Remember how we DIYed Clara a play kitchen last Christmas? Well, it was such a hit then (and still is – in fact it’s probably one of the only toys that she plays with every day) we immediately knew that we should add to it. More kitchen = more fun, right?
What can you add to a play kitchen like ours? Well, it was clearly lacking a frigid kitchen staple. You know, a refrigerator. So we quickly homed in on that as an easy way to upgrade Clara’s setup. And the decision was made even easier by the fact that we had another cabinet leftover from the kitchen remodel that we had been hoarding saving for nearly a year in the basement with this play-kitchen “expansion” in mind.
It was from the Habitat for Humanity Restore (maybe for $15? I can’t remember and the receipt is loooong gone) and we had considered using it for above our fridge, but then found one that was a better size. So this puppy has been sitting in our basement for over a year now, just waiting to be fridge-ified. But it had some obvious shortcomings before it was ready for its kitchen close-up. Observe:
But if it’s got a problem, yo I’ll solve it. Check out the look while my drill bit revolves it. (whisper this part: Ice, Ice, baby. Ice, ice, baby). Yup, $herdog isn’t the only one who can spit mad rhymes.
Fixing those aforementioned problems wasn’t too bad. First I removed both of the doors and added three shelves inside using one 10″ wide piece of pine board that I grabbed at Home Depot for $6 (which was the width of the cabinet). I attached each shelf with some simple screws straight through each side as you can see from the photo above.
Here it is with the shelves added. If I were doing a real “to scale” refrigerator I would’ve added more shelves closer together. But from Clara’s experience with her current play kitchen, the wide shelves are easiest for her to maneuver in (and some of her items are around 6″ tall, so spacing these shelves 7″ apart seemed to be the most functional. Neither of us had any great expectations that our creation would ever hit a super high level of fridge realism anyways… we just want the kid to have fun.
Next up, I wanted to cover the recessed portion of each side so that it would be a flat box (plus it would cover up my screw holes from the shelf-adding step). So I used my table saw to cut some panels of plywood to size and then used wood glue to secure them in place. These were the first items I purchased since I didn’t have them in my scrap wood pile, and they ran me $8 for all of the wood that I used on both sides.
Here’s my fancy step of letting my glue dry, with the help of clamps and some heavy objects to keep the plywood pressed flush to the cabinet.
Here’s how it was coming along after both sides and a top panel were done. It was definitely starting to look less like the bedraggled old cabinet that we started with.
Before painting, we lightly sanded the finish off of the doors and the face of the cabinet – just like we do when we’re painting kitchen cabinets for real.
We also thought a fun feature of her fridge would be to make the front magnetic – just like the real deal. So I busted out the can of magnetic primer that we still have plenty of (even after this project and this project). We did three coats, since we’ve found that to be stronger than one (tip: shake the heck out of it before applying it so all the magnetized particles don’t settle to the bottom of the can).
Here are the doors all primed with the magnetic stuff and the rest of it primed with just normal primer (Zinsser Smart Prime, which is low-VOC – it’s actually the same stuff we used for our real kitchen cabinets and we still had it leftover).
Once that was all dry, it was time to get our paint on. While some sort of silver or grey on the outside might have looked stainless-ish, we thought it would be nice if this guy fit in with Clara’s existing white play kitchen. But because we can’t resist a little bit o’ “fancy” we painted the inside a light blue with a small quart of paint that was leftover from a few book projects (Sylvan Mist by Benjamin Moore). You know, to lend an air of “cool” to the thing.
Once the inside was “chilled” with blue paint, we painted the outside surfaces semi-gloss white (Decorators White by Benjamin Moore – which we just always seem to have around for painting trim, the office cabinets, etc). It only took us one coat on the outside framing thanks to the white primer that we added first, but the doors took three coats to cover all of that black magnetic primer. But once it was all said and done, I reattached the doors with some new hinges and added some pulls that matched the rest of her kitchen. Those were the only other items that we purchased for the fridge-building project (also from Home Depot like the plywood) and they came to $5.25 for all the hinges and $6 each for the long fridge-ish hardware pulls – which were 7″ long for anyone wondering.
