SAMLA Play Deck

My girl’s room is rather small so adding storage while leaving enough space for playing is an ongoing issue. A couple of years back, I made a wooden play surface on wheels that fits under the bed but it didn’t get used as much as I would’ve liked while taking up a lot of valuable storage space. On the other hand, I liked the idea of having an elevated play surface in the room for puzzles, Playmobil, Lego, etc. so in the end I came up with this simple Hack.

Material used:

– 2 SAMLA storage bins 78x56x18 cm/55 l with lids
– 2 foam boards bigger than the SAMLA lid
– duct tape
– adhesive velcro tape
– cutter

What I did:

First, I put one of the SAMLA lids on the foam board and cut around it with a cutter knife to match the board size to the lid. I then applied duct tape around the edges to smoothen them out. Using the velcro tape, I fixed the foam board to the SAMLA lid. I decided to not permanently attach the boards to the lid in case I’ll want to use them as regular storage boxes in the future.

SAMLA Play Deck

Each box can be used individually or if standing side by side make for a play surface of a little over one meter in length and 80 cm in width. We store costumes in one of the boxes and Playmobil in the other. When not in use, the whole box goes under the bed and out of the way.

Initially I thought of using plastic sheets instead of foam boards but they are not as easy to come by and I wanted a quick solution. Also, while not as durable as PVC, the foam boards are super light and hardly add any weight to the lid at all.

SAMLA Play Deck

SAMLA Play Deck

SAMLA Play Deck

~ Hadassa