Robert’s Beanbag/Chalkboard Easel

Driscoll Children’s Hospital puts on many events for its in-patients and alumni patients all of which involve games of some sort. One is a bean bag toss but the stand was just not sturdy enough to withstand the constant pounding of bead bags. So I constructed a large easel that would accept the bean bag face and on the other side a large chalkboard for the kids to be creative. The easel is large and versatile enough to be used for other games and signs. Since I gave it to the hospital, hundreds of kids, many fighting cancer or with cancer in remission, have enjoyed its use!

The design is a knock-off of an industrial easel I saw on Restoration Hardware. The joinery is simply a combination of dowels, pocket hole screws, and glue for added strength. In a hospital setting, especially a children’s hospital, you need to avoid anything that could bump, snag or cut a child which explains why the chain is on the bottom and in the middle of the easel. If I owned a router I would have rounded over all of the outside edges, corners, and intersections. The ladies in the pictures are Administrators of Volunteer Services at the hospital where I have the pleasure of volunteering two days a week.