Sunday, February 05, 2012

DIY Shelf to Play Kitchen

Back in January I showed you a sneak peek of a project we have been working on.  It was a play kitchen for my niece’s birthday.  This weekend we celebrated her birthday so I am finally free to show you all the details of this project!

Here is the cuteness:

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We started with a tiny shelf that had seen better days… I forgot to take a true “before” picture, but you can see in this picture what we were working with:

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I thought it was the perfect size to make a play kitchen, with room for an oven on one side and a workspace beside.  We opted not to add a sink because Abby is obsessed with playing in the water, and I have no doubt that her play sink would have quickly become a real sink.  Real sink = mess. 

To begin with we added a center vertical divider to create the cabinet on one side and an oven and open cubby on the other.   

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Then we added an oven door…

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A shelf, cabinet door, oven knobs and a back went on next.  The oven was fitted with a metal rack (leftover from a toaster oven) for added realism.

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We spackled, sanded, caulked and primed the shelf to get ready for paint and details!

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We painted it ivory with blue accents and I added green shelf paper.  And for a bit of fun, I painted the inside of the oven turquoise!

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Here it is all finished and ready for kitchen accessories!

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We stocked it with food and equipment needed to run a proper kitchen.  

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The stove knobs have labels to indicate temperature.  I printed it out and used Mod Podge to adhere them behind the knobs.  The stove burners are made from spray painted CDs (Thanks Donna, for the idea!).  I later painted the spaces under the center holes black.

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The sides have hooks for cookware and linens to hang.

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After we set it all up, I decided that the cabinet door needed a little something.  So I painted a blue border to tie in to the color scheme.

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Mama painted Abby’s table and chairs blue to match and made new chair cushions.  It all looks so cute together!

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And, last but not least, I created a little sign to hang over the kitchen.  I got the wood cutout from Michael’s and decoupaged scrapbook paper on top.  Then I lettered it with a paint pen. 

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Abby loves her new kitchen!

Thanks for reading!

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is super fabulous! Love the upcycling. Great Job Aunt Sarah!

Debbie

Heather said...

that is really adorable and I can see why Abby love's her kitchen.. great job to your dad.. your mom and you..