Homemade Sensory/Light Table

Let me introduce this by saying that I have the best husband in the world. Sorry girls, he is all mine! Just look at the awesome table my husband built from PVC pipe. I found the idea for this from Busy Bugs blog. We modified the build because we couldn't find a 3 way joint that the Busy Bugs blog used.

Here are the materials we used. We went shopping at the Home Depot and found everything there for $30. How awesome is that? Sorry for the less than technical drawing of the parts. I forgot to take a picture of the parts before he started building.

Here is a more technical list of the parts you will need if you want to replicate this.
Plastic Sterilite container:
2 PVC pipe: we used 3/4 inch and bought 2 of the 10 foot pipes
8 PVC pipe 90 degree elbow
8 PVC pipe 3 way joint
1 PVC glue (that is the blue stuff in the picture)
1 PVC pipe cutter

We made the base of the table around the container we found. If you buy a different size, adjust your table size accordingly. We decided to glue the top parts and the bottom parts together. So, the "legs" are not glued and can be taken out. This allows the table to be broken down and lay flat. I told you my husband was awesome!

I didn't measure everything and will let you figure that part out. My husband eyeballed everything around the box we bought and kept moving things until they fit like he wanted. I admit that we actually bought 3 lengths of PVC pipe because we were afraid that we would need some "oops" pipe. We didn't end up using the third pipe, but it was nice to have the backup. And it was still $30 for all of it - including the cool pipe cutter.

Here is the best part of all: I saw another plastic container that is slightly smaller than the one in our sensory table, but has a frosted clear lid. I intend to buy some small LED flashlights to place in the smaller container and put the lid on. This makes a great light table. I can then put the whole container directly into my bigger sensory table container and have a homemade light table. How cool is that?  I will take pictures when we get around to doing that.

Right now, the kids think the sensory table is downright fantastic. I put colored warm water with fun toys in the table. The kids played in it for over an hour. The only reason they stopped was that it was really cold and they were all wet. I foresee many afternoons of play time with this table. Good thing it is sturdy.

**Update: We have had this for over a year now and it is still going strong. We use it almost daily and it is showing very little wear. The only thing that is wearing is the lid on the container. I can replace that easily. The actual stand looks like the day we built it.