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…
Jenny says
I only know about a million people that would be interesting in buying that sort of stuff! :) Do it!
Lori says
I love it! I’m 51 and I want one!
Seth says
LOVE IT… you guys are so awesome! its going to be cool for her to know that you built that for her! it means so much more!
Sarah says
This is just too cute! This might actually be my favorite project you’ve ever undertaken. I love that you thought to put the light in the oven. The whole project is just so perfect– green, cost-saving, and much nicer looking than any play kitchen you could have bought for any amount.
Vanessa says
This is the cutest little kitchen. It will match yours! I really hope Clara keeps this forever because it will be something special she can pass down. It was made by her parents and is unique. You guys are great at making things special instead of going the easy route. Love it! Yes please make kids play furniture so we all can enjoy your talents!! :)
LR says
Adorable! Way to go on spreading the word on how lovely wooden play kitchens can be!
I think I also noticed a few Plan Toys in the mix. They are my favorite!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, that’s one of our favorite companies for green kid’s toys!
xo,
s
Tia says
Favorite project by FAR!!!! Super cute!!!
Susan (Between Naps on the Porch) says
Absolutely adorable…both Clara and your kitchen creation. Clara is going to look back on this when she’s grown and she’s going to realize just how much you guys loved her, to make something like this just for her. I know she already knows you love her, but that little sink will mean so much to her. Bet she’ll be passing it down to her children one day. :)
Kelly says
I love this!!!! You guys did an amazing job! And that video of Clara actually almost had me crying!! It was just so touching.
I did have a question about the countertop. . .do you worry that it will stand up to kid-playing for 5+ years? I just worry a painted top wouldn’t. Even if it’s that special paint. Just wondering. . .since you could probably spend a little more and do a laminate top (although it would probably be a heck of a lot more expensive than $74!)
Kelly
YoungHouseLove says
We’re gonna see how it goes. It’s certainly not as rugged as laminate or something would be, but hopefully she won’t do much more damage than I little paint touch up couldn’t handle. Plus this gives us the freedom to change the color if we want own the line.
-John
Emily says
Wow! That’s fantastic, well done!
Anna says
This is so great! I received a McDonalds drive-thru/kitchen one year and I LOVED it forever. This is even better! Excellent job guys! And I love the play food/toaster!
I am on the fence about a kid, but this is making me reconsider. I would definitely have one if it were guaranteed she would be as smart and sweet as Clara…
Peggy says
Love the kitchen!! Where can I buy one?! Haha. You guys should totally design kiddie furniture! You’ve done an amazing job with this little kitchen! My daughter would love it. ( I’d probably have more fun than her!)
Briel K. says
That turned out so cute! I love the little burner and all the little fake food! I love miniature things. When I was younger my grandfather built me a doll house. I wish I still had it!
Rosalyn says
YES, you guys did that! Awesome, it looks alot better than the store ones too….!
You guys ROCK!
Karina says
That video of Clara was too ADORABLE!!! Great Job!!!!
Katy says
Wow, it looks amazing! The color you used in your real kitchen looks quite different on Clara’s kitchen. It seems more muted and yellowy on Clara’s. Is that just my computer or perhaps the natural light from your living room?
YoungHouseLove says
You’re right! It definitely looks more yellow in the living room (maybe just up against the gray? different background colors seem to change how accent colors read). The kitchen is a very subdued color though, so when folks say it looks lime on their computers that’s not really true to life. It’s like a very soft celery or avocado color in real life! So hard to know how monitors will “read” things though!
xo,
s
Bethie says
Woah. Amazeballs. I would totally buy one of those!! I’m sure you could have a very successful post-blog career in children’s furniture!
Young House Furniture?
Love House Furniture?
House Love Furniture?
YoungHouseLove says
Haha!
xo,
s
Lilly says
i did it I uploaded pic on flickr just for u guys, I hope u like it. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lounlilly7/
YoungHouseLove says
Wow, that almost looks like a real kitchen just shrunk down. The silver and black color scheme is very cool. What a great score on all of those toys too!
-John
Jen says
You are such super star parents! I have seen a lot of fantastic DIY kitchens and yours is at the top of the awesome list. Job well done, that little lady of yours is such a sweetie. I loved the video, her voice is just beyond words adorable!
Happy holidays to my favorite bloggers!
xoxo,
Jen
april says
That kitchen could not be any cooler and that little girl of yours could not be any cuter!! What a special, creative gift…she obviously loves it and will have hours of fun playing in her big girl kitchen!
Lilly says
Oh my God Im so excited I never put pictures on flickr or anything. I hope u guys like my little girls kitchen we worked so hard on it we really wanted it to look just like our own kitchen that we also worked our buts painting and making it look nice I will put pictures in there for u guys to c later. OMG I sound like such a dork right now but I’m uber excited that u guys r going to c something that I made I freaking love u guys. I cant wait to tell my husband when he gets home. I had no idea it was so easy to put pics on flickr I did it from my mytouch phone that I apperantly know nothing about.
YoungHouseLove says
We were able to see them just fine!
-John
kristi says
I haven’t been on Pinterest yet today. But I am sure you look like a voo doo doll at this point. That is totally adorable!
Kim says
Cutest. Kitchen. EVER!!! So much better looking than anything out there and MUCH less expensive! You guys totally ROCK! My girls are older now and growing out of this phase or I would totally give this a try myself! Can’t wait to see what other items you DIY for Clara in the future :) Happy New Year Petersiks!
Abby says
Has anyone asked…is this a little preview of what you picked for your “big person” hardware as well?? :)
YoungHouseLove says
I don’t think anyone has, so good question! But no, it’s not what we picked for our kitchen hardware. But you’ll see what we did choose tomorrow!
