I have been wanting to make a play kitchen for my kids for quite a while now. My friend saw that her neighbor was getting rid of an old entertainment center and called to see if I wanted it. Yes, please!!
First I sanded the whole thing down with a belt sander. The kids thought it was awesome that I was using a power tool (I was pretty impressed myself). Then I used a blue paint that we had for our house for the whole kitchen base. I took the doors off and painted them and removed the glass doors that were on the electronics side of the center. I took the plastic dvd organizers off of the shelves in the narrow cabinet and painted the fronts of the pull-out shelves blue.
My husband used a piece of mdf and cut and routered it to look like a fridge/freezer combo. It's just one piece though because I didn't want it to wear out or get pulled off the hinges because it would have been tool lightweight in my opinion.
I didn't want to use a traditional faucet for the sink so I got a p-trap and my husband drilled a hole and used construction adhesive to adhere it to the base of the cabinet. I got the knobs for the stove top and the faucet knobs from a hardware store - they're sprinkler knobs! I love them. I used a dog dish for the sink. I got a light for over the sink from Dollar Tree. It turns on and off by pressing it and I adhered it to the cabinet using sticky-backed velcro.
I made the "window" picture of the owls, the curtain over the window, and the curtain under the sink with Riley Blake Hooty Hoot fabric that I had left over from another project. I cut the owls in the "window" out using my Slice Fabrique and the Making Memories Animal Frenzy design card. The big owl on the fridge is a vinyl decal and so is the tree on the pantry door.
My husband did a lot of work on the kitchen as well. He screwed the knobs down for me and cut all of the holes for the pulls and sink and faucet and installed them all. He also screwed the beadboard onto the back behind the sink. Then he caulked around the beadboard to seal it to the cabinet. He figured out how to mount the curtain for under the sink so that the kids could still open and close it - it was tricky, believe me! He hung the curtains and the "window" over the sink for me as well. He was a good sport for helping me out so much with my project.
The kids love playing with it and didn't wait for it to be finished before the loaded it full of their play food and little pot and pan. We saved some plastic Easter eggs and filled up some clean egg cartons. We also cleaned some strawberry containers and we're using those for the play food storage.
I'm glad I didn't get a plastic play kitchen at a yard sale even though it would have been much cheaper to have done that. I love that there is no other play kitchen out there that is exactly like ours. And I love that it's not going to fall apart anytime soon and I especially love that my kids love it as much as I do.
