Great Ideas for Painting a Kid Friendly Table

Painting a table can be a colorful way to customize a child's room. A small, unfinished table can be purchased at a home improvement store and many different colors and finishes are available in craft stores. You can also find a table to refinish at a thrift shop, or use a picnic table or old furniture from your own home. Does this Spark an idea?

Game Table

Paint a checkerboard game directly on a table top. The squares can fill the entire table. If you use a large table, several games can be included, such as checkers, tic tac toe and backgammon. Squares can be sponge painted and then protected with a few coats of polyurethane.

Chalkboard Table

Cover a smooth table top with chalkboard paint. Follow the manufacturer's directions when applying. Chalkboard paint comes in the traditional black and green, as well as pink, red, blue and purple. Make it easy to use by attaching a holder for a chalkboard eraser and a container for chalk. A hole can be cut in the center of the table in order to insert a cup of chalk.

Train or Car Table

Kids who are fascinated with vehicles will enjoy a place to play with their toys. Paint a table with a landscape scene, roads or tracks. Alternately, a toy train track can be glued directly on the painted table. Recreate the child's favorite places on the table, such as their own driveway, a friend's house, their school, the playground or a familiar store.

Bug Table

Create a table top garden scene. Paint flowers, grass, dirt mounds and rocks. Design it as if you are looking down to the ground. The table can be used as a play area for plastic bugs. Purchase sets of plastic ladybugs, beetles, centipedes and ants. If you use a thin table top, the bugs can have small magnets attached on the bottom with super glue and then be manipulated with a large magnet moved around under the table.