We did it. Holy cats, we did it.
Just a few days before Christmas we started Clara’s homemade play-kitchen (in secret of course, since she thinks Santa brought it)… and we actually finished it on Christmas Eve! Yes folks, it was a Christmas miracle. We went into it with a goal of spending under $99 since this basic play-kitchen from Ikea is that price – but we wanted to add a bit more detail like oven knobs that actually turn, an oven light that goes on and off, a wire baking rack inside the oven instead of a shelf, and a real faucet (not plumbed of course, but movable!). So here’s how we made our own little Clara version in the last 72 hours before Christmas, for what ended up being $74.
More pics in a moment (lots more!), but first the dirty details. The core of our homemade kitchen was initially going to be a real kitchen cabinet, so we had it around already (yessss!). It was actually the one we bought for $14 from the Habitat For Humanity ReStore when we intended to hang a big microwave next to our pantry. Heck, we even hung it temporarily when determining where we wanted the electrician to add our microwave plug a while back.
But in the end it never got used (since we opted for a smaller microwave – more on that here) so we hung onto it in preparation for its eventual rebirth as a play kitchen.
It was a little low (only 15″) so we began by building it up on the bottom with a quick box made out of a 1 x 4″ remnant that we had in the basement. We offset it from the front a bit so it would even look like a real base cabinet in a kitchen (toekick and all).
John also had a spare 1 x 12″ board in his scrap wood pile that, when paired with a leftover plank from our desk-building project, fit perfectly as a counter and low backsplash. Well, perfectly once they were cut down a bit.
Picture me rubbing my hands together maniacally and saying things like “it’s all going according to plan!”
But before attaching all that, we had to build our sink area. We hit up the ReStore again and snagged a real faucet and handle for $10 (and inadvertently crashed their company Christmas party in the process – sorry ReStorians, thanks for letting us quickly grab that faucet!). We thought those two real kitchen features paired with a metal bowl (found at Target for $7) would make for a purty chrome and stainless steel kitchen sink area. Only the best for our girl. Haha.
After tracing around the lip of the bowl, John jigsawed a hole just inside the line (so the edge of the bowl had something to rest on). It didn’t have to be perfect since the bowl would be covering it.
After cutting matching holes in both the counter and the cabinet top (and sanding them both smooth), the bowl was officially transformed into a sink – just by dropping it in.
I wish I had peeled that sticker off for this pic, but you get the idea.
Adapting the sink hardware was also pretty straightforward. The faucet was pretty much ready to go, but the handle had lots of tubing that was just going to be in the way under the counter.
Luckily, with a wrench and a copper pipe cutter we removed the excess mumbo jumbo. Oh, and since the bottom of the fixture will be concealed between the top of the cabinet and the counter we don’t have to worry about Clara messing with it.
Then it just took drilling some holes…
…and securing both fixtures to the underside of the counter (though the handle was so thick it required an extra block of wood to keep it secured).
Now that we could finally secure the counter to the cabinet, it was starting to look like a play kitchen! So yes, this is where we got all weird / annoying / giddy / hyper.
But just wait, there’s more excitement in store. Check this out…
Every play kitchen needs an oven right? So we bought some $3 fence hinges to convert one door to open downwards.
And we also snagged a piece of pre-cut plexi from Home Depot (for just $3!) so that we could give Clara’s oven a proper window (the girl’s gotta check on her souffles). We completely lucked out that this pre-cut pane was the perfect size.
We weren’t so lucky when cutting the hole for the plexi though. John can’t figure out if it’s him or his Dremel Trio, but he has trouble getting straight cuts sometimes (his words, not mine). It looked okay from a distance…
…but up close he was less than happy with it. Yes, there may have even been some hushed cursing.
So after a dash to the craft store (we had to buy materials for some oven knobs anyway) we grabbed some thin pieces of craft wood and cut a miniature frame to trim out the imperfect opening. Huzzah for Plan B!
We didn’t want to actually attach the plexi until we were done priming and painting, so it was onto making some knobs for the oven. I guess knobs are usually for a stove, but we figured it wouldn’t hurt to have something for Clara to spin and interact with. So we took some small wood discs from Ben Franklin (for $2) and drilled a hole in the center for a washer and bolt.
Luck was back in our favor when it came to drilling holes for the nut on the back of the oven door. The Kreg Jig drillbit (which has a small pilot drill on the tip before becoming larger) made the perfect sized holes for not only sinking the nut into the door (since our oven wouldn’t close if they weren’t flush) but also kept the nuts from spinning too, which made attaching everything really easy.
