I wanted to get Luke a kitchen for Christmas, but I didn't really see any that I liked in my price range. I found lots of play kitchen online that people had made, either from scratch or out of used furniture, like an entertainment center or a nightstand. I thought that sounded like fun, so I set out to make my own play kitchen.
I found an entertainment center at the Rooms To Go Outlet store. The drawers were broken, and it had some other damage, so it was marked down a lot. I knew the damage was fixable and I was going to remove the drawers anyway. I found a matching piece that I think was half of a captains bed base that was also heavily marked down. I planned on using the doors and drawers from it for the kitchen and maybe make a refrigerator out of it.
After removing the broken drawers, hardware, and hinges I used brackets to repair the loose shelf and the broken beam on the bottom. I used one of the doors from the captains bed base for the oven door. I cut a rectangle shaped hole out of the center with a jigsaw, painted it white, and used a piece of plastic from a light cover for the window. I put a black handle on the front and used the hinges to attach it. I decided to leave the small vertical drawer in place and just paint it. It can be the dish washer.
I found a shiny silver dog bowl with a lip around it for the sink. I cut a hole with the jigsaw just smaller than the lip of the bowl. After I sanded around the hole I painted the counter top white. For the faucet I used a p-trap plumbing pipe and spray painted it silver. To make sure it stayed attached we drilled a hole into a small piece of scrap wood that it fit tightly into, and glued it in. That made it easy to attach it to the counter with screws. I wanted the faucet knobs to really turn, so I found some knobs at the hardware store (I think they were for a sprinkler system), disassembled them, and spray painted the parts I needed silver. We drilled a hole for each of them halfway through the counter so they sat inside, then used caulk to glue them in.
Next was the stove. I used blank CDs, spray painted them black, and hot glued them on. I used the knobs I had taken off the drawers and doors for the stove knobs and painted them black. I used the same screws that they came with to attach them from the bottom. There was a gap between the oven door and the dishwasher, so I used a side from one do the drawers that we had taken apart. I cut it to fit, sanded and painted it, attached a couple of the black knobs, and screwed it into place.
Finally for the backsplash we used some leftover ceiling tin that we had used for our real kitchen backsplash a few years ago. I attached it with liquid nails than caulked around the edges. I also put a tap light hanging from the top. I was really happy with how it turned out. It took about a week to complete since I only had time to work on it a little each day. Now I have some serious house work to catch up on!Luke will be asking for kitchen supplies for Christmas. He is loving it already, and taking food out of our pantry to put in it. I also find matchbox cars in the sink. It will be really cute with some play utensils and food.
My cost breakdown is:
Entertainment center and bed base - $16 total (after $35 from a gift card)
Black spray paint - $4
Silver spray paint - $8
Bowl for sink - $7
P-trap - $2
Sink knobs - $6
Black handles - $4
Light - $6
Items we had on hand - white paint, CDs, ceiling tin
Total cost - $53
