Kiki is growing so fast!! She only just turned four but with her long legs she definitely outgrew her trike and balance bike. While on the look out for a bicycle I spotted this little bike in my local charity shop for £10, a bargain! Only problem that the bike was black and green and Kiki had her heart set on a pink sparkly bike. The bicycle needed a makeover!

Have a look at the video below to see how we gave the bicycle a whole new look

Crazy what a lick of paint can do! For the frame we used a Rust-Oleum Universal All Surface paint in Rose. A paint I had left over after painting Kiki’s radiator, see that tutorial here. I also used it on her mud table, it’s a well used paint :D

For the saddle I used a Rust-Oleum Painters Touch Spray Paint in Candy Pink. I initially wanted to replace the saddle with a new one but thought I might as well try and see if I can spray paint it first. So far so good! The paint went on really well and as the saddle is rather hard I think it will last well. I’ll keep you posted on that one.

The bike cost me ten pounds and I spend fifteen pounds on the accessories. The paint I already had so for twenty five pounds Kiki has a pretty nice little bike. Especially as second hand bikes cost from a hundred pounds in my local bike shop.

The finishing touches in the dino bike makeover are for sure the basket and the streamers. I couldn’t find any locally so I ordered mine from Amazon, a kit that had a basket, a bell, the streamers but also some stickers.

My bicycle when I lived in Amsterdam was completely covered in stickers, it was to cover up an ugly bike but it was also a great anti theft device. Nobody would steel a bike that would take forever to de-sticker :D For Kiki’s bike I only put the stickers on the chain cover though, it would be a waist covering up all our lovely paint work.

When you paint with children always supervise them and never have a child near when you work with spray paint.

Like I said in the video I really am not into gender stereotypes, we are trying to raise Kiki as gender neutral as possible but unfortunately I have a girl who loves everything pink and sparkly while I prefer monotone patterns. So I am not saying a girls bike needs to be pink instead of the dino bike that I bought but it is just what she likes. If she wanted a grey bike or a yellow one then we would have painted it that colour.

So what do you think of our joint projects? Kiki was a great help painting the stabilisers and I think the bicycle turned out rather cute!