Final attachment of the knobs wouldn’t happen ’til after painting, but here’s a preview (check out the assembled one on the left). John used some of the leftover craft wood (that he had from the Plan B oven window frame) to cut some little arrows that would later get glued over the bolt head on each knob. But back to these in a minute.
Now that everything was constructed, we snuck it upstairs to the sunroom after Clara was asleep and primed the whole darn thing (after patching some holes with wood putty). It was actually not that bad since we were in priming and painting mode for our real kitchen too. Then it was painting time, and we did all those finishing touches like gluing in the oven plexiglass and adding hardware over the next 48 hours.
The rest of the finishing touches are easier to explain while looking at the “after” kitchen, so through the magic of the Internet we’ll fast forward a bit:
We primed and painted it using leftover paint that we already had. The top is our kitchen wall color (Sesame by Benjamin Moore) and the base is the same stuff we used for our office cabinets (Benjamin Moore’s Advance paint in Decorator’s White in a satin finish). We painted the inside of the pantry Sesame also, but did the oven in a medium grey thanks to a test pot of paint that we had leftover from grey-washing our living room beams (in Benjamin Moore’s Shaker Gray). It’s sort of hard to see in the pics, but in person the gray oven and the grellow cabinet are fun little details to help each side feel more defined.
To dress up the inside of the oven we used heavy duty velcro to hold up a simple tap light, so Clara can actually “turn the oven on” just by pushing it. We also found this black wire shelf (it’s actually one of those bottom-of-the-sink drying trays) at Target for $5. It definitely helps things feel more oven-ish in there.
Oh, and here’s what the plexi-glass looks like from the back. We just used some clear silicone caulk to adhere it to the backside. That keeps it in place, but is totally invisible from the front thanks to the blessing-in-disguise frame that John had to add. Three cheers for happy accidents along the way.
We also whipped up a last-minute shelf on the sink side when we realized that most of the play food Clara was getting from her grandparents (they sweetly offered to give play-kitchen-themed Christmas gifts, knowing what we had up our sleeves) would be dwarfed by one big open cabinet. She’s got the basics covered… soup, cereal, crackers, pasta, tuna, sugar, milk (oh wait, maybe this girl needs a fridge someday…).
We opted not to add a stovetop so that she’d have more flexible-to-use-for-other-stuff-too counter space (you know, for mixing and setting out dishes, etc). It has already been a handy choice because there’s room to house the play toaster her Grammy and Tom-Tom bought her for Christmas (yes, it’s kind of the cutest thing we’ve ever seen). But I did make her a makeshift hot plate of sorts, so she has one burner to play with (instead of four space-hogging circles). What does she use it for? To fry sandwiches, apparently.
All that little DIY hot plate entailed was buying a $5 trivet from Bed Bath & Beyond and a $4 round of wood from Michael’s (which I painted teal with leftover paint from this project) and then drilled into it in three spots (to allow the feet of the trivet to “sink” inside the wood round so it was nice and solid). Then I used a flat washer and a screw to hold the trivet into the round of wood from the center. Voila: instant burner.
Oh and I used little felt furniture feet on the bottom of my burner (to lift it up ever so slightly to keep it from scratching the counter) which you can sort of see in the picture below.
Here’s a closer look at the final oven knobs too. I sprayed them with leftover spray paint (Rustoleum’s Titanium Silver that we bought to test on our old kitchen hardware). It’s not a perfect match to the new shiny chrome door hardware ($5 each from Home Depot) and our sleek sink and faucet, but it’s close enough. And it sort of glitters, which is semi-adorable (new rule: every play kitchen should have at least one glittering element).
We actually bought three of those Home Depot door handles so that one could act as a towel bar on the side of the sink. Little details like that were kind of my favorite part. As for hatching this whole kitchen plan, John and I took Clara and Burger for a nice long walk and chatted about things we could add to “our kitchen” (didn’t want to spoil the play-kitchen surprise for Clara) which is how we came up with things like the towel bar, the wire rack, the oven tap light, all the other little details like those spinning knobs that we thought would make it Clara’s favorite thing ever. The brainstorming part of a project is always my favorite. So much possibility…
So now I think you’ve see just about every nook and cranny of this puppy (can you tell we’re proud of it?)…
So how about a budget breakdown?