Then we thought it would be fun to give the fridge a logo of sorts, to help it look less like a cabinet and more like a fridge (we thought crazy-gluing them in place would help them stick for the long haul). So Sherry found these scrap-booking stickers at Michael’s that were as close to stainless steel as we could find. We thought one of the snowflakes could be a cool logo-ish-looking icon next to the name of our fictitious appliance brand.
We had a nice spirited debate as to whether it should be called “Cool” or “Chilly.” This is what happens when two former advertisers get into a branding discussion.
Ultimately we decided on cool… but we weren’t 100% sure so we just softly stuck them up there without any crazy glue on them quite yet. Just to get a feel for our little logo idea. Then we both stood there staring at it for a while and realized that it was a lot cooler in our minds. Hah. And in real life it just seemed kind of cheesy on the otherwise clean front (there’s not any lettering on Clara’s original kitchen, so maybe we were going overboard with this addition on the fridge). Plus, Sherry was convinced that Clara would peel them off in 2.2 seconds – even with crazy glue (perhaps ripping corners of them off, digging at them with blocks, etc). But here’s a pic of how it might’ve looked had we stuck with it…
But now you get to see the whole shebang all finished and ready for Christmas morning. I hope you’re all gently shaking jingle bells and/or playing various holiday-songs, because here’s what Clara’s gonna wake up to Christmas morning:
Yup, there’s Clara’s new fridge (okay, it sort of could double as a pantry too) next to her kitchen from last year, plus a little food cart that we’ll get to in a minute. And of course, you can’t give someone a fridge without stocking it full of food, right?
For the most part this is actually play food that we already owned. We’d purchased a bunch to give her last year, but after seeing how well the few sets of play food that she opened last Christmas had entertained her, we opted not to shove two more boxes down her present-riddled throat and instead planned to wait a while and introduce them later in the year when she was getting bored of a few other toys that we could phase out. Little did we know that those two boxes would sit unused in the spare room for an entire year. How did a whole year pass? Doesn’t it feel like we were just sharing Clara’s play kitchen a week ago?
Most of it is Melissa and Doug stuff that we scored on Joss & Main at a nice deep discount. I personally love the bologna.
We also supplemented with a few “DIYed” items of our own. For example, we picked up (and emptied) a couple of these teeny tiny Ben & Jerry’s cartons. I took one for the team and downed both of them in about four scoops.
Sherry also found these wooden eggs and egg crates at Michael’s to fill out what apparently is the dairy shelf in her fridge. One day – maybe around Easter? – we might even decorate them with Clara as a fun holiday activity. The funny thing is that Clara met Santa a little while ago (yes, the real one who hangs out at community events) and asked him for “eggs for her kitchen” so we thought that was sweet enough to warrant an actual crate of eggs. Make that two.
Also at Michael’s Sherry found these little Chinese takeout containers. You know, so Clara can pretend she has some leftover General Tso’s or something.
Oh yeah, and about that cart…
It was a thrift store find at one of our favorite local places. It was $5 and it was already this color, which was a pretty lucky break considering how many other strange colors it could have been. Clara actually helped us bring it home, so hopefully we didn’t just damage the illusion of Santa there.
We thought it’d be a great addition to the kitchen set because Clara has gotten a lot of fun out of a little wire fruit/veggie basket that she already has. And since this one is large enough to hold all of her produce along with some pantry-ish items on the bottom and it wheels around, hopefully it’ll add up to hours of enjoyment.
As for a budget breakdown, here’s how this little fridge & rolling cart full of food stacked up:
- Cabinet – already owned (maybe $15 originally?)
