DIY Kids Dress Up Wardrobe Station

After visiting Andrew’s nieces and playing dress up for hours, Andrew & I decided we wanted to turn an old TV entertainment piece into a cute kids dress up wardrobe station for his nieces for Christmas! While we were visiting, Andrew’s sister she mentioned how much the family needed better storage for the girls’ love of dress up, so we knew this would the perfect gift! We wanted it to be something the girls’ would love while also solving a problem for mom and dad!

I immediately started looking on Craigslist and quickly found one for sale for $30. My dad and I went to pick it up and honestly, they should have paid us $30 for carrying it down two flights of stairs and removing it from their house! We saw a couple units for free but I was super picky about what style unit I wanted so I was okay with the $30 price.

Once we got it home, we removed the glad doors, shelves, and slider doors. As per usual, I bugged my mom for help and we got started!

Cleaning your project first is the most important step!

Step 1: Rub the entire unit down with denatured alcohol. Cleaning the wood to make sure any dirt or grime that has built up over the years is removed is a key step in making sure the rest of the process goes smoothly.

Step 2: Next, attach a piece of wood to the back to fill in the hole. Each TV entertainment unit will be different, but ours was open in the back and I did not like that. We utilized a thin piece of plywood, cut it to size and stapled it into the back of the unit using a staple gun.

Step 3: Spray the entire unit with Kilz. To prep the wood for painting, we sprayed the entire unit with white Kilz.

Step 4: After the Kilz has dried, spray paint the unit a color of your choice! We went with a pale pink for the girls. One downside to the color we chose, is it was such a light pink that it took about 3 coats to actually cover the grain of the wood.

Adding the closet pole gives the dress up wardrobe station a clothes rack!

Step 5: Once the spray paint had dried, we were able to install wallpaper on the inside of the unit utilizing spray adhesive. I didn’t want the wallpaper to be overkill, so we only put it on the back of the right opening and the sides of the left opening. Additionally, we installed wallpaper in the bottom of the drawer for a fun detail! The wallpaper application was probably the most difficult step. Given the chance to go back and do it all over again, I would definitely get peel and stick wallpaper!

Step 6: Install a closet pole using a drill. Of course this step is optional, but adding the closet pole gives the dress up wardrobe station a clothes rack! This helps the unit to be both something your kids will play with as well as a storage unit for their costume clothes! We purchased a closet pole and the pole hangers from Home Depot and cut it down to size. I wanted to pull from the colors in the wall paper with the pole so I spray painted it yellow.

Step 7: Next, I decided I wanted to do a chalkboard wall on one side of the unit. All we did was purchase chalkboard paint, tape off the area we wanted painted and voila! We were ready to go!

I loved personalizing the unit a bit for the girls!

Step 8: Since I was happy with the way the chalkboard side ended up, I decided to make things a bit more difficult ! Using my Mom’s criket, I printed the girls’ names on sticky paper. Next, I stuck them on the side opposite the chalkboard wall. Additionally, we added butterflies flying up the side as well. Once we had them all in place and taped up the remaining sections, I painted over the stencils with bright, fun colors. Peeling off the stencils was so satisfying, and I was super happy with how it turned out. I loved personalizing the unit a bit for the girls.

Step 9: Finally, time to decorate! I ordered push lights from Amazon to stick in the top of the unit to add a little bit of light. Additionally, we purchased a few Halloween costumes and hung them on the pole. Lastly, we updated the knobs on the drawer to crystal knobs and added a piece of board with fun, girly knobs to give the girls a place to hang accessories!

Overall, this unit was so fun to create and you can really make it as easy (or as difficult) as you want! You have a lot of flexibility with décor and no matter what you do, any little child will love it!