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Okay, well the holiday is over I am back to work… and I am FINALLY here to show you our girls play kitchen. I am so excited about this kitchen and BOTH of my daughters love it (even though the youngest is only 10 months old) I even feel the pull to play in there with them…
If you read blogs at all, I am sure you have seen a ton of fun play kitchens around, and I have personally planned or designed like 8 versions. But the “cottage” idea was finalized when I saw Rapunzel…
I decided that I wanted the pieces to look more like individual pieces of furniture, something you might see in a kitchen that was built before the 1900’s, or stock cabinetry for that matter. We have the sink and the oven (which Etta also pretends to use as a dishwasher) and even a fridge… but it could easily double as a cabinet, pantry etc.
Okay so here is how this project went down. Our goal was to not buy anything… technically I had to buy the “sink” and the table leg… the rest of the project is made of left overs from other projects:
Supplies we re-used:
An old desk drawer (we used the top of an old desk for our computer desk and had this left over)
Used the desk handle again too!
Carved Doors (from the hutch revamp) and fabulous knobs
Old faucet from our upstairs kids bathroom update
The shelves that used to be in the playroom closet
Old Radio knobs (I saved these from one of those huge furniture piece radios… with this project in mind)
Old Garage Shelving for the body of the “fridge”
Scrap wood galore!
Edit: The paint color is left over from our screen project
Valspar (Lowes) Semi Gloss Gallon
Now before you report us to Hoarders… I must admit that when it comes to wood, we tend to keep it till we use it, or have bon fire! But all the other kept pieces were kept with this very purpose in mind. And when you know you need to create something that is not normal adult scale, you have to keep your eyes open for what will work. But yes, our garage, is a bit of a mess with items for projects, but we use stuff from our stash ALL the time… ( I am feeling the guilt of keeping too much crap right now, can you tell?)
While this is not a tutorial in anyway, I always enjoy seeing how people put things together… so here are a million pictures of the process:
We trimmed off the drawer, to make the cabinet body for the kitchen.
Once the drawer top was all level, Justin built the face frame using our fabulous KREG JIG!
In order to not waste interior space in the “cabinet”, Justin put some spacers on the side of the drawer, then attached some of the cut down shelving we removed from play house closet, to be the sides. Next he nailed on the finished face frame.
I would have liked to replicate the hutch door molding for the detail on the front of the piece, but nothing was available, so we purchased a detailed table leg. The leg helped to add the extra detail on the front to give it a furniture piece look.
It was less than $10.00, so not expensive. But we needed two not one, Justin used some short finish nails to nail it to a board. This way it was easier to feed through the table saw, without accidentally turning it. When we were done we had two legs with a flat back…
(**this is a great way to add a furniture detail to a boring kitchen island or the cabinet around the sink)
I wanted the back to look like a carved marble backsplash…
(which I haven’t had the chance to faux paint to look like a Carrera marble, but hopefully will)
The depth of the whole kitchen is only about 1 foot, which meant the sink had to be very thin. A bread pan worked perfectly, for only 2.88 cents.
There are 3 total shelves in the “fridge” The lazy way to add a shelf: adding a small block under, and the shelf resