A long time ago I saw a DIY from another Montessori mum on how to recreate a popular material—the red/blue/yellow pull drawers. I immediately purchased the required materials, so I was prepared, for when E and V were ready for such work. 

E and V love colour sorting and were no longer showing interest in the hinged drawers, so I figured it was time for a new challenge. A challenge that would also include their love of opening and closing drawers. And so, I located some knobs, the only other materials I needed since I have already purchased the boxes, and made the pull drawers. 

And—they sat in the shelf complete ignored *sigh*.

Okay, that’s not 100% accurate. They would pull the drawers out and scatter them. But they had no interest in even using them to sort. So I knew something was off. 

As I was dismantling this DIY, I decided to try something different with pom poms.

So I painted the other side, with the quatrefoil, which is perfect for pushing pom poms through. The boxes are already glued together, thanks to the previous failed DIY, so the painting was all that had to be done.

Five minutes work and a few hours drying time and it was done.

Materials and how-to:

-3 cut-out drawer boxes from the Dollar store.

–Paint. Since we are working on primary colours and were inspired by this item, I used red, blue, yellow paint.

–Wood glue.

–Clamp.

–Shellac.

–Pom poms. We get a variety pack so that we have pom poms, and sizes, available for different activities.

Remove the drawers from the boxes and paint the side with the quatrefoil, one colour for each box. While those dry, apply wood glue to the sides of the boxes and clamp together to dry. Pick out coordinated pom poms–I only provide three of each colour–and prepare a tray and bowl. Once the paint was dry, spray (outdoors with good ventilation) with shellac to seal. I then allowed the paint and shellac to dry overnight.

It was an instant hit! E has been working on this the last few days, bringing it to the table, with V waiting and then doing the same when she finishes. They have had a little difficultly, at times, sliding the drawers back into place as they pull them completely out to dump the pom poms into the bowl. I’m so glad I was able to modify this, not only into something they love, but something that would last.

Has anyone else been motivated to work on some DIYs lately?

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