sure it is secure. Re-glue if necessary. Secure to the wall with your screws and you're done!

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