DIY Busy Board
What do you get for the baby who needs nothing? A homemade, super awesome and good for his brain BUSY BOARD of course!
I don’t know if it’s because he’s our third kid, or because I’ve been daydreaming about a Marie Kondo-style overhaul on our house, but the idea of buying more “stuff” for Aiden’s first birthday just seemed silly.
A few months back I got the idea that we could build him a busy board and it would be a gift from all of us. He’s such a communal baby it sounded perfect.
The whole family took a trip to the Home Depot and we just started walking down the hardware isle picking out things we thought Aiden might like to play with.
We grabbed door hardware, chains, locks, and pipe. Then we went home and ordered a door knocker, some safety glass mirrors, and battery operated lights. We also raided the junk drawer for an old remote and we had a few hinges in the garage from a fence project we did a few years back.
I really wanted to be able to make this say AIDEN but I would have had to buy 3 more locks and it just seemed like a waste so I had to settle for “A 2018.”
There really is no wrong answer. Just think of things babies like to do: open and close things, push buttons, make noise. If it does that and you can find a way to attach it to the board then go for it!
Busy board frame and layout
The next step was to build the frame and lay everything out.
We used 2×3 Doug Fir for the frame and particle board for the face. Then we used some cedar
Truth be told, the hubby did the majority of the work on this one, but we all helped a little.
Final product
We decided to mount the whole board to the wall using
*Note: The lights we ordered were a perfect size and attach with a magnet, but they are ridiculously bright. We ended up taking out the batteries so now it’s just a button to push and something to take on and off.
Baby already marked up the board with a pencil… This is why we can’t have nice things.
Time to play
This project was so fun!
I don’t know what Marie Kondo would say about having a busy board mounted in your dining room, but for me it totally sparks some joy!
It’s ironic that we would choose to do something like this for our third kid. I remember wanting one for my oldest, but then we got pregnant with my second and then my husband was in graduate school and we just didn’t have the time. I’m so glad we made it happen this time.
Aiden took a little longer to get here than we would have liked, but he was 100% worth the wait. Transitioning to a family of five has had its challenges, but his last year really has been so amazing!
Have you ever made a busy board for your little one? How did you build it? What did you use?
As always, if you like what you’re reading and want to follow along, please consider subscribing to my newsletter. I send one out every week, usually on Thursdays and I include the latest post from the blog, some links to things I’ve been enjoying around the web, and the occasional musing on… who knows what.
