magnetic toy storage

I’m sure I am not the only mom whose child has acquired way too many magnetic toys. I really like the toys themselves. The problem is that they are all over my fridge and occasionally all over my floor. I wanted to move the toys up to my son’s room where most of his toys live but needed a way to keep them from becoming a cluttered mess. When I saw that my local dollar store had pizza pans, I knew I had a solution. He already has a blue and brown circle motif on his walls, so the blue and brown circles for magnets blend in perfectly.

Project estimate:

  • Four steel pizza pans, $4 and up
  • Primer, on hand or $3 and up
  • Acrylic paint (I used white, blue and brown), on hand
  • Foam paint roller, $1 and up
  • Foam paint brush, on hand
  • Drill and drill bits, on hand
  • 8 small/medium screws, on hand

Total: $5 and up

These pizza pans were found in the bakeware section of my local Dollar Tree. Make sure you look for steel pans and do not get the disposable aluminum pans which are not magnetic. You may also want to bring a magnet with you to the store to be sure they are magnetic before purchasing them.

This is a picture of the pans I bought:

pizza pans

Step 1: Clean and prime the back of the pans

Wipe down the back of the pizza pans to remove dust and oil. Use your favorite primer to prepare them. Trust me on the primer. I absolutely avoid priming if at all possible and trust me when I say this will turn out way better with primer. If you use a spray primer like I did, keep in mind that most spray primer sets up best between 65-90 degrees Fahrenheit so you may need to bring them inside to dry. I put mine in the bathroom with the fan running to air it out.

primer on pizza pan

 

Step 2: Paint

Once the primer is set up and dry, paint your pans. I painted the rims white (to match the wall color in the room they would go in) and the tops blue and brown to match the theme of the room. If you paint the edges a different color than the main circle, be sure to allow the edges to dry completely before painting the main body. I used a foam brush to paint the edges and a foam roller to apply the brown and blue to avoid paint streaks and mimic the texture of the wall. I applied two coats of each color, allowing time to dry between coats.

paint the pizza pans

 

Step 3: Drill

Set your pan on top of a sturdy cardboard box and drill a small pilot hole in the edge of your pan. Drill a second hole directly across from it. Repeat for all four pans.

drill a hole in the pan

 

Step 4: Mount to the wall

Use your drill and the screws to mount the pans to your wall.

mount pizza pan to wall

 

Once pan in secured, paint over the screws with white paint (or whatever color you painted your edge) to blend in.

magnetic toy storage from pizza pans

 

Step 5: Move in your toys!

Once the paint is dry on the pan edges, go ahead and move your magnets to your new magnetic storage area!

magnetic toy storage from pizza pans

 

psst. Like the patterned letter magnets? Those are made from dollar store materials, too. Check them out: [make funky alphabet magnets]