- Wood for shelves & sides – $14
- Primer & paint – already owned
- New hinges from Home Depot- $5.25
- 7″ hardware handles from Home Depot- $12
- Stickers that we never used – $5 (with 50% coupon from Michael’s)
- Thrift store cart – $5
- Wooden eggs, crates, & takeout containers – $6 (with 50% coupon from Michael’s)
- Tiny Ben & Jerry’s ice cream cartons – $2.50
- Other play food – already owned (about $30 originally)
- TOTAL: $50.75 (it would probably cost around $95 if you didn’t already have the cabinet and the play-food on hand)
Under $51 for both the fridge and the cart isn’t too bad, right? The play kitchen from last year rung in at 74 beans, so it’s nice to add two other kitchen items for less. The only thing that’s missing are some grocery store gift cards so Clara can take care of some of the items on her shopping list…
Oh and the magnetized doors are worth the effort, so we highly recommend those if you’re in the mood to add some “extra sauce” to your fridge. We can both picture Clara hanging little drawings that she does on Post-Its and someday writing her own lists in sloppy kid-handwriting.
We’ll be sure to share video or photos of Clara actually receiving her gift, just like we did last year, so stayed tuned for that. And oh yeah, if you were wondering what mystery room we shot these photos in… it’s the playroom, which still has walls painted in a bunch of random colors from shooting our book back in February. This particular wall is Sylvan Mist by Benjamin Moore (the same color that we used on the inside of the fridge, so we cracked up when we realized that).
So, are any of you other “Santas” out there whipping up something in your workshop for next week? Are your kids as obsessed with play food (specifically play eggs) as our daughter? Do you find it funny that play fruits and veggies are usually life sized but most of the “pantry items” are at least half of their normal size (even when they’re made by the same company)? I’ll pause while you ponder that.
Psst- I grabbed a quick video of Clara playing with her kitchen the other morning, so that’s over on Young House Life for ya.
Julie says
That is an awesome fridge! I may have to bust one out for my nieces’ birthday in May (since I’ve got boys and they’d much rather eat real food than play with fake).
I just finished 3 Lego storage boxes (saw the idea on Pinterest of course!). Here’s a link: http://paintnpatience.blogspot.com/2012/12/gifts-for-boys-lego-boxes.html
YoungHouseLove says
Such a cute project!
xo
s
Wrenaria says
Super cute fridge. In the cool vs chilly debate, I would have been on team chilly. :p
Also I dig John’s mad rhyming skills.
Elizabeth@ Food Ramblings says
i am obsessed– can i get that for christmas?!?
Kate says
That looks great! We actually did the exact same thing last Christmas – a magnetized homemade refrigerator.
Except we have 2 issues: (1) the refrigerator is too shallow so the heavy door handles make it fall over when she pulls it too hard. We ended up bolting it to the wall. (2) We must have painted over the magnet paint too early because we have all of these pin point rust spots all over the front of the white fridge. It’s very odd.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no! That’s so sad about the rust, but so smart about bolting it to the wall.
xo
s
Kate says
If it’s not obvious, I meant that to say I like your refrigerator much better. Just don’t tell my husband. ;)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw yours sounds awesome!
xo
s
Erin Johnson says
So sweet – my niece may need one of these! Did you guys think about adding shelves inside the doors? It may make it feel a little less like a pantry: http://www.greencupboards.com/plan-toys-refrigerator/p/
Happy holidays!
YoungHouseLove says
That would be so much fun!
xo
s
Brenda says
My son would LOVE this! He’s always in the kitchen “helping” his daddy or me cook dinner. I call him my little sous chef :)
This year, we made him a train table. We were totally inspired by the one you made Clara. My little sous chef is obsessed with the train table at Barnes. Whenever we pull into the parking lot he flaps his arms around and yells, “CHOOO CHOOOO!!” it’s so stinkin’ cute.
Molly says
This is so awesome and Clara is one lucky little girl!!!
I am dying laughing about the egg fascination. When my youngest sister (8 years younger than me) was Clara’s age, she was OBSESSED with eggs. She would get them out of the fridge and carry them around with her all day and we would find them hidden in the weirdest places. One day, she was playing outside and wandered over to our neighbors side yard, that was really close to our house. Our neighbors had just planted some new tomato plants and my sweet baby sister, very weirdly, pulled the tomato plants out of the ground and laid them gently next to their holes, and then placed one egg in each hole where the tomato plant had been! Our neighbors were freaking out when they found this the next day. They thought someone was practicing voodoo or making a really weird political statement about their tomatoes. When we realized what my sister had done, we all could not stop laughing. Play eggs are a MUCH better idea!!
