Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Upcycled Play Kitchen



One of my favorite projects has been this little upcycled kitchen that my hubby and I made for our little girl this past year. It was supposed to be her Christmas present but we ended up moving in December (never again!) and so all the Christmas projects were put on hold. We finished it a few months late and it ended up being her Easter present instead. Oops.



However, it was totally worth the wait, in my humble opinion. And Evie agrees with me (at least on this one thing). She ADORES her kitchen and plays with it all the time. Which is one of the reasons this project is my favorite. I love to see her get so much enjoyment out of this kitchen.

I didn't even have to bribe her with marshmallows to smile for this picture. She really loves her kitchen.
Also, I just love how this project came together. Like it was meant to be. You know how you have an image in your head when you are planning a grand project and when you are finished you are like, "Oh. Well, it's not EXACTLY how I envisioned it, but I still really like it." Maybe that just happens to me. But that didn't happen with this project. No, siree, Bob. It turned out even better than my wildest dreams (I have always wanted to write that).

My wildest dream.


We started out by trolling Craigslist, looking for that perfect piece to make a little stove and oven set. I didn't want to build the kitchen from scratch; that gets expensive very fast. I finally found a dresser that I thought would work and sent my dearly devoted husband out to pick it up. When he came back, he not only had the dresser but a file cabinet that would work perfectly for a little fridge. Double win! Apparently, when the guy selling the dresser found out what we were doing with it, he got very excited and just gave us the file cabinet, along with some extra plexi-glass for the oven window. See what I mean about just coming together? We got it all for $20.


Once we had everything, the hubby got to work (I will admit that I did not help much with this part other than keeping him company and talking his ear off). The first thing he did was gut and shorten both pieces. He also cut several inches off the front of each piece, which made them shallower and easier for little arms to reach in.

The hollowed out and shortened file cabinet on its way to becoming a fridge.
After the pieces were the height and depth that we liked (it took us several tries to get it right), my husband trimmed out the oven and sink cabinet with 1"x2" pine that we purchased from Lowe's. He used a 1"x4" for above the oven since we wanted to have our stove knobs there and we needed the extra width to install them. He was able to repurpose the old dresser door for the oven door by sanding the tar out of it and cutting an opening. Shelves were put up in both compartments.

 

To make the dresser look more like a kitchen, my husband added kick plates and faux feet using 1"x4" wood pieces. The hole was cut for the sink.

 

For the fridge, he rounded off the upper corners to make it look more vintage. Using a scrap piece of lumber for the door, he countersunk the hinges so the door would close evenly. Once the door was closed, he used a jigsaw to match the round edges. Then he added the shelves to the fridge.


I picked Behr Clear Water for the kitchen color (apparently, I really like this shade of blue because my wall color is almost the same blue) and Evie helped us paint it. Kind of.




My husband cut out the cute backsplash from some scrap wood and attached it to the back using little pieces of wood.

  
The white circles you see are the burners before they received their black paint. I didn't want to have to try and cut out four perfect circles (or rather, have my husband try) so I found decorative wooden soccer balls in the wood cut-out section of JoAnn's for fifty cents a piece. We primed and painted them and they worked perfectly! After that, it was just installing all the little touches and finishing the paint on both the fridge and stove.

 
  
Here it is complete and set up in our playroom!


From an ugly green dresser, to this adorable sink, stove and oven set. Talk about an upcycle.



The sink skirt was really simple to make and turned out so cute, especially with the little pom-poms. My husband was a little skeptical of them at first but he has come around. Don't tell his friends.


Behind the sink skirt is where the dishes are kept. They are usually not quite this neat.



The faucet. Oh, the faucet. This was the hardest part of the whole project because this is where we stalled out. We couldn't figure out how to get a real faucet for a reasonable price. My husband suggested making a faux faucet out of PVC piping (absolutely not, I said) and I suggested just buying the cheapest one at Lowe's and swallowing the cost because the rest of the project was so cheap (dream on, he said). And that's when our Kitchen Karma stepped in again. While at Lowe's drooling over the faucets and trying unsuccessfully to convince my husband that the kitchen needed one desperately, an employee overheard us. He pulled this gorgeous faucet out from under his work station and offered it to us for five dollars. Yes, $5. He said that it was returned over a year ago because it was broken and they just hadn't sent it back. I couldn't believe our good luck. It fit perfectly. Cue singing angels and choir music.



