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.
Dorothea Wingo says
Crappers! I love you people. This whole kitchen concept is awesome.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, crappers = hilarious. We love you right back.
xo
s
Molly says
This is quite possible the best gift I have ever seen (equal only to the play kitchen from last Christmas). Clara is SO FORTUNATE to have you as parents.
Jenny says
That is so neat! I watched the video from last year and can’t wait to see this year’s video!
DONNA says
I am P….ing in my PANTS! This may not be appropriate for the internet…but a truly HOWLED out load reading today’s post on the making of Clara’s new appliance! Her present-riddled throat (!!!)comment put me over the edge! Loving the new addition to her kitchen. You two just amaze me, as always!
Jennifer L. says
Yay, thanks for posting this just as promised! It’s super fabulous!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Jennifer!
xo
s
Jessica says
Looks great! My eye was drawn to the toaster — where did you find it? My daughter loves to “help” make toast in the morning, so this would be perfect for her.
YoungHouseLove says
I think that was by Plan Toys (John’s mom got it for Clara). I think she got it from amazon.com!
xo
s
Nelle says
LOVE LOVE LOVE this!! we actually have our 2 daughters play kitchen set up in our rea kitchen (it’s the same colour as our kitchen cabinets) so no room for a fridge next to it, but dmn – this is cool! I wanna even play with it on Xmas morning!
Priscilla says
Does she get the microwave next year? Oh by then she will want a TV in her kitchen too.
YoungHouseLove says
Ha!
xo
s
Di says
This is too cute! I have a weird obsession with things that are sample sized/miniaturized. This fridge project makes me want to play with plastic food and place in a mock fridge which is kinda funny since I think kids are probably wishing/waiting till the day they can put real food in a real fridge? Anyway, I stumbled across this site months ago via Katie Bower’s site, and I don’t think I have ever commented. So way to go mini-fridge for getting me to finally comment!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks so much Di!
xo
s
Megan @ Two Live Colorfully says
Oh my goodness! This turned out so adorable!!!
And the best part is that the fridge and stove are so much cuter than what you would buy at a toy store!! She’s going to love it!
reyanna says
This is adorable!! Great work, guys!
Our daughter got a shopping cart for her first birthday (she’s REALLY tall… LOL), and she loves it, so my mom got her a basket of play food for Christmas. I can’t wait till she gets it! She’s only 16 months old now, but I know that next year, I would love to make her a play kitchen! I *would* have done it this year, but I’m 20 weeks pregnant and don’t have the energy! LOL. ;-)
YoungHouseLove says
That’s so sweet!
xo
s
Samantha says
Bahaha, love your rap. I totally busted out laughing at that and of course, now your version has been stuck in my head all day. :) Haha
Jan Hunyady says
Frigiclaire instead of Frigidaire
Clairvinator instead of Kelvinator
YoungHouseLove says
Hahahah! Love it!
xo
s
megan says
Hey guys, I think it would be amazing if you two jumped on the #26Acts of kindness train for Newtown and blogged about it! Could be really simple. Just a warm Christmas idea… http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Curry+mulls+over+doing+acts+kindness+honour+Newtown+victims+idea+goes+viral/7722954/story.html
YoungHouseLove says
So cool! We’d love to join in!
xo
s
Krista says
Love it! I wish we’d looked more into wooden or home-made kitchens before we asked for the plastic one we have, but it gets used so who’s arguing?
As for projects I had my dad (a lumber retailer) have the guys in his store cut me some 3″ cubes out of cedar that I’m going to use as a puzzle. I bought 6 sheets of fun, kid-ish print scrapbook paper, and I’m going to mod-podge a sheet to each side of the blocks (lined up they will make a solid block 9″x12″), then I’ll sand the sides lightly, do another layer of mod-podge, and it’ll be a puzzel with six different solutions! Hope they like it…
YoungHouseLove says
So cute! I bet they’ll love it!
xo
s
Lilly says
Nice fridge! It looks great just chillin there (he he). Random thought though, how much of the door overhangs the face of the cabinet? You could route the corners to a curve and give it an awesome mid century look. Happy holidays!
