DIY Play Kitchen
This year for Eden's 2nd birthday we decided to make her a play kitchen. We looked at lots of different tutorials online and headed to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore to find a hidden gem that we could convert into a play kitchen.
For $20 we found this desk.
First we disassembled the desk:
We took the face off of the drawer to use as the oven door. We wanted to lower the desk because it was a little too tall. Jack cut it down to the height of the tall cabinet. Then we took the top and cut out the holes for the sink and the faucet. We got a faucet at Home Depot for $10 and a dog bowl at Petsmart for $5. Then we put the top back on the now lower desk.
The desk is laminate and we weren't sure how to paint it. We read more tutorials online. First, we sanded it lightly using 220 sandpaper and a finish sander. You don't want to sand it too much, just enough to scuff up the finish. Then we cleaned it well using Windex. Then we used a primer to cover the entire desk. And we let it dry overnight. It is really important not to try to short cut these steps. We did. And we ended up having to repaint it!
I got magnetic letters from Walmart. I saw one tutorial that used magnetic paint, but that was a lot more work and money. So I decided to use velcro dots to put the letters on the fridge door. We also got a wire cabinet organizer to put in the oven like oven racks.
Really happy with how the kitchen turned out. Eden loved it (and so did everyone else at the party, but more on that later!)
For $20 we found this desk.
First we disassembled the desk:
We took the face off of the drawer to use as the oven door. We wanted to lower the desk because it was a little too tall. Jack cut it down to the height of the tall cabinet. Then we took the top and cut out the holes for the sink and the faucet. We got a faucet at Home Depot for $10 and a dog bowl at Petsmart for $5. Then we put the top back on the now lower desk.
The desk is laminate and we weren't sure how to paint it. We read more tutorials online. First, we sanded it lightly using 220 sandpaper and a finish sander. You don't want to sand it too much, just enough to scuff up the finish. Then we cleaned it well using Windex. Then we used a primer to cover the entire desk. And we let it dry overnight. It is really important not to try to short cut these steps. We did. And we ended up having to repaint it!
We ended up moving it into our dining room because it was just too damp and humid on the back porch for the paint to dry well. Once the primer was dry we painted it white. We used a gloss so that it would be easy to wipe up and clean. After we let the paint dry overnight, we put a coat of polyurethane clear coat to help make sure the paint would not chip as the kids played with it. We got wooden circles from Hobby Lobby for the burners. They were in the aisle with all of the unfinished wooden craft items. I think they might be for making plaques? Anyway, we spray painted them black. We took the drawer front and painted a black rectangle on it for the oven door, then used hinges and chains to connect it to the bottom space. I sewed a curtain to cover the cabinet under the sink. We attached the sink with liquid nails. Jack screwed on the burners and we used drawer pulls from Home Depot for the knobs. All in all it turned out pretty great!
I got magnetic letters from Walmart. I saw one tutorial that used magnetic paint, but that was a lot more work and money. So I decided to use velcro dots to put the letters on the fridge door. We also got a wire cabinet organizer to put in the oven like oven racks.
Really happy with how the kitchen turned out. Eden loved it (and so did everyone else at the party, but more on that later!)
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