For the sink, we used an old metal bowl. I wanted to be able to remove the sink for easy clean up. This has proven to be a very good idea.


I purchased this little clock from Hobby Lobby in the clock making section ($2.50 with a 40% off coupon) and I really like how it looks mounted in the backsplash.


These glass knobs are also from Hobby Lobby and I waited until they were 50% off and snatched them all up for $10. The sleek, metal pulls for the oven and the fridge are from Ikea and were $7 for both.

A peek inside the oven.





I bought the blue and pink tins from the dollar section at Target and use them to store some of the play food. Not all of it because my child could literally open a grocery store of plastic food if she so chooses.


I LOVE this Frigidaire sign on the fridge. I used my Silhouette machine and the font Top Speed, which I downloaded from Dafont.com. I cut the words out using my black vinyl and then applied them to the door.



We had some leftover trim from when we made shelves for my daughter's room and we used that on the front of the fridge shelves. Classy, no?





Since I had leftover fabric from making the sink skirt I decided to make matching towels for the kitchen. I got a pack of two towels and two dish towels from the dollar store (rock on, Dollar Tree) and added borders of the fabric to the larger towels. To the smaller ones, I used pink bias tape.




I couldn't be more pleased with how the kitchen turned out. And especially with the cost. Here is our price breakdown.

Furniture and plexi-glass: $20
Wood trim: $9
Wooden circles: $2
Faucet: $5
Clock: $2.50
Hardware (hinges, pulls, knobs): $21
Paint: $8
Fabric: $12
Towels: $1
Bins: $2
Wooden scraps, white paint, trim, metal bowl: FREE

TOTAL: $82.50 

This was seriously the best Christmas/Easter gift ever and I am so grateful that I have a talented hubster who puts up with loves to help with all my projects.



39 comments:

  1. i love EVERYTHING about it! pinned!

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  2. This is just perfect! Thanks for sharing such a great project, I would never think to repurpose these pieces!

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  3. I love it, brilliant... wish I had the woodwork skills :)

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    1. Thank you! My husband's considerable woodworking skills are one of the reasons I keep him around. :)

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  4. This is an absolute treasure! Amazing work! I am here after Lydia left a comment on my Turn Off Captcha post. I am now following you girls via GFC, Facebook, Pinterest, & Twitter. I hope you come back to my DianaRambles.com blog on Friday and link up to my linky party. This kitchen needs to be shared with the entire bloggy world!!

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    1. Thanks so much! We are pretty pleased with it. And thanks for all the follows, too. I returned the love and am looking forward to your linky party on Friday. :)

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    2. Thank so much for linking this incredible project up!

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  5. This is precious! I want to make one for my little girl. :) I'd love for you to stop by my weekly link party and link this up. http://thelifeofjenniferdawn.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-little-bird-told-me-link-party-25.html
    Hope to see you there.

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    1. Your little girl will love it as much as mine, I'm sure! Thanks for the party invite. I linked up to your party and took a look around your adorable blog. Love it! By the way, your daughter has a pretty awesome name. ;)

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  6. No way! I am blown away by this transformation. And not to mention how this is any little kids dream! Great job. Now when can I hire you out. :)

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    1. My husband and his woodworking skills will be available for hire once my growing list of projects is complete. So, maybe spring of 2019? ;) So glad you like it and thanks for stopping by!

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  7. Good night that is fantastic!! Love it!

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  8. OMG I love this! Love all the pictures for a great tutorial. My husband could do this! Totally pinning!

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    1. Your husband absolutely could! I would love to see pictures if you end up making one of your own!

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  9. Wow, absolutely adorable! You guys did an awesome job re-purposing those pieces!