- Secondhand cabinet (from the ReStore): $14
- Secondhand faucet & handle (also from the ReStore): $10
- Stainless sink bowl (from Target): $7
- Oven knobs and frame (from Ben Franklin craft store): $5
- Hinges for oven door (from Home Depot): $3
- Pre-cut plexiglass and wood trim for oven window (from Home Depot): $4
- Wire oven shelf (from Target): $5
- Tap light for the oven (from Home Depot): $2
- Wood counter, backsplash, and toe kick: $0 (already owned scrap lumber, but it might be $15 or so to buy it all)
- Trivet (from Bed Bath & beyond) and wood round (from Michael’s) for hot plate: $9
- Three hardware handles for oven, cabinet, and towel bar (from Home Depot): $15
- Primer and paint for counter, cabinets, and hot plate: $0 (already owned, but a few $4 paint testers would do the trick if you needed to buy it)
- Miscellaneous wood pantry items (by Plan Toys): $0 (Christmas gift from Grammy and Tom Tom, but they might cost around $15 if you were to buy them)
- Play toaster (also by Plan Toys): $0 (another super thoughtful gift from John’s parents!)
- Total project cost: $74
And as they say in the commercials, watching Clara play with what Santa brought her: priceless.
If only a certain larger kitchen were this easy to knock out. Oh well, I guess that’s the difference between one cabinet and 20 of them. But I gotta say that this little guy is getting a ton of action. Stuffed animals regularly get bathed in the sink, fake slices of lettuce and tomato get toasted, boxes of cereal and crackers get baked in the oven, and random cars, balls, and trains get stuffed into the pantry cabinet. It’s also really nice to have a little “Clara zone” shaping up along the living room wall right off of the kitchen (we moved it to the wall on the left side of her new desk after Christmas). Good stuff.
Oh and oddly enough, folks ask us all the time what we want to “parlay” this blog-thing into, and for the past few years we’ve never really known how to answer that question because we love blogging as-is (we don’t want a TV show or anything – ack, that makes us break out in hives – so, we’ve actually turned those opportunities down a few times). But I can honestly say that “designing” Clara’s desk and her play kitchen have been hugely amazing and fun projects for both of us. So for once I might have an answer the next time someone asks what sort of side projects we’d love to end up doing in a decade or two (right along with the blog of course, since YHL = our first baby). Designing cute and affordable kid furniture (which seems to be surprisingly hard to find for some reason) might just be the sweet spot. Ya never know, right? So I’m just putting that out there into the universe. Who knows where we’ll end up…
Christi says
Wow! I can cross an item off my bucket list: be first poster on YHL
Lol
You guys are awesome! I want to buy one of these for every little person I know! Well done!
Andrea Surrey says
Cutest thing I’ve ever seen! Clara is one lucky little girl.
Beth says
Adorable! Lucky gal!
Brita says
The cuteness! THE CUTENESS!
I happen to love this “creating cute kid furniture” in a few decades plan, because baby numero uno will probably be about five in ten years (as s/he is clearly not born, let alone conceived yet). Perfect timing for me, really :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, nice. Perfect plan!
xo,
s
Chrissie says
Haha I was just thinking the same. Hopefully any kids we have will still be young enough…
Amanda @ Our Humble A{Bowe}d says
That kitchen is so adorable. I wish my two boys wanted to play with a kitchen, because I’d have so much fun working on something like this. So glad Clara loves it!
emily says
Adorable! And Clara’s turning into quite the little talker. Excited that you’re considering making kids’ furniture. I’m a couple of years away from having kids of my own, but I’ll know who to buy from when I do!
Susan in va says
The video of sweet Clara on Christmas morning is all the antidote I need for the post-holiday blahs. Permanent smile now installed in my heart — thanks for an extra special treat!
Cate says
It’s so cute! As a mom of a 2.5 year old, I know she loves it. We cook a sorts of things around here! And maybe she’ll get a matching fridge for her birthday…
Hilary @ My So-Called Home says
So stinkin cute! That could be a great side-project for you guys, ya know when you have a free sec ;).
BTW, the Blogiversary Q&A’s are up- thanks again for participating!
You can see it here: http://www.mysocalledhome.com/2012/01/blogiversary-q-part-1.html
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, so much fun! Thanks for including me! I loved reading what the other folks had to say too!
xo,
s
Yevette says
y’all should market these!
Donna says
Adorable! How does the oven door stay up?
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, we had one of those door magnet things around that we used at the top to hold it up (they usually come in a pack of two and we had used one for the microwave cabinet in the real kitchen a while back). It was from Home Depot if that helps!
xo,
s
amyks says
That is the sweetest looking play kitchen ever. So creative, and it is amazing that you guys built it yourselves and so inexpensively. Love it, now you need to get busy on the fridge for her birthday :)
Caity says
I hope that someday my hubby and I are as good at being amazingly sweet parents as you guys are!! What a special little project for Clara :)
Suzanne says
Love Love Love it! Y’all never cease to amaze me!
