Make Your Own Lemonade Stand

For as long as I can remember now, my kid’s have wanted a lemonade stand. I’m not sure exactly when or where the idea was put in there head, but we could live on a patch of land surrounded by nothing but fields and trees, where the nearest neighbour is two miles away, and they would still want to do a lemonade stand. To them the location, and whether or not there was a market, didn’t matter. Whether or not they had any stock to sell didn’t matter. All they knew was that they wanted a lemonade stand.

I convinced my kids last year that the next time we held a garage sale, they could have a lemonade stand. They (and we) have been putting stuff we no longer wanted or needed aside in anticipation of the lemonade stand, um, I mean garage sale. By having a lemonade stand at the same time as a garage sale, we could at least coax some people into our otherwise quiet bay.

Now, having never had a lemonade stand as my own when I was a kid, and knowing how badly they wanted to have one, I wanted to put some extra effort into it. Something fun and memorable for them. And, something that they can use to set up shop any time they see fit. So, what does any DIYer do? They had to Pinterest! I saw this really cute lemonade stand there, and went to work on making our own DIY Lemonade Stand, and sharing with you so you can Make Your Own Lemonade Stand too.

First, we scoured the thrift store to find a small cupboard or side table that would work for this project. We got ours for $5. We removed one of the drawers (and created a shelf in it’s place), and used 1×4’s that we had on hand for the upright pieces. Next came a few cans of spray paint, which were thankfully on sale that week. We used an “Ocean Blue” colour, simply because I love that blue colour with the contrasting yellow of the lemonade.

We designed the stand so that the drawer & shelf face the kids, giving them somewhere to store their extra cookies, cups, and napkins. So the front of the stand was actually the back of the cabinet. For some fun, I mixed up some chalkboard paint to paint the front of the stand, as well as the sign above. I gave the areas I wanted to be a chalkboard about 3 coats of paint. Once the paint was dry, I rubbed the board full of chalk, then wiped it all off with a damp cloth. I read that doing this helps the board to erase easier with future uses. It must be true, since we are easily able to erase and re-write the price board on the front of the stand.

We sold Lemonade, iced tea, Gluten-free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, and candy kabobs. The candy kabobs were a huge hit with everyone, and they were fairly simple to make. We used wooden skewers and pierced a variety of soft, gummy candy. Wrapped in some cellophane and held upright in a jar full of dried beans, they looked fantastic on our (I mean the kid’s) lemonade stand.

Have you, or your kids, ever had a lemonade stand? What other treats would be good sellers?