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  10. What an amazing gift! Your little girl will treasure it for years, I'm sure. Visiting from Diana Rambles, and pinning :)

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  11. Oh my goodness, that is crazy cute! You guys did such a great job! I think for me because neither my husband or I are super talented with wood I will probably just buy a toy kitchen for my kids :) But I absolutely love what you guys have made!
    I would love it if you would share this (and anything else you have been working on) at my linky party! http://domesticrandomness.blogspot.com/2013/01/friday-fascinations-8-everything-linky.html

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    1. Thank you so much! I have linked to your party and am a new follower! :)

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  12. Hey, Kathy! I linked up to your party this week; thanks for the invite! :)

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  13. Don't have a daughter, but now I wish i did! This is fantastic!!!! I love your version even better than PB kids!!! Great job!! Also, after you get tired of the FRIGIDAIRE sign, maybe change it into a SMEG, that will even be cooler and with glossy paint too! But love this version a lot!

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  15. I love your kitchen set! You had great luck with the furniture and the faucet, but it was all your hard work that made this fantastic kitchen!

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  16. Oh my goodness, this is absolutely adorable! I love the vintage feel..you did an awesome job. I am pinning this!

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  17. The outcome is very cute but I'm a little horrified that you used a mid-century modern dresser for "upcycling." Pieces like that would sell for $1000 dollars where I live, once they've been restored. That being said, the kitchen is very cute.

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    1. Thanks Julie! I always love a fellow furniture enthusiast! Luckily, there is no need for you to be horrified. The piece had recently been in a flood, which had ruined the veneer and caused the MDF that made up the sides to swell and rot. We cut off the rotted sections when we shortened the piece. My husband's father refinishes furniture as a side business and would have properly chastised us had we destroyed a piece that could have been salvageable. Alas, this one was not and has taken on a new life as a play kitchen. Also, please come to Houston for your next furniture shopping trip! The mid-century modern dressers that I have found here are around $300-$400. Apparently a better bargain than I realized! I am actually in the process of refinishing some beautiful mid-century modern nightstands for a guest room so please stop by again to check them out. Thanks again for your interest! :)

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    2. Well I'm glad there's a good explanation :)

      In that case, it's awesome that you were able to upcycle a piece of furniture that would have gone to the dumpster! I've been combing craigslist for the right one for us to make into a play kitchen, but haven't found it yet.

      Thank you for replying graciously. Coming back to my comment I'm realizing it probably came off as rude. It really is an adorable play kitchen. I'll be coming back to inspiration when we find an appropriate dresser to convert.

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  18. You are so clever, when I was growing up I got a pink kitchen set for Christmas, It had a sink, stove and refrig. I played with that forever. It wasn't plastic either, not like today. So cute great post Andi

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  19. Ok, so I am currently doing a project similar to this at my volunteer "job" and I'm having trouble with the stove being functional...could you please tell me how you did it so it opens properly?

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  20. I am currently doing a similar project to this at my volunteer "job" but I am having massive issues figuring out how to make the oven door work properly. Could you give a little tip as to how you did it?
    Thanks!

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  21. Does anyone ever sell these?! I know the fun is in the making but I would love to support a fellow mom and buy one of these wonderful kitchens for my little man (who adores "cooking"!?)

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  22. Any chance you would do this again and sell it this time?! My husband, whose account I'm "borrowing" to reach out to you, isn't exactly the crafty type and I would LOVE to support a fellow mom and give my little chef an amazing kitchen! He loves "cooking"! I can't seem to find anything this cool for sale! Any suggestions?
    -Nicole

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  23. OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS AMAZING! We made a kitchen for our little girl this past christmas but it is NOTHING like this! I saw your wooden cookies- we have those too from Target! How fun! I love how you make the fridge fridgidaire! Newest follower over here! I can't wait to see what else you all have up your sleeves! Feel free to stop by cookandcraftmecrazy any time! xo-Brook

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  24. So very cute! What's the name of the fabric?

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    1. Argh! I'm so sorry--I don't know! I have been looking for the leftover fabric and finally found it and there are no markings on it! I do know that I got it at Joann's and I've seen it there recently. I wish I could be more helpful!

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  25. Just found this. I love it so I pinned it.

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