Penny Smith says
The plastic take out boxes are on 50% at Michael’s right now… those would hold up FOREVER!
Kimberly says
Oh goodness, you are giving me another idea. We made our 2 1/2 years old daughter a kitchen for her 2nd birthday in July but we don’t have a refrigerator. I’m thinking my husband won’t be too thrilled if I put this on our list of things to finish by Christmas. We are currently trying to finish upholstering my daughters daybed. It was my mother’s, then my sister’s, and then mine, but, to be honest, it was ugly. My husband built up the footboard end to be even with the headboard and then built a back to be even with them. I wanted the whole thing to be a Tiffany blue color but did not have luck finding fabric. I did, however, find sheets the color I wanted and used those. By adding foam padding and nailhead trim the fabric doesn’t even look like it was from a sheet set. I’m so looking forward to Evie finding her daybed all set up on Christmas morning! Have a great holiday with your “Bean!”
Katie DeYoung says
This is SOOO cute you guys! My girls would have loved this when they were Clara’s age! Also, congrats on NY Times Best Seller!! Saw your Instagram photo! WOW! :)
Bonnie @ the pin junkie says
Great job! Clara will have so much fun playing with this!
Melissa @ Bless This Mess says
I made my kids a felt stuffed chicken last year (that looked cooked) with detachable – via velcro- drumsticks and wings. Oh my gosh it is cute and my kids LOVE to play with it. I’ll make you one and mail it if you’d like. It was easy!
Jenna Carlson says
One holiday, my dad made me a doll armoire that was “little Jenna” size and I absolutely loved it. Clara will forever remember these wonderful gifts! Good job, parents ;)
Antonella Guidi says
Wonderfull! I want to make it for my future-future daugther!…or for me XD I like it too much!
Baci dall’Italia /kiss from Italy
Antonella
Megan says
My dad made my daughter a three piece set almost two years ago and she still loves it. I definitely prefer the Melissa and Doug toys and lately threw out a bunch of cardboard boxes and cheap plastic items that lost their labels and would always fall apart. Our fridge ends up being a little bit like a pantry too. It’s definitely nice to have a little extra storage!
Anna says
Oh I bet she is going to LOVE that. Heck, I want to play with it.
Our massive hit with our little girl last year (same age as Clara is now) was making her a ‘shop’ out of a fridge box and re-using all of the play food for that.
She just loved her little cash register to scan everything then put it into a bag for us. Great way to get more milage out of all of that awesome play food.
In fact, she dragged out the cash register today and ‘sold’ me a variety of objects off the Christmas tree :)
Ann M says
I’m ever so touched by your mutual thoughtfulness for one another – it’s a joy to visit your blog. One day when your sweet little daughter is grown, she’ll look back at this (and other posts) and be understand the extent to which she was LOVED from an adult’s perspective. Blog blessings that just keep on giving. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Ann, that’s so sweet of you to say!
xo
s
Melissa van Herksen says
She is going to love it. You guys are the BEST. My boys will also get a kitchen this christmas, but i am not as handy as you are with the drill so I picked it up at IKEA and I will add a little of my own touches. My boys LOVE to cook so I think Luka (5) and Sam (2) will be very happy.
YoungHouseLove says
So cute!
xo,
s
Joy says
Our play kitchen has the same hardware! I love it!
Tammy says
This is super cute. Such a great idea! Clara will love it I am sure!
lee says
Clara’s gonna love it! Fridge is so cute, the whole shebang it.
Leah B says
I am so impressed everytime I see the creativity that you two possess. I lack it and so enjoy seeing how “see” something in your head and then share it with the rest of us. The best part is how you find solutions to something that did not work right or was not what you liked or anticipated. Thank you for sharing with all the world.
Leah B
San Marcos, TX
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Leah, you’re so sweet!
xo,
s
Lindsay B says
I love, love it! I was hoping you were going to make her a fridge at some point!
