Monday is DIY day in bloggy land and
this might be my proudest achievement to date. It is certainly the one
that has brought the most joy!
My daughter has always loved play
kitchens. She finds hours of fun in making dinners, having tea parties
and washing dishes. I think it is just precious. Now my son plays
too. My heart melts.
When we go to the mall and “play” at
Pottery Barn Kids, we spend at least 30 minutes with the play kitchen
(and another 30 with a vanity – next project!) every time. I think all
of their little kitchens are to die for. Having said that, my husband
would actually die if I was ever to purchase one of these kitchen sets.
Currently the cost for a 3 piece kitchen starts at $450 and runs up to a
whopping $879! This does not include a 10% delivery and processing
fee!
Here was the look I was going for from Pottery Barn.
PB Retro Kitchen
So, I searched the web, found some wood
and decided to build her a large kitchen of her dreams! I happened to
have had an old closet that had tile in it from before we moved the
laundry area so she also has a white tile floor and a WORKING SINK! We
love this kitchen and we build it for a total cost of less than $150!
Pretty good wouldn’t you say?
Here is where I started. I found a set of plans for a wood play kitchen at Lowe’s.com
and then modified them to be closer to the retro look I wanted. The
plans were cute and I followed the dimensions but rather than fake on
the sink parts and stove knobs I found the real thing for this
kitchen. I also built a drawer for below the stove to store pots and
pans! The shelves in all of the pieces are closet shelving. The
handles were a bit expensive at $20 all together but they were scratched
or they would have been a lot more. I think they really add something
cute and retro feeling! I also installed a little white shelf in the
extra space to hold silverware and pantry items. The paint was a can of
red oops! for $5. It is a little brighter than the perfect red but man
is it close!
We have so much fun with this! I found
bins at Target to store dress up and other toys in cute khaki and red
above the kitchen so that all the imagination fun mess would be
contained in the closet and the kids would need to ask before we play
with this!
Here is where I started after I cut my furniture grade plywood found on clearance!
A Long Way to Go
The Basic Box
Without
Further Ado – The Inside of the Oven. The bare wood showing is from
changing the door to open to the side inside of opening down. Safety
first!
Little Oven
A Working
Sink! We love to wash our hands here and have tea parties with water.
No problem – it is just water! I can trun off the valve underneath when
I am not around so the kids can play and stay dry! Can you see the
water? It’s on!
Working Little Sink
Working Plumbing
Little Fridge
From Yucky…
Old Laundry Closet
To So Yummy!
Little Kitchen in the Closet
Good Luck
and Enjoy! Please feel free to email me questions! Some of the
instructions were a little confusing. You could easily make one larger
piece if you had less space and combine the kitchen elements too. While
this project took me a while to complete, I think it was totally worth
it in the end! I now have a WOOD kitchen that I can always change the
look of with some paint and hardware and that fits my dimensions
exactly. The PB ones are made of MDF and while they do have some super
cute accessories (which I could have figured out but chose not to) I
think this little kitchen looks good enough to eat in!
I am linking up to Kimba’s DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land. Check out all the awesome projects that link up here every week!
http://www.mommywords.com/2009/10/diy-play-kitchen-who-needs-pottery-barn/
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