I finally got around to finish making the water table for Kate and Rebecca. I had started it, and had the top made this winter, but I never quite got around to making the base of the table. I had started with a preliminary sketch of the table to use as a guide.

Google’s free software Sketchup works perfectly for this sort of thing. Its a 3D design and drawing tool — almost like a lightweight CAD program. Luckily, if you’re making a very complex object you don’t need to model the whole thing, but can download components here and here (to name a few). A great feature it has is that it can generate a parts list for you! That makes a handy tool to use for your woodworking projects.

So spending a little time putting some scrap pieces of lumber together, I was able to make a decent table with two routed holes in the top which washbasins can drop in. I painted the base a bright red and put a few coats of polyurethane the top. All-in-all it wasn’t too much work and it just used scrap lumber. Sarah had purchased a couple plastic basins to drop in that were very inexpensive. Not bad, when you compare it to some commercial products. Sarah got the idea from a Montessori child’s catalog we got in the mail. When you compare the $10 that was spent on this versus the $350 you could spend elsewhere, for example, the finished product looks even a little nicer!