I just got an email from Amazon saying I should buy your book. Silly Amazon. Already did, and already read it twice. I LOVE it, you guys- it’s so inspiring and helpful!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha that’s so sweet!
xo,
s
haverwench says
“we quickly honed in on that”
OK, sorry, just have to mention this because it’s one of my pet peeves: you mean “homed in.” (“Hone” means to sharpen.)
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much for the tip! We always forget that!
xo,
s
Adeline says
What a great present! I’m sure Clara is going to be pretty excited when she discovers the new addition to her play kitchen on Christmas morning.
Happy holiday to the four of you!
LeCheech says
Next year: A play house to put the kitchen in. I had a play house growing up and it was great! … Of course I was TOTALLY spoiled so…
YoungHouseLove says
Haha sounds fun!
xo,
s
Lee says
My advice, worth what you are paying for it, is not to pretend that Santa gave her the cart. She is one smart cookie and might figure it out. And the fridge by itself is a pretty awesome gift!
YoungHouseLove says
Good idea. Cart from mommy and daddy, fridge from Santa!
xo,
s
Rebecca @This Nest is Best says
This is the perfect addition to the kitchen! But that adorable pic of Clara pushing the cart and waving at the camera is just killing me! Sooo cute!
Melanie says
That is absolutely adorable! What a lucky little girl!
Angie says
You guys are AMAZING!!!!
Dawn says
That’s great! She’s going to love it!
I had this weird moment reading this though. Apparently I wasn’t paying attention to the surrounding items in the pictures and in my mind, the cabinet was almost actual refrigerator sized. I’m thinking, “How is she going to reach that high? And I hope they secure it to the wall.”
Then I got to the picture with John’s hand in it and I swear the cabinet literally shrunk before my eyes. Crazy!! LOL!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha!
xo,
s
Gabi says
Hi! I just started following you guys a few weeks ago and love getting an email that you have a new post! Everything you do is amazing and this is super cute! So much better quality than any crappy plastic play set you’d get at a store and much more durable too. She undoubtedly will have a blast playing with it. Thanks for sharing!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks!
xo,
s
Amelia R. says
I love the magnetic door, and I love that eating ice cream constituted a DIY project. Maybe I’ll “make” some ice cream containers myself. ;)
Jen says
Ahh, so darling! This makes my wish my kidlets were young enough to still play with kitchen playsets. Or, that I had a little lady running around. ;) So much sweetness!
She is so lucky to have such crafty and handy parents! Your toys are so much better than anything purchased in a store.
Happy holidays to you all!
Jen
Donna says
Merry Christmas, guys, and another great job making toys! You are bona fide elves now. Which will come in handy in a year or two when you find yourselves making a giant Barbie or Princess house! Clara is going to have so much fun with this; thanks for sharing.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha!
xo
s
Katy@TheOpenDoor says
Amazing! I want to play in Clara’s kitchen! :)
Em says
Brilliant present ! I’m determined to start that kind of homemade present tradition with our 6-month old daughter ! Plan is fabric stacking blocks but I’m late and struggling !
How cool would the fridge be if there was a light that switches on when Clara opens the door !
YoungHouseLove says
So cool!
xo
s
Tania says
Love it!! So cute how you stocked it too. I’m thinking of a basic toy kitchen for next Christmas when my daughter will be nearly two and you’ve given me a GREAT idea to follow it up with a fridge (or a dishwasher) on her birthday in February. I’ve been reading YHL for years and still get new ideas all the time here. Clara is going to love this, you guys are such sweet parents. Happy holidays, guys!
Cynthia LaPan says
Hi Sherry and John!
I read last year’s homemade oven/sink posting when you made it, and I LOVED IT! This year after reading your Awesome fridge posting, I re-read last years’ posting. It’s just Too Good. I think I kinda want one. And I don’t even have kids. :-) You guys are just so creative!
Have an Excellent and Happy Holiday!
Lauracinindy says
I like the name on the fridge. You could have compromised and called it the Cool Chilly. Merry Christmas!!!!
Jenny says
You guys rock. Greatest parents ever :)