Sunday 14 August 2011

18

Tutorial: A Hook Hack with Playmobil little people

little devil

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.

retro girl

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..........

playmobil coat hook hack 2

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!

playmobil hook hack 003

18 comments:

  1. That's genius! What a great idea. Oh, I dream of solo loo visits............

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is the best coat hook ever. FACT! I am sooo going to copy that. You rock!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That i a really cute coat rack! I should feel proud or privileged, I think. My kids never really felt it necessary to hang out in the bathroom with me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cute, Ingenious, Adorable, Inventive, Precious... All these words come to mind.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow! That's brilliant! What a fantastic idea.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Brilliant!!!
    I sometimes feel that retirement will reach me before I get to pee alone again :(

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a fab idea!! By next monday I will have all afternoon loo visits alone, big starts school next week and little nursery the week after, I have a horrible feeling I might miss the company....!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love that idea. I must try it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is so AWESOME!! I hope you get more time to yourself before you snatch yourself or someone else bald headed. Or am I the only one that reacts that way to relentless child presence?

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love the hooks!! Are they really strong enough to hold up coats and things? I badly want to make one of these.*

    * we have no children, and are aged 24 and 26 respectively.... :p

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks everybody!

    @Molly: Yes, they are plenty strong. The key is that the shelf they sit on needs to be deep enough to take most of the legs (so just the feet are overhanging). And obviously a nice strong glue. I used UHU Power extra strong all purpose adhesive.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Fantastic idea, love it! Thanks for the inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
  13. ha ha this is fantastic! tempted to recreate. Would it cope with adult clothes?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi! I love this project and would love to do it! Thanks from sunny Barcelona,

    Marta
    http://www.abilingualbb.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  15. A Very original idea and beautiful made.

    ReplyDelete
  16. such a cute idea!
    http://yellowfields.blogspot.co.uk/

    ReplyDelete