-John
Danielle says
You guys blow my mind! Congrats on another wonder-full project! It’s obvious that you two run on tanks filled by creativity, passion, and love – Clara is a lucky little girl!
Lilly says
Oh n one more thing, this is the first time we ever built anything in our lives totally winging it all the way with our cheapo few tools that we have like a drill an jig saw n other small cheapy tools.
braelin says
Wow- I LOVE this post. It was one of my favorites to read… and the end result was so incredibly adorable. You can just tell how much you two love that girl through your creation here! Thanks for sharing.
Bethany Annechino says
I love her voice! Is that weird? Just the way she says things and the tone of her voice makes me grin. You guys made one awesome kid. And when a sibling comes along one day, she or he will be getting a pretty sweet deal coming into a family like yours.
Nicole says
Omg I love this! What an awesome play kitchen for Clara… watching your video made me get all teary- eyed for the play kitchen I will build my daughter (due in 2 months!)
Great work J and S!
melinda says
Cute,cute, CUTE!
After a similar fun & cute episode with our daughter one Christmas, I decided Dad should be getting the credit for the cool stuff he worked so hard on and not the fat guy she never really sees (no matter how jolly he is at the mall lol). But we still liked the Santa thing – – so Santa brings all the stuff in the stocking. It must’ve worked pretty well… last Christmas when I suggested maybe no gifts, we all have so much, my daughter said, that’s fine, as long as we still do the stockings. She’s 23!! lol
Thanks for sharing your family fun on your blog, it is always a bright spot in my day.
Sara says
Beautiful. You guys deserve to sleep for a week!
Courtney says
Looks great – awesome job guys! You gave me some ideas for additions to the kitchen I made for my kiddo.
Kiki says
Wow! Is it weird to say that I’m a little bit jealous of Clara? This is the best DIY play kitchen I’ve seen yet. Definitely pinning this to save for when I have kids!
Latifah says
Can you say ‘Perfect’? Good job guys!
Kyleigh says
Precious! I love it! my Christmas gift to my one year old little girl was a toy kitchen too. I’m probably more proud of it than anything I’ve ever made haha. I love your idea for the gate hinges to open the oven door, I’ll have to keep that in mind for later changes to Pipers kitchen…right now I think it would just be something for her to climb on :) You can see a kind of crappy picture of mine here if you have a second http://pinterest.com/pin/180707003767908479/ . Love your site and I love hearing about familiar places in Richmond ( I just moved to florida from Midlothian) Hope you guys have a wonderful start to the new year!
YoungHouseLove says
Love the round window over the sink!
-John
Bobbie Brown says
Ok seriously, you guys ROCK! LOOOOOVE this! It is way to cute!
Whitney says
Oh my goodness. This is too adorable for words! And I LOVE that video of her playing with it for the first time – her little voice is so sweet!
Cindy says
You guys are the best parents. All the thought and love you put into that play kitchen, and seeing Clara’s reaction just brought tears to my eyes. So sweet. :-)
Beth C says
That is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen! Clara is one lucky little lady.
Tracy says
I love it!!! I can’t believe you made it! Well done!
Laura says
That’s the cutest thing ever. I love the video!! Clara’s little descriptions of everything are so precious. You guys are so blessed.
Tashauna says
Ok. That was the best video ever! I need Clara and my lil Ryan to be BFFs! She is the cutest! And that kitchen is to die for. If you guys are making it, I am buying it!
Lilly says
Oh ty guys for checking it out I’m glad u liked it.
Kelsey says
I love how the kitchen turned out! Clara’s babbling is so sweet and gosh does she wake up happy! My peanut needs a good 15 minutes to come out of her funk in the morning…just like her mama. :) Our play kitchen is a hand-me-down that my father-in-law made for my sister-in-law when she was little. It’s gotten a makeover for each granddaughter and now it lives at our house. I also tend to find weird things in the oven – shoes, crayons, cheerios, Lambie (my daughter’s version of Clara’s Giraffe). Isn’t it funny how they love to stick things in small spaces? Too often when I’m tearing my hair out trying to find something, I’ll find it days later shoved unceremoniously in her play oven. Oh, and I would totally support your children’s furniture line! :)
Priscilla says
That is so adorable! I love the video – Clara is too cute :)
Rachel H. says
Holy amazeballs!!! You guys are incredible! Clara is the luckiest little girl in the world. Please please please turn your idea of making affordable kids play furniture into a reality! The video of her is so cute…I love how she talks!
Heidi P. says
Wow. 72 hrs? Crazy. Wow. Amazing. I can’t believe how inexpensive it was. I think you should sell the how-to to IKEA, since they’re all about sturdy wood toys. Everything from the toe-kick to the burner = awesome.
Jason’s favorite present was a toy drill and now he goes around saying “drill bit” all the time :). Maybe someday he and Clara can work on a project together – she’ll measure and he’ll drill. :D
oneida says
i know a ton of people have already said so . . . but this is TOO CUTE!!! i love that you guys pay attention to details and do everything with excellence. AND make things more affordable. i think you guys could totally design kid stuff! can’t wait to see the clara line ;)
Vicki says
Holy crap bag. This is the most adorable, creative thing ever. It looks so much better than the Ikea one. This makes me want to be a little girl again. Way to go, Santa!
Heidi P. says
Oops. Jusk kidding. IKEA already has one. Which you probably knew. (Yours is cuter though. I bet there’s doesn’t even come w/ a push oven light.)
P.S. I think you guys might enjoy this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80entLldZOg
(Kids telling a story that happened to their parents, w/ the parents re-enacting it the way their kids tell it.)
So funny. #6 is hilarious too.
YoungHouseLove says
LOL, that was hilarious. And then he went to the door. And then we went potty.
-John <--- cracking up over here
Heidi P. says
Yay! I’m glad you thought it was funny!