marker proof your kid's table

this is such a great hack from sara. it reminds me of those good old days when we were kids. we'd draw on walls, on chairs - on every blank surface we could find. used to drive mom crazy till she and dad created an "art contest" for us kids, with a sparkly pencil and pen set (yeah, kids were easy to please then) up for grabs. catch is, only art on paper. it was a close fight, but i'm proud to say i won. and we never drew on walls again.

okay. enough chatter. this is what sara did for her boy.

"here is a svala children's table i hacked for my son - i didn't have the time to paint or stain it as i was heavily pregnant, but was driven crazy by the marker stains he was leaving all over it (and the fact I like things decorative).

my solution was to cover a sheet of white paper in pictures of his favourite things - cars - and then give the back of the paper a light spray of adhesive and place it it on the table top. then i placed a piece of perspex (AUD$20) over the top - rounded corners for safety and screwed it on. the screws are counter sunk 2.5cm in from each corner - countersinking helps with cleaning and seems a bit more professional and 2.5cm places the screws in the centre of the legs so the table top won't crack. now it looks cool (he especially likes the crashing stock cars), hides dirt and is easy to clean!"

update: lol! my sister wrote and told me that i didn't win the art competition. i took 2nd spot. and my other sister won $5 for her effort, not a pen & pencil set, which i did win for scoring the best grades in my exams! haha. well, so much for my memories.