Magazine Rack Doll Crib

Make your own wood baby crib for under $10!

I love to thrift shop. We live on a tight budget and so if I want to add anything to my home it's usually from a garage sale, thrift store or found used online. While the kids and I were shopping for baskets and bins and such we came across this magazine rack. My 6 year old daughter immediately said what I had already thought in my head but didn't want to say aloud (so I didn't spoil the 3 year olds birthday present),

 "It's a crib!" 

Proud mamma moment. She could see the potential this dusty object had.

So I bought it for $5.60, on sale and stored it at home until I had the right moment to clean and fix it up. 

With one can of spray paint, handmade bedding and a birthday later, she now has a sturdy doll crib. I have to remind her that she is too big too sit in it or it will break. And the girls have discovered that Otis, the rabbit, likes to comfortably lay in it too.

To make your own doll bed from a magazine rack takes about 1 hour of your time.

First clean off the magazine rack. Then cut out any middle dividers. 

As you can see this one had a divider on the bottom too. This took the longest to remove because the base of this rack is very thin wood (hence the reason Cecily can't sit in it). So I finally figured out that it was stapled (and not glued) and I was able to pry it off with a metal scraper. 

 Then spray paint the whole thing! And don't do it in windy weather (like it says on the can) or you'll get drips! Ugh. I hate drips. If you want, embellish with a sticker or silhouette (I used my cameo to cut the vinyl to create a silhouette). Cecily is our little butterfly (she has blossomed from the caterpillar she was 2 years ago here). I used nearly an entire can of spray paint. I think this was apple green by Rustoleum.

Then make some bedding. If you'd like me to post a tutorial for this bedding leave a comment and I'll add some more photos and details. It's basically a reversible pad with batting in the middle and embellished with piping (I thought it was safer to try do do piping for the first time on a doll bed instead of real bedding). It was fairly simple to do.

 The reverse side of bedding.

Total budget:
$5.60 for magazine rack
$3.50 spray paint, with coupon at Joann's
FREE fabric and batting from stash
$9.10