diy play kitchen

Y'all have waited patiently to see little Miss' first birthday present and I bet you thought I forgot, huh? Last Friday I shared this little clue with you:

Well, do you want to know what we made with it?...

A play kitchen! Yay! And so far both the kids love it so I'm sure it will get lots of good use over the years. When thinking about a play kitchen for Little Miss (and for all our kids to use), there were lots of options to choose from; making our own from scratch (Ana White has some great tutorials),  a basic plastic one (I actually did buy one of these, but after assembling it I just wasn't pleased with the appearance and quality), the one from Ikea (a top contender, but not enough personality), or making over a piece of furniture. I also knew from all my searching that I really loved the vintage style play kitchens, especially the pink or red ones. Pottery Barn was way out of our price range, so we decided to DIY our own from an old piece of furniture. I picked red because as cute as the pale pink is, all our kids will be playing with it and I wanted something more gender-neutral, plus red goes with my home decor. The color is Rustoleum's Candy Red in gloss and I used Rustoleums's grey primer so the paint would have something to grip to.

Little Miss actually got a bunch of fake food from someone at her birthday party, and I had a few things stashed away to that I had picked up years ago on different clearance racks, so now I think their fridge and pantry is stocked better than mine is!
The kitchen timer and most of the utensils are from Ikea, they just have the cutest things!

The drawer is able to hold all the non-food kitchen items, like cookie cutters and pots and pans (also from Ikea). I was having a hard time finding the right sized metal bowl with a lip around the rim, so I finally bought a cheap metal pet food bowl, only $3.99 and works perfectly for a sink! And don't you just love the countertops? Carrara Marble peel and stick tiles from Home Depot, 99 cents each (we had to buy 6 of them).
Truthfully, there are a couple of little touches I need to add here and there, but it's about 98% done and I am really pleased with it! I think the hubby did a great job building the fridge up a little bit and making the doors, I'm so proud.
I'll be back another time with a budget breakdown for ya.



Linked to: 52 Mantels, Somewhat Simple, Skip to My Lou, House of Hepworths, Organized 31, Craft O Maniac

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