This DIY dress-up box is like a mini closet that can be moved anywhere. It's sturdy and when they grow up you can use it in your mudroom for coats and shoes! Every kid loves the fun of dressing up in play clothes to go on an adventure.
A place for everything and everything in its place. Finally!
I posted a question to my facebook readers a couple of months ago, asking them how they organize the dress up clothes in their home. Clearly, our system was NOT working! The over-flowing pink bucket made it hard to find anything without dumping it all on the floor. Needless to say, it was always a mess in their room.
I received many wonderful suggestions and links! It was fun to go through them, but one definitely stood out.
When I saw this dress up box from Craftiness is Not Optional, angels sang.
I have ZERO power tool ability. Staple guns make me nervous and mine isn't even electric, but that's ok because I am married to a handyman. Lucky us! He glanced at the plans and said he could make us a dress up box, no problem. Being the perfectionist and carpenter that he is, he added his own spin and finishing touches to create a beautiful piece of furniture for our little girls.
We looked over the dress up box plans as a basic guide and drew up our own specs with modifications to meet our needs.
Here are the modifications that we made to our dress-up box:
With 2 little girls and lots of costumes, we decided to make it 12" taller and 12" wider.
We also added a shelf, trimmed it out to hide the hanger rod, and added a shallow shelf backing.
The rod is held in place with brackets and the entire box was put together with wood biscuits, glue, and a couple of nails.
To create a beautiful finish, he routered around all of the edgings.
When the dress-up box was done he handed it over to me for the finishing touches. I sanded it down, applied 2 coats of primer and 1 coat of the lightest shade of pink that I could find. Then I sprayed it with 2 coats of clear spray paint.
Here is our finished dress-up box. I am so in love with it and the girls and I had a great time sorting through costumes, shoes, and accessories to fill it up! It has made playing dress up so much easier for them. Even Ruby, who isn't quite 18 months old yet, loves sorting through the dresses and choosing what to wear. It is all so easily accessible and looks so darling in their bedroom. Kaylee calls it her dress up closet.
Many thanks to a sweet husband to take the time to create this for our little gals!
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Ashley says
I see you went out and up by 12" but what height did you put the rod at? did it stay at the height as the plan or did you all move it up?
Brandy says
Hi Ashley! We placed the rod at 46" tall. I hope that helps!
Charlene Robertson says
I love it. I want to build it
Marissa | Squirrels of a Feather says
I wish my boys wanted to play dress-up...I would build them a superhero closet 🙂
Tim A Biel says
Can you give out the dimensions and all of the size wood you had to buy, plus any thing else? Thanks
Brandy says
Hi Tim, we used this as a guide: (http://www.ana-white.com/2010/11/craftiness-not-optional’s-dress-storage) it will give you the basic dimensions of the wood to buy, then added 12 inches to the height and 12" to the width. Hope that helps!
Dea says
Thanks Brandy
Dea says
Where can I get the plans?
Brandy says
Hi Dea,
We based out plans off of the ones here: http://ana-white.com/2010/11/craftiness-not-optional%E2%80%99s-dress-storage
Hope that helps!
~Kimberly says
I'm sending this link to my husband. Our 5 year old is currently digging through a large wicker laundry hamper to find her dress up clothes that she wants to wear... this is the perfect design! Isn't it nice to have handy husbands! *swoon
Brandy says
It is! I'd be so lost without him. I have zero capabilities with power tools and designing things! I hope one of these solves your organizational problems too! Our girls love it and are in costume a lot more now 🙂
Jessica Christian says
This makes things so managable and easy! And on top of that, it simply looks great.. Cheesy but so cute. Will be doing this for my niece shortly. That little things is going to love it <3
Love
Jessica x
[email protected] says
Fantastic job! I especially love the spot for shoes on the bottom. (Knowing that my kids forget to hang things back up, at least I could count on them hiding the extra stuff in the bottom. It would be better than the floor!) Pinned.
Theresa says
This is cute our dress up stuff was in a big bin too. This is so organized. Do you still have your link party? Come share you ideas with me at DearCreatives.com any time. Theresa
Grace A. says
Wounderfulll Idea
LG Grace http://www.zeit-fuer-dich.blogspot.de
Widner FamilyLaw says
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Widner FamilyLaw says
Dallas Divorce Lawyer Widner family law firm in dallas texas represents clients in the areas of divorce, Child Custody, Property Division, Child Support, Collobrative Law, Grandparent Rights. These steps are very helpful. I think this will help me alot when making comments on posts. Thank You. ((:
Kierst says
We need one of these, but I keep thinking that soon London will be out of that stage. But when Brooke's girls come over, that dress up bin is out of control! It's all they do when they get together. Every week.
Rachel Harwood says
This is perfect!!! Love it!
Carrie says
This is so cute! My daughter needs one of these so bad, luckily my husband is handy! 🙂