Play Kitchen!

I had the idea for a long time to make Aidan a play kitchen. Whenever we go to play areas or preschool rooms he is drawn to them. There are so many cute ones you can buy but thanks to Pinterest I was inspired by many DIY kitchens that people have made from a dresser, night stand or entertainment center. I searched around and found this little gem for $3.99 at Goodwill and thought it would be a perfect starting place for a kitchen. The one thing I forgot to consider was how much time we were already spending on house projects (our windows) and also how busy we are during the holidays. What was mostly an enjoyable project became a lot of work at times and was a pretty stressful project to take on this time of year. 

First we took out the drawer, sanded the entire thing and cut out a hole for the sink. We also cut boards for the over door, side cabinet, back panel and shelf. We then primed and painted all the pieces and then screwed and nailed everything together. As I write this description it sounds so easy but it took a long time. I think working with an existing piece of furniture adds a challenge because we had to cut everything to fit with what was already there.

Here is the finished product: 

 

 

 I did a lot of shopping to gather all the materials to make it look as real as possible. 

• Sink- metal bowl from Goodwill
• Faucet- used faucet found at the ReStore
• Oven and door handles- from Ikea
• Oven knobs- closet rod end caps from Home Depot
• Burners- wooden basketball cut outs from JoAnns (painted grey)

Not to mention multiple trips to Home Depot and Lowes for hinges, paint, screws, L brackets, magnets etc.

We did have a lot of fun making this and it will be in our family for a long time. We hid it for Aidan to open during his party but he found it a little early. We heard him banging around and he comes running out with a pan with grin on his face. "Mommy, eat!" and then ran back to get cook me something. That makes it all worth it! He has been enjoying playing with it ever since.