Sandy says
What will you guys do when she can read???? You won’t be able to post on what you are going to get her any more!!! Maybe you can start dropping hints instead? :o)
Lindsey @ arkadian belle woods says
So awesome! I loved this present last year! I think it’s such an awesome way to keep adding to something she enjoys so much! What a lucky little princess! :) I hope you all have an amazing Christmas! xo
Valerie says
Where did you get those adorable magnets on Clara’s new fridge? Are they a purchase or a DIY?
YoungHouseLove says
Those were made by an awesome reader who met us at one of our signings. They painted wood disks with magnets on the back.
xo
s
Sara says
you guys are amazing! bookmarking this for when our little guy gets older :)
Born and Raised RVA says
Absolutely adorable! What a lucky little Top Chef in the making! As I read, I half expected to see a wire shelf in the freezer (like a repurposed grill grate) and some plastic ice trays.
Now she has a place to put artwork on her own fridge. Too bad the cabinet isn’t magnetic.
Cynthia says
Clara is one lucky little girl!! You are such awesome parents!
judi says
may i ask when/why you moved the towel bar to the other side of the kitchen? just want to make sure my mind isn’t playing tricks on me. it’s definitely on the left in the very top photo, and in the right in all the photos w/ the fridge.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha just yesterday actually! Good eye! We thought the fridge on that side worked better since the doors open in that direction, so we switched it.
xo,
s
Casey says
Okay, this is too cute!
Laurel says
So, if you two haven’t already won parents of the year, you should now! Seriously, that is the cutest thing I have ever seen. Have you ever thought of making and selling kid’s toy furniture! I smell success! Your daughter will be thrilled beyond belief!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, we’d love that! Seriously, it’s one of our favorite things to do.
xo
s
Kaija Kantola says
How about adding some door pockets/shelves to the inside of the doors for even more realistic fridge?
Can’t wait to hear how her reaction to the fridge!
Merry Christmas to you, and thank you for this wonderful blog!
YoungHouseLove says
That would be fun!
xo
s
Carrie says
You guys are geniuses!!
Dianna says
The fridge is super cute. The two of you inspired me to build a workbench for my son from a side table. I posted a photo to your Facebook page. Hope it came through.
Also, I used the same magnetic paint (three coats) on two doors in my home and niether door will hold a magnet that is any heavier than a feather. Not sure what I did wrong. :(
Keep up the great work!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw man did you shake the can a ton? That seems to help!
xo,
s
LARY@ Inspiration Nook says
Love this! Can’t wait to see her reaction
Kristen says
Wait……so Santa isn’t real?????
I joke, I joke. Sweet fridge! Super cute!
Jessica @ Mom 4 Real says
Oh my cuteness! This has sparked an idea for me…my Kate is 9 and has been asking me for a locker for her bedroom like the ones at school. I am going to hit the Habitat store tomorrow and see what I can come up with!
Laura says
Love! We are getting a play kitchen for our 16 month old this year. I did a few DIY foods by keeping containers of blueberries, raspberries and cherry tomatoes. Then I added blue or red Pom poms from a craft store in the, and super glued the lid shut. They look real! The fridge looks amazing and I can’t wait to see Clara’s reaction!
Brynn says
What a great idea!! I will definitely be copying this! Thanks :O)
Lil says
My little is getting a “Clara Kitchen” for Christmas. We have a bunch of work to do…first coat of primer went on last night. Wish us luck!
heather says
This is so cute. My favorite part is that she has two containers of eggs, and the list on the fridge says eggs. Girl must love quiche.
YoungHouseLove says
I pointed that our to Sherry when she suggested I write eggs on the list. She just told me every list should have eggs on it. Go figure.
-John
heather says
hahahaha
Kelly says
Oooo. I love it. Since we copied your play kitchen, maybe we’ll just copy this fridge too. I LOVE the magnetic paint! What a great idea!
Janell Beals says
That is crazy cool, best parent award! Janell
Heidi P. says
So cool!! And you guys kill me with your thrift store finds!That cart is so perfect!
