DIY light table

Whether for playing with light and shadow, a light table for photography or tracing drawings, children will have hours of fun and enjoyment with a DIY light-up table. In this IKEA hack, we’re going to show you how to quickly and cheaply transform an IKEA LÄTT children’s table with two chairs into a spectacular light table for kids, with the help of acrylic sheet.

To make the light table for kids, you’ll need:

The basics of making your DIY tracing table

We’re using a 5 mm thick acrylic sheet in opal white with dimensions of 63 cm x 48 cm to make this lightbox. To be sure, measure the actual size of the tabletop of your LÄTT children’s table because the dimensions can sometimes differ. In this demonstration, we’ve opted to place the acrylic sheet in the frame of the children’s table and saw the corners a bit. Do you want to make it even easier for yourself? You can also choose to attach the perspex sheet to the frame, in which case measure the dimensions of the acrylic sheet you require beforehand.

Step 1: Order the acrylic sheet to make your DIY light table

You can order the opal acrylic sheet cut to the exact size you need in our webshop, so almost anyone can make this simple light table themselves. The only thing you have to do yourself is to saw the corners and attach the LED strip.

Step 2: Cut away the corners of the acrylic sheet

To ensure that you can slide the acrylic sheet into the LÄTT table frame, cut the corners away a little bit as you can see in the pictures below. Do this by placing the original LÄTT tabletop on the acrylic sheet: this allows you to mark the corners very precisely. Then saw the corners with a jigsaw or handsaw suitable for sawing plastic.

Step 3: Partially assemble the frame of your light table

To start with, you can assemble part of the LÄTT Children’s table frame. Leave the frame ‘open’ on one side so that you can slide your cut-to-size acrylic sheet in between. Then assemble the other half of your light table frame.

Step 4: Attach the LED lighting to your light table

Now, attach the LED strip under your light table. We’ve opted to use multi-coloured LED so that you can change the colours of the light table. Extra fun for the kids! Once you’ve connected the LED lighting, your homemade light table is ready for use.

Make your own light table

Are you excited about making your own cheap light table? Order your acrylic sheet directly in our webshop, and we will cut it to size for you straight away. We ensure that you receive your order as soon as possible. If you have any questions about this DIY blog or our products, please don’t hesitate to contact us.