Contain Your Little One's Playful Mess With IKEA's FLISAT Sensory Table

Children are perhaps some of the most innovative and imaginative of individuals; if you disagree with this claim, when was the last time that you successfully imagined a cardboard box into a rocket ship? As a parent or caregiver to little ones, it's only natural to want to do what you can to help encourage that sense of childlike wonder in the world, and while kids usually can do this on their own, sometimes the right piece can facilitate true magic.

IKEA's kids' product offerings deliver great value for their price, and the often highly versatile pieces can elevate the experiences of the children in your home. Such is the case with the IKEA FLISAT, a sensory table that can be used to organize toys, draw on top of, host children's tea parties, and more. The true beauty of the FLISAT rests in the fact that it conceals spaces for IKEA's iconic TROFAST bins under clever lift-up table-top covers, making it easier for you to declutter kids' toys by simply covering up their play bins.

There's a lot to love about the FLISAT, starting with its all-wood (pine) construction, covered with a clear acrylic lacquer for extra durability. It's designed to be just the right height for little kids, and can be paired with stools for sitting or be used alone as a standing sensory table. It's priced pretty affordably for how open-ended it is as a piece of furniture — $89.99 — but you can also use Facebook Marketplace as the ultimate furniture-shopping tool, where you may score a decent discount on a used table.

Given how simple the design of the FLISAT is, there are arguably countless ways to make it your own. One option is to choose to mix and match the FLISAT table with other brands' seating options, if it better reflects your aesthetic. Consider painting the table a bright color (maybe your kids' favorites), or keep it au natural but use a stencil and some white paint to write your children's names on it or embellish it with some other dainty details.

Busy parents who want to give their kids a great play experience can easily let their children utilize the table completely unmodified, drawing on the tabletop and using the TROFAST bins to store art supplies or toys. If you want another fun spin on the FLISAT, a quick search on Etsy and other sites will deliver lots of options. Creators have come up with pegboard covers for the TROFAST compartments, which can keep your kids busy for hours as they practice their fine motor skills, or you can purchase some puck lights and translucent covers for the TROFAST bins, creating a fun light table for your littles to trace photos or play with colored film.

Another feature that many individuals may be unaware of with the FLISAT is that the middle wooden bar, which separates the two TROFAST bin slots, can be removed, accommodating a larger plastic bin that could be filled with a plethora of sensory activities for young kids. Colored water, glass beads, and plastic ocean animals can be added to this larger bin to simulate an underwater scene, or you can create a scavenger hunt with artificial gems hidden under dry rice grains — the sky's the limit with the IKEA FLISAT sensory table.