Halley (Blunder Construction) says
This is so unbelievably cute! My inner child is totally digging Clara’s kitchen. It’s so much more special that the plastic ones from my childhood.
Kristen says
That kitchen is adorable!! What a great gift for Clara!
Meredith says
So great! I DIY’d a play kitchen for my now 10 year old daughter about. 8-9 Christmases ago. Before “everyone was doing it.”. I used a stainless dog food bowl as my sink. :-). It was a more shallow option. Now that I am preggo with girl #4 it has seen a lot of love and I would love to give it a remodel of sorts. I did start with a stock cabinet from home depot as well. What a fun gift to have forever!!
YoungHouseLove says
I love the dog bowl idea! So much fun! And so glad yours has lasted so well!
xo,
s
Mikki says
This looks 1,000,000 times better than ANYTHING you could have purchased for her. I guaranteeeee her children will also play with it, it’s that well made. I am actually a bit jealous…I want to play kitchen with Clara now! Do you think she would want to set up a play date? LOL! Great Job! Keep it coming!
Mikki
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks so much, you guys are so sweet!
xo,
s
annabelvita says
Totally amazing and inspiringly fast to put together. Clara in her cot looking at the santa balloon was so cute I can barely handle it.
Jesort415 says
I would totally buy this kitchen!! I spent over $100 on an all plastic one and NOT as cute or attention getting as this one! We live in a building condo so no dedicated space to have bigger tools (saws, cutting table, etc.) but there are so many of your projects I would love to try when we have a single family house. Love love love your site!!!!
Lindsey @ arkadian belle woods says
AHH! That is incredible! I saw a few of these on Pinterest but this is killer! So stinking cute!
I hope you all had an amazing Christmas! I looks like Clara is loving her new Kitchen! That is actually on of my favorite Christmas memories as a child. My Fisher-Price kitchen. I tell everyone it was my most favorite Christmas! Great job!
PS-New product line for the YHL dream store??? *sigh* a girl can dream! :-)
Krysta @ Domestic for Dummies says
This might be the best project you two have ever done! Clara is such a lucky little lady!
Melanie @ Mailbox Journey says
Cutest thing ever! I’d so buy kids furniture from you guys and I don’t even have any kids, the kitchen is just too freakin’ adorable!
julie g. says
Unbelievable…what more could a little girl want. And even though Santa brought it, what a wonderful feeling to know you both made that just for her and I’m sure it is one of those treasures which will be passed down in years to come. Happy New Year to one of my favorite families.
P.S. I wish I know about the Ben. Moore. Advance paint before we painted our kitchen cabinets…boo-hoo. So I will hope our Zinssers (sp?) primer and Behr semi-gloss hold up because that is not a job you want to do twice!!! Now that it is white I am wondering how it took us 6 years to bite the bullet.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Julie! I think your Zinsser and Behr should hold up! They’re good brands so my fingers are crossed for ya!
xo,
s
Dawn Burgess says
This has got to be the cutest play kitchen I have ever seen. I’m not a fan of the plastic ones and the IKEA (For $99) doesn’t look as fab as yours. Great job! Makes me wish I was Clara’s age all over again. Of course I would only want to be her age again if I had parents who could build awesome DIY projects like you two!!
Wendy says
Best play kitchen I’ve ever seen! And, you did this while remodeling your own kitchen?! WOW!
I think you guys could definitely have your own side business with selling these. I spent close to $300 on our play kitchen, and it’s definitely not that impressive.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, you guys are all so sweet and supportive! Smooches.
xo,
s
Cara says
What a lovely present! (Also, when is the last time you two slept?!?)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, don’t ask me that! I have resolved to do more sleeping in 2012! After the 4th when we hand in our manuscript. Haha.
xo,
s
Emma says
Oh my! Can I come over and play? That is *such* a wonderful toy kitchen! Love it. I recommend Ikea for some lovely Clara-sized real metal pots for cheap. They would look perfect on the lovely burner plate you two made (genius!). My niece loves her Ikea pots. Children’s furniture is a “mash-up” of your two fave things – kids and design – what a great idea! You two clearly know what you’re doing – good luck!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Emma! I love the idea to grab some real looking pots the next time we’re at Ikea!
xo,
s
Emma says
I recommend these “Duktig” items:
Mini-utensils
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80130168/
Pots:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00130167/
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks!
xo
s
cigdem says
Beautiful kitchen:)What a great gift for Clara, love it:)
Julia @ Chris loves Julia says
This is so adorable. And, of course, well built and the best dang play kitchen I have every seen! I can’t believe you pulled that off in 72 hours! Holy Moly. My favorite detail is the little oven–the light. The rack inside. The knobs. Perfect!
