How to Store a Kiddie Car With a 5-in-1 Garage Storage Unit

6 Materials
$150
1 Day
Medium

How to build a "garage" for storing for a kid's ride-on car.


Watch the video for full instructions.


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This project, part of our garage makeover series, was designed out of necessity. When we were in the planning stages of our garage makeover, I (Vicki) said I wanted a way to store the grandchildren's toy car. I needed it out of the way, but accessible. Toy cars are notoriously difficult to store efficiently!


The car storage started out as a simple box with a little open storage on top. I had envisioned it sitting next to our large shelving unit right beside the door. Well, as things do, the project evolved into something totally different and way more functional!

Take a look at the video to see how our 5-in-1 multi-functional garage unit came together. As always, you can find a detailed tutorial on our website!

This cute little kiddie car was the inspiration for this project! The grandchildren love it but it is so hard to store.

After several trips to The Home Depot to buy 2x4s, plywood, decorative hardware, as well as a dry erase panel and faux pallet panel (shown above), we were ready to start.

The little car provided the measurements for the project. We cut four plywood boards the size of the car and built them into a box.

The box is held together with "L" brackets and brad nails. Adding wood glue would have been a good idea as well. We added a back and then turned it over to add casters.

We took the base unit to my garage to finish. We build two 2x4 frames and attached them to the top of the box. These are going to hold the dry erase and faux pallet panels.

We wanted the car storage box to have its own garage door. We cut panels of dry erase boards and glued them to a piece of plywood. We added decorative hardware. Head to our blog to see what we used and how we cut the pieces.

The mini garage door was attached to the bottom of the box with a piano hinge, also known as a continuous hinge, so it opens like a ramp. We added a magnetic catch to the top of the door to hold it when it is closed.

Grandson, Tyler, with Aunt Stephie's help, attached the handle to the door. You can see a cute picture of him at the end of the video at the age when he originally got the mini Cooper car.

We laid the unit on it's side to attach the faux pallet panel. We used brad nails. The dry erase panel was attached with brad nails as well.

We added a handle made from metal pipe to the dry erase side. This is the side we most often use and the handle makes it easier to move the unit.

The unit is finished and in place. Beside being a place to house the toy car, it closes off this storage area and is easily moved in and out of place. The space between the panels is used for large, bulky storage, we can use the pallet side as a photo background ( here you can see it in use) and the dry erase side is perfect for project planning and the writing of to-do lists!

Now that cute little car has a home and is out of the way, yet very accessible!

Suggested materials:
  • Plywood   (The Home Depot)
  • Surface mount hinge   (Amazon)
  • Handle   (Amazon)
See all materials
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  • Bub83756995 Bub83756995 on Dec 24, 2023

    Brilliant women better then men as women take the time to get it right well done

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