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Perler Bead Furniture

Making Perler Bead furniture

My kids continue to enjoy playing with Perler Beads, especially since they discovered all the free Perler Bead patterns you can download from the official Perler Bead site! Their most ambitious project to date was the 3D furniture pictured above – Emma (8 years old) made the bed and Johnny (7 years old) made the chair. Johnny’s chair works pretty well for his Playmobil knights. Emma made the bed longer than the pattern required because she wants them to fit some fairies that she happens to know she is getting for her birthday next month.

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Building 3D Perler Bead Furniture

These 3D projects are neat, but kind of a pain to put together, and – in our experience – quite fragile. I am not sure if that is because our projects were built partially using imitation beads, which seem to be of lower quality than the brand-name Perler beads that I bought halfway through the kids’ Perler bead craze. Brand-name Perler beads seem to iron out thicker and more uniformly than the IKEA Pyssla beads we have been mixing in. I suspect that results might also be better with a better iron, but I’m not quite convinced that I should upgrade my rarely-touched iron. The kids have managed to keep their projects intact, but I won’t be surprised if we wind up reinforcing them with hot glue over time.

Perler bead storage solution

After a few Perler beads everywhere incidents I bought this bead storage system for the kids. It is a cute and neat way for them to store their beads, and it is a great way to limit how many beads can spill at a time! I also got my kids these clear Perler bead pegboards. I thought they would want to put the patterns underneath, but they found (and I agree, after trying myself) that it is easier to have the pattern next to the pegboard. These boards are kind of cool, though, because they lock together and so you can build a larger item by attaching all four boards together. You won’t want to be moving the boards very far to iron the project, though – so I recommend building larger projects with the board on an iron-safe surface.

Kids' activities: getting creative with Perler beads

The kids enjoy making a mix of patterns and original creations, and I always enjoy seeing what they come up with!

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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

17 thoughts on “Perler Bead Furniture”

  1. jeannine: waddleeahchaa

    Wow 3D! That’s new to me. This opens up a whole new world!

    We took these beads to Cambodia and the children went crazy over them. They absolutely love crafts.

  2. Wow how creative! I haven’t seen 3D versions of these. Don’t you hate it when the creations end up so fragile? We bought a fort kit where we can build whatever shape fort we want, and it looks great and all, but the kids go through them and just end up breaking them. It’s unfortunate because you don’t want to limit their play or tell them to be gentle all the time either!

    1. How frustrating! I think a lot of fort kits are like that. We do have a very tough one (Quadro Construction Kit), but it is more expensive and more work to put together than most kits.

  3. Elisa | blissfulE

    Sounds like you and I have similar attitudes toward our irons! :) The bed and chair turned out very nice!!

  4. Wow, I had no idea you could do 3D with perler beads. We got rid of our years ago because they didn’t stick together well and I am quite sure they were of the non-brand variety. I may have to have a go again.
    Thanks for sharing this. Really neat. Be sure to tell your kids I love their creations :)

  5. Buying a better quality iron was one of my best sewing investments (after my machine), and I love my iron. So, I’d say it’s well worth it to get a step or two up from the cheap $10 iron (that’s what I had) to my $60 iron bought at 50% off at Joann’s.

    1. Thanks for this information! I may have to add “better iron” to my savings list. Mine is of the $10 variety, and I’ve had it since 1998.

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