Personal Project: DIY Ballet Barre

I've been taking an adult ballet class.

Yes. Really! The city offered one through Community Ed in February and a friend convinced me to go. I haven't done ballet since I was very young, but I found I was very excited.

Run-out-and-buy-ballet-slippers excited. And I-must-have-a-leotard excited.

I'm a grown-up now though, so I bought everything in black.

[Including those awesome leg warmers. Boom! Who's a legit dancer? This girl.]

After class some of the girls and I have been talking about DIY ballet barres so we can practice at home. Our class is only once a week, and only for an hour, so practicing outside of class is nice to remember the material and to prepare us for the touring ballet company auditions.

[Haha, gotcha!]

So it's really just for fun, but still you know, necessary, and a quick Pinterest search proves it's also pretty easy. So with a little help from the little brother I set to work.

The materials used are:
1" pvc pipes, tees, elbows, crosses and spray paint. 1-1/4" poplar dowels, wood stain and poly.

First I sanded off what I could of the writing on the pvc before spray painting it.

Then I sanded and stained the dowels. I intend to poly them later. Finally I took the pieces over to the tool man, aka the little brother, and he used his miter saw to cut the pipes into the necessary lengths. We tested the height, made a few adjustments, and tada:

A portable, collapsible ballet barre. One that looks fairly elegant if I do say so myself. It isn't as stable as a wall mounted version would be, but this one requires no commitment. And it cost me less than $35 dollars to make!

There's also the distinct possibility our little dancer could use the barre when she's taller, assuming she wants to stay in dance.

Or I could make her an extra special one for her very own. I'm thinking hot pink pvc and red stain for the poplar dowels?

What do you think?

ce