Seriously Sassy Mama says
I am in love. That is adorable!
Suzanne Supplee says
That is SO cute. Enjoyed the video, too. You guys are great parents. Clara is a lucky little thing. I also loved the video her her dancing at the grandparents’. Too funny. Happy New Year!
SherriEakin says
That was the cutest Happy Dance ever when Clara grabbed the Santa balloon!! The kitchen is so awesome! There is so much love in your house. :)
Allyn says
You guys are amazing! Please oh please make kid stuff, so our future kids can actually have something to play with.
There are classic pics of me in a diaper playing at my little kitchen when I was Clara’s age (yeah, (mostly) naked and barefoot in the kitchen. I kept it classy). I know she’ll have so much fun with hers!
Elizabeth says
What a terrific and thrifty idea!! It’s so incredibly cute!
Lacy @ downMODERNhome.com says
Love it! You’re totally right that the details make it special.
Michelle says
um…..too.effing.die.for. seriously that video is so cute!!!! and the kitchen is REDIC!!!!! you guys rock so hard!
Kristen @ Popcorn on the Stove says
This is the cutest kitchen set I’ve ever seen! And I love the video you posted. It’s adorable!!
Chrissy says
That is definitely the cutest play kitchen I’ve ever seen. I’m very impressed! Clara is one lucky little girl. :-)
Sarah says
So cute! I love how much she loves it! And was that Burger I heard in the background??
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- yes! He was barking because he didn’t like the Santa balloon at first. It was hilarious. Took him a few minutes to warm up to the guy…
xo,
s
Ruthie says
So cute! Love all the details! And I love the Santa balloon. Is that a Petersik tradition??
YoungHouseLove says
That was just my sweet hubby on the fly! He ran into the grocery store the night before while Clara and I waited in the car and he sneakily came out and slipped something into the trunk. After we put Clara to bed he went outside and got it and showed it to me: and it was Santa! Haha. Clara loves Santa and balloons, so we knew a mixture of the two would be her favorite thing ever. John sweetly said “I saw it in the store and knew she’d love it so I grabbed it and got complimented ten times on the way out by everyone who saw me carrying it around” – hilarious right?! It was all his idea to bring it into her room and wake her up with it, and now I’m sure it’ll be a tradition because it was such a hit!
xo,
s
partyofsix says
Fantastic kitchen! You amaze me.
If the balloon survives this Christmas, you can usually refill Mylar balloons a few times if they aren’t damaged. (Just in case this becomes a tradition and no Santa balloons are available next year). BTW, our 130 lb mastiff is terrified of any balloon…she’s 11 now and we’ve never been able to get here anywhere near one. Burger is one brave dude :-).
Nancy S. says
Great job! I love the video of Clara’s reaction to the kitchen- so sweet! You did a wonderful job in the designing of the sink and using what you had plus a few other things you purchased. I know Clara will enjoy playing with it!
Robin says
OMG! You are my mommy and daddy DIY superheros! I’m so glad my kids are 10 and 4 so I don’t have to hold myself to such AWESOME homeade DIY standards :)
You both rock!
Lauren O. says
That was SO precious when she saw what Santa brought! She is such a little cutie! Every girl needs her kitchen! Thanks for sharing this Christmas cheer!
Shirley says
What an awesome, timeless gift that she can have forever and even pass down to her own children someday.
lisa says
holy %%%$$^^%$! %%^^&^$! sorry, i can’t type waht i want to say about the kitchen. great job! haha.
Kelly says
This is seriously adorable and seriously impressive! I’m filing this away for sometime down the line when I have my own little bean! (Or maybe I’d just be able to buy one from you guys at that point!)
bridget b. says
too freaking adorable! that is so sweet!
Heather says
What a great gift! Clara is so cute. Did you guys get something new by the door?
YoungHouseLove says
Oh that’s a night table or side table and I have yet to figure out what I’m going to do with it! Haha. Details when I figure it out for sure!
xo,
s
Amy @ Lovely Nest says
this is too cute! I don’t even have kids yet, but I’ve had something like this on my list of future DIY’s when I do have kiddos! yours turned out great!