The next nursery project I had on my list to work on during quarantine was an organizer/topper for our changing table. The changing table itself (which is essentially a dresser, mind you) was 60″ wide and 20″ deep. We have a 17″ changing pad which is 17″ wide and ~32″ long. The rest of the organizer space we planned to use for wipes and extra diapers, etc.
We got all of our measurements down and then started working. I was still avoiding stores as much as possible and so was at the mercy of what I had in my garage. This was really just an organizer that didn’t need much if any structural integrity, so I figured this would be a perfect project for all the leftover 3/4″ MDF I had from my Mega Man X Video Game Entertainment Center. I cut all of the pieces to size and used mitered corners on the perimeter pieces. I also used a roundover bit on my router table to have completely rounded tops on all of the pieces.
In order to make the internal dividers match nicely with the perimeter pieces I had to make them a little shorter (otherwise there would have been a gap where the flat sided internal divider wall met the fully rounded over perimeter piece).
To make everything seem a little more professional, I added a piece of trim to the base along the outside. For the longer exterior pieces I actually needed to combine two pieces of 3/4″ MDF in order to make it that long. To do this I used the 45 degree scarf joint I had just learned from the Dinosaur Bookshelf in order to join two MDF pieces end-to-end. Any time I am gluing exposed MDF “grain” I first apply a layer of glue to the exposed grain and let it dry. Once the glue dries in the exposed MDF grain it presents a much better surface for adhesion. So for all MDF joints on this piece I first applied glue, let it dry and then glued it up as if it were wood.
Once it was all assembled I painted it with two layers of KILZ. I then painted with a Valspar interior paint that we had already used in the nursery. I applied the interior paint using a small roller instead of a brush. I do not like the streaks a brush leaves on these types of pieces and I’m still not quite sure how to use a brush and not have huge brush strokes in the finished product. The roller worked great and I only used a brush for getting into the corners. I lightly buffed the paint to make everything smooth and used some Varathane triple thick polyurethane on the final product. This is a Varathane product that I really like. It goes on a bit thicker than Mixwax Polycrylic.
I added some blocks to the back of the organizer and attached them with several screws. These blocks extend lower than the organizer and go behind the dresser so that the topper does not accidentally slide forward off the dresser. We added some fabric feet so that the piece didn’t scratch the dresser and the project was complete.
