From Big, Red and Plastic to a Car You Want to Show Off!

I have finally completely finished the car bed in Ayden's room.... Well for now I might come up with a brilliant idea in the future. Now as I promised this is my whole post just for the bed.

I'm not going to lie, before my son I was not a fan of those big, plastic fisher price race car beds. Then when we started talking about what to do in Ayden's room, Alex brought up the idea of a car bed. I was not fond of the idea... AT ALL!!! Then one day when I was looking for spray paint it hit me; I can use plastic spray paint and give the car a different look (an actual race car look!) I thought for sure someone had already done this but when I searched online I found nothing. 

Then I began searching Craigslist because I was definitely not going to buy the bed new for $300 if I was going to cover it with paint anyways. I dragged my feet a lot during this process since Ayden would be going from his crib to a bed and I was in no rush to make that happen. I'm glad I waited though, because the whole time I searched Craigslist I found car beds for about $60-$70 (not bad) but then I found one for $35 and just had to have it ASAP! Not only that but to add to my good fortune when I called the number we found out that they lived on the street right behind us. I must admit I got showered with luck on this project except… 

               

                 When we went to pick up the car I figured we can take it apart and put it in my car. We tried and tried but the back part was not coming off the sides! We ended up having to carry the bed to my house, needless to say it was a mission, I was sore the next morning, and we looked completely ridiculous carrying the huge bed around the corner. 

The "before" of the bed/ picture that was on the craigslist ad

 It took 6 cans of spray paint (and 2 trips because I miscalculated and thought we only needed 4).  I began by cleaning off the bed and as it dried I rushed to buy the spray paint; I used the Krylon fusion plastic spray paint in grey.  To completely cover the car it took me about 5 hours.  I wanted to make sure I got every inch so no red would show through.  

"During" Pictures 

YES, I did add to my craziness and spray painted in my front yard.  It was to big to do it anywhere else!

Almost Done

As you can see I blacked out the "rims" of the car bed.  I bought the Walmart brand spray paint because we had something else planned for them but liked how they looked as is and just left them.

My crazy hands after spray painting…. I really should've worn gloves!!

Once I was done spray painting and the bed dried we took the it upstairs, boy was that a struggle!  Since we couldn't take it apart it was  little too big and the stairs gave us trouble.  I did have to repaint some spots on my walls after that mission.  

From there, I took out my Silhouette Cameo (which is an amazing machine) and cut out a 12x12 circle of white vinyl, the numbers in black to give the look of a race car number and stuck it on the car's hood.  

                I chose number 11 because it's mine and Alex's "number" when we were in high school both our soccer jersey numbers were 11.  Thought I could incorporate it into Ayden's room!

It still looked plain to me after that, so I decided to add race car stripes to it.  All I did was tape and use high glass paint for the stripes.  And it is DONE!!! 

I love the view from his room!!

Hood of bed

Close up of stripes

Close up of vinyl circle and numbers

Blacked out rims

Top of stripes

Side view of car

Final Before and After

 What do you think?? Thanks for looking!