Me and Dave are making a light table for preschool!
We love doing projects together and this one has been fun so far.
We bought LED light strips from Amazon and used a LACK side table from Ikea. It cost around $60.00 Total! which is good considering they are around $200 online.
Here are some photos showing how we did it!
Step 1: Measure how big you want your opening to be. We did 1.5 inches but 2 would probably be better. That way the leg blocks would be completely covered and you wouldn’t have random dark patches in the corners of the table.
Step 2: Take your jigsaw and cut that baby out!! We started using an exacto knife to cut it out (which worked fine) but then found a skil saw in the garage!! Way more fun and way faster 🙂
Step 3: Remove the middle board and you fill find a ‘beehive’ of cardboard underneath. It comes out super easy. Here you can see what the cardboard looks like… (along with Dave’s creepy ghost hand)
Step 4: Paint the inside white (so it will reflect the light)
After I painted it white, I painted the outside turquoise to make it prettier 🙂
Step 4: I then ran the lights inside. I did two rolls of LED lights, bought off amazon, in a criss-cross pattern. One roll did make it bright enough, but the plexi I bought was the wrong white and you could faintly see the lights through it. You want to buy the plexi that is cloudier (not bright white). I bought my plexi from a plastics place in Surrey.
Step 5: Cut a hole in the bottom corner to run the plug out of.
Step 6: Attach the plexi using double sided foam tape around the outer edge
Step 7: Plug it in!
Ta-Da! All Finished and ready to play with
preschoolpedia 
end result looks pretty good. I’ve used and enjoyed a light table in art classes. Thanks for showing.