Chengcheng has been playing sand and water since he was 6 months or maybe younger. Recently I decided to buy a water/sand table for him but they were either out of stock or too expansive. I came across this DIY project from frugalfun4boys . I like the versatility of this DIY table and how it can grow with kids, so why not to build my own. Youtube has lots of tutorials if you are a visual person.

Currently, we live in a 2-bedroom apartment with a spacious patio. With limited indoor space, I prefer a table with bin storage feature for space saving and wheels that allows me to leave the table at the patio and easily wheel it indoor on rainy or unhealthy smoky days.

Why I prefer PVC pipes to wood? Generally, I’m obsessed with wood materials but this time I choose PVC pipes due to my limited collections of tools and PVC pipes can be easily taken apart or remodeled if not glued.

Here’s a picture of the finished work with some accessories that we already own at home.

Chengcheng’s laughter is precious and contagious in this video.

Here’s how I made this table:

I did my plans in an old fashion way – drawing and calculating on a piece of paper. DON’T follow my measurements without DOING YOUR OWN MATH! I ended up recalculating while in the making.

Materials:

Roughly, I spent about $160 for this project. Items highlighted in yellow are all purchased from Formufit (see picture below).

Other tools include rubber mallet and tape measure. If you don’t have a rubber mallet, you can use a regular hammer wrapped with folded towel.

Here’re the items I purchased from Formuit (disclaimer: not sponsored by Formuit). This is my first time to do a DIY PVC pipe project, so I spent some time to figure out the names of those connectors. Thought it might be helpful to share the pictures instead of the names only.

A couple more notes :

1. I ended up using only three 90 degree PVC Fittings
2. Most DIY projects use 3/4″ pipes, but I chose 1-1/4″ pipes and connectors for better durability and stability.
3. I didn’t glue the pipes so I can take the table down as needed. If you choose thinner pipes, you might consider glue them for stability.
4. Get a tarp from Home Depot. It’s great for indoor play while keeping the mess away from your floor (see picture below).

We recently moved this PVC table indoor due to the poor air quality outside. Apparently, Chengcheng discovered his own way playing it. He climbed in without assistance and happily showed off his new territory. He’s about 23 lbs now, so it once again proved the durability of a 1-1/4″ PVC table.

We love this PVC table. It has been a lifesaver for the quarantine time and smoky days. We started using it since Chengcheng was about 14 months and now he’s 15 months old.