Our New Play Kitchen

Otherwise known as "Why Marshall Hates Pinterest!"

So here's the deal - I saw a picture on Pinterest awhile back of a nightstand that had been converted into a kids play kitchen.  It was ADORABLE!!  I would have jumped right on it, except we already had a perfectly good play kitchen for the kids.  It was purchased for Jack the Christmas before he turned two, and it was the manliest kitchen we could find.  It was brown.  And plastic.  Which is fine, but let's face it, not pretty at all!

Fast forward a bit to just a few weeks ago when the kids were playing ball in the house (and by kids, I mean Jack, Anna, Sam, Lucy, and Marshall).  The ball hit a topiary on the mantle which sent it crashing down onto our plastic play kitchen, shattering the sink portion.  Now, I could have just duct taped the sharp edges and moved on, but I saw my golden opportunity to make something really cute and fun for the kids.  So I ran with the idea and this is the end result.

We started out with a nightstand we already had.  It's old, ugly, and falling apart - perfect!

 

I primed it and then realized how much those decorative things on the sides looked like bowling pins, so Marshall cut them off for me.

We cut the holes for the sink and faucet (which you can't really see here) and then painted.  The color is the same green as the dresser in the girls' room.  We had a ton of that paint leftover, so that decision was already made for us.  It's a really pretty color, but doesn't show up very well in the pictures.

Fast forward again, and here's the finished product.  I obviously didn't do a great job documenting the process in pictures.

 Here's a breakdown of most everything...

Mason got the faucet for us for free.  The sink is a dog bowl from Dollar General for $3.  The burners are wooden craft circles from Hobby Lobby for 80 cents a piece.  I painted them with paint I already had on hand and sprayed a coat of clear gloss on top (already had that, too).  The back splash is molding that we already had on hand as well.

The crystal knobs were on sale for $2 a piece at Hobby Lobby.  I could have found some wooden ones for less, but I LOVED them and couldn't resist. The handle for the oven door was less than $5 from Lowe's.  I was hoping to find something cheaper, but couldn't find anything I liked, so we just kept it.

The curtain that covers the bottom opening is my first ever sewing project - and I did it all by myself!  Well, once I had three different people help me figure out how to use the machine I inherited but have never used!  The seams are crooked, but overall I'm pretty proud of myself!  Oh, and the fabric and tension rod equaled less than $5.

All the kids have to do is slide it to the side to access a storage area for food and dishes.

We installed a magnet just inside the opening to keep the oven door closed.  I also sewed the ribbons along the side of the oven door to keep it from opening too far.  Notice the inside of the oven is painted silver for two reasons:  because it's more authentic, and because we already had silver spray paint.

Marshall did a great job cutting the hole for the plexiglass.  We measured wrong (our opening was too wide for the cheapest piece of plexiglass we could find), and there were a  few crooked lines, so we trimmed it out with molding and then glued the plexiglass in with silicone.   We just used the face of the original top drawer and then put hinges on the bottom so that it opens down like a real oven.  

Lucy got to play with it for the first time last night and she loved it.

Although, I think Sam may have loved it even more!

Here she is enjoying it again today after church.

Oh, and our oven is extra special because it cooks up lightsabers with just the right amount of crispness!

Overall, I really love it and the kids have had a great time playing with it all morning.  I think we spent around $35 or so on the whole thing.  Now, to get started on the fridge that's going to go with it....