I’ve been staying up late every night working on a train board for Jason. Thanks for the idea and tutorial! :D
Roo @ NiceGirlNotes says
Ahhhh you made the doors magnetic, too!? You guys totally know how to commit. Love it all! You’ve got six days to put my picture on her fridge…
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! Done!
xo,
s
Kim says
shut the front door! this is adorable!
Jenn says
“But if it’s got a problem, yo I’ll solve it. Check out the look while my drill bit revolves it. (whisper this part: Ice, Ice, baby. Ice, ice, baby). Yup, $herdog isn’t the only one who can spit mad rhymes.”
This made me laugh so hard that I feel like it’s okay to be in both your post AND your comments.
Jenn
With Luck
Taya says
Clara is one lucky kid! I loved my play kitchen as a kid!! My brother and I used to play “family” and “restaurant” with a little kid-sized table we had, too.
Also, the play room looks very empty, even after the last clean out post you put up… incoming project??
YoungHouseLove says
We’d love to tackle that after we get a little further along with the sunroom! Soon I hope! Momma can’t wait.
xo
s
Stephanie says
What a fantastic idea…Clara is lucky to have such crafty parents!!
Brynn says
This looks amazing! I wish I had the time to make one for my daughter, she would absolutely love it! And actually, so would I!
Great job!
Stephie @ ThriftandStyle.com says
I absolutely loved the play kitchen you guys made for Clara last year- the fridge is a perfect addition. And I love that you got the food cart at a Thrift Store! Looks like it’s called Love of Jesus Thrift Store? GREAT name haha. I’ll def have to check it out next time I’m in Richmond :)
Ginny@ Goofy Monkeys says
Santa illusion is still probably ok this year – but just don’t let her access the blog archives once she learns to read!
Next year you will definitely need to be more secretive – 3 year olds have VERY good memories!
Taylor says
LOVE IT! we (Santa) made a play kitchen 3 years ago and my two boys also play with it still everyday! So we are also adding to it this year… We are making a little supermarket! Complete with a built in cash register and we even got the Melissa and Doug shopping cart! We have labeled bins for different kinda of food- It has a red and white striped awning and a chalkboard for specials! I think I might be more excited than anyone haha!
Rachel says
Do you secure the play kitchen pieces to the wall, or are they heavy enough to stay upright, even if (for example) Clara decides to climb the shelves of the refrigerator?
YoungHouseLove says
We didn’t secure it since it’s very sturdy and she’s not much of a climber but if after we give it to her if we worry we’ll definitely secure it to the wall!
xo
s
Autumn says
This is absolutely adorable! You have totally inspired me (and my husband – he just doesn’t know it yet!) to create something like this for our daughter. It makes the gift so much more meaningful. Happy Holidays!
Mollie O'Connell says
I love it! Such a sweet idea. My husband and I are using your dollhouse plans to build a “new house” for our new house for our daughter since we just moved two weeks ago! I can’t wait to see her face on Christmas and I can’t wait to send you pics of the finished product! Thank for all of your amazing ideas!
ali says
Love this! Our kids both play in their kitchen non stop, we have been stocking the fridge/cabinets with empties for a while now – empty tubs, brownie boxes, mac and cheese – they like recognizing the “real” food – but our friends get weirded out by the incredibly outdated dairy (ie, Ukrops half and half carton, ha ha!)
Katie says
My husband and I whipped up a baby doll changing table for our little girl who’s about Clara’s age. She loves to change her baby dolls’ diapers. We had leftover scrap wood, foam, fabric, even newborn-size diapers so we spent exactly 97 cents (on wood screws) for the whole gift! We are so excited to give it to her.
