Hey guys! After a few failed attempts at my planned What's for Dinner post, we're jumping ahead to this week's Make It Better: A compact, collapsible kid's play market that is proving to be a veeeery big hit in our house. You may remember our old play market - Sweet Lou's - which we put together from a bookcase, some Command strips, some thin strips of wood and a cardboard awning.

That wasn't our bookshelf - it stayed behind in our last furnished apartment - but we wouldn't have had room for it anyway. Lou's room in our new apartment is teeny, and early on, we consolidated down from a full fledged restaurant and market operation to a restaurant only. We also rebranded to Lou Lou's Friendly Diner, which Lou is very serious about. If you accidentally call it Sweet Lou's, you will get a blank stare.

But Lou loved to play market, and though we kept the cash register and all the goods, just put away, it didn't get played with as regularly because it was out of sight. And then came Christmas and then came Lou's birthday and between the two, despite our best intentions, we're struggling to find a space for everything. (We had no room for expansion, and we expanded). I wondered if there was a way to introduce more storage to her room without it being hideous or overwhelming or taking up too much space - and the walls are completely used up - and at the same time I wanted to see if we could try another market. It needed to be small, and it needed to be useful. I thought I was up to the task. Or, more accurately, I thought that my favorite wooden crate was.

This crate, which my mom gave me several years ago, has been amazing. Excuse the crappy pre-blog iPhone pics, but these are its former lives:

Lou's very first coffee shop, two (!) summers ago, a car, with wheels and steering wheel made by paper plates and a car seat (safety first!) for her doll, and our coffee station in our old kitchen. So yeah, I love this crate. To make it more compact and useful than it was as Lou's coffee shop, I turned it on its end and, using hot glue and a couple screws, attached two slim pieces of wood to serve as sign posts.

Then I had Lou come in so I could see how high up I needed to put the sign so she had clearance. I had planned to use the black and white bunting fabric you see above, but then I remembered this floral painting I thrifed years ago, which was just hanging out in my stack of unused art, so I pulled it out and hand-lettered a friendly sign.

With more hot glue and screws, I attached the sign (once dry) to the top of the posts.

Then, I attacked the whole thing with Command hooks. Why? To hang all the baskets.

Not only would I not have wanted to permanently attach those baskets, but having them on the hooks is what makes the thing (if I do modestly say so myself) genius: It all comes right off and packs right into the cart, which wheels into the base of the market.

Thusly:

So it fits in the same space Lou's shopping cart was already taking up in her room - but it offers all kids of extra storage and it's really, really fun. I don't think kids need a ton of prompting to let their imaginations roll - Lou is currently deeply involved in some elaborate game with my washi tape collection - but it is more fun to stop by Lou Lou's Friendly Diner and Market now that there's a real setup, instead of one of us perching awkwardly on the bed with the cash register in our lap.

We haven't actually collapsed it yet, because it's the new kid in town and is getting a lot of play, and it may stay out as a default, with us collapsing it when we need the space. Ill keep you posted!

I wasn't able to put yesterday's post up on Facebook, so if you missed it, check out our new gallery wall.

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