Ethne @ Wom-Mom says
Super cute. And I swear each of those cabinets was $6, not fifteen, SWEAR. We’re getting the twins (age 5) tablets this year, from Santa. Inexpensive ones. They asked for Barbie phones, iPads and computers, so we opted for far less expensive versions of iPads. Phones are out of the question. We looked into Leapster-type versions of tablets, but then decided for the same $, we can get a regular tablet and them maybe they can grow with them for a few years and, to be fair, they already play on ours. For any worry-warts out there, relax, they have to earn time on the TV and that will apply to these as well. They are also getting an EasyBake oven. Hilarious. They have my kid-oven from decades ago, and I made felt food. Super cute. A few Melissa & Doug pieces, too, tho I’ve never seen the balogna before. Priceless.
Angel says
So cute!
It would be cute to put a couple of those thin mesh spice racks up on the door side, like the door storage in a real fridge where you keep the condiments and stuff.
Anyway I love it.
YoungHouseLove says
Love that!
xo,
s
Meggan says
I actually DIYed a bunch of gifts this year and I’m super excited. I made some dress ups for my best friends little boy, and a Go Diego Go costume for my two year old, since he is obsessed. My favorite though is a PVC puppet theater that I designed and made without any help. It was my first time working with PVC, so I was thrilled when it actually worked the way I envisioned. I can’t wait until Christmas for the big reveal!
YoungHouseLove says
That sounds really cute!
xo,
s
Carly says
I hate to think of Sherry working so hard to answer/approve all these comments, but this post is right in my wheel house and I thought you guys might be interested in this:
I am a preschool teacher and at a recent conference I attended a seminar on imagination. Research on imagination reveals that it is not, as you might suppose, innate- it develops with support in a social context as children have many rich, meaningful experiences, conversations, and opportunities to play. Pretend play specifically is incredibly important.
This imaginative pretend play is crucial to the brain developing the strategies necessary for reading comprehension later on. Children who have had little opportunity for meaningful, self-directed, imaginative pretend play (like in a play kitchen) tend to experience difficulties in reading comprehension around age 8, when text becomes more sophisticated. If you’re interested, Deborah Leong and Elena Bodrova are the researchers I heard. They are very well respected in the field of early childhood education.
I’ve already gone on too long- bottom line, to scaffold Clara’s imaginative play (and hence brain development), I would add non-specific items to the kitchen. A container full of ping pong balls, for example. Or cardboard cut into organic shapes. Or milk caps. A container of small rocks or sticks. Leaves. You can get really creative! That way it’s up to Clara to decide what the item is- ping pong balls become eggs, potatoes, flour, carrots, apples… As she assigns abstract meaning to an item she knows is not actually a carrot, her brain will make very important developmental connections.
xoxo sorry for the length, Sherry.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Carly! So interesting! She definitely has a bunch of nondescript items in a zippered pouch that she uses all the time in all sorts of crazy ways (like an old keychain that she calls anything from an earring to a feather duster, a block that she calls her baby’s bottle and tries to feed her with it, etc) so I’m sure those crazy pouch items will end up all over the fridge, just like they pop up in the play kitchen all the time! It’s amazing how little minds look at things like a simple plastic cup and see everything from a pool to a building or a lamp-shade (when they flip it upside down).
xo
s
Steph says
This is amazing! Clara is a lucky little girl :)
When you posted about the magnetic primer, I thought of when you hung up those letters for her in your old house’s spare room, and I got all nostalgic thinking how she was such a baby then! I can’t believe how fast she is growing up.
My sisters and I have a rule, no buying presents (sometimes can be useless stuff we all really don’t need) for each other, we can only make presents, DIY style! I did mosaic pieces for them. I have to say my favorite part was breaking tiles for it :)
YoungHouseLove says
That’s such a sweet rule. I love it.
xo
s
Ann says
You guys are awesome! My husband and I were inspired by the doll/pig house you made for Clara. We wanted to give or two girls (3.5 and 1.5 yrs old) a special gift this Christmas so my husband followed your plans and bam… http://talesoncanterburylane.blog.com
Merry Christmas from Iowa!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, that’s so sweet! Merry Christmas Ann! Hope they love it!
xo
s
Caitlin @ Desert Domicile says
So, so awesome! You guys are so creative :) I bet Clara is going to love it!
Larita says
So jealous! I did a play kitchen for my kids for Christmas this year, but couldn’t quite manage a fridge. But I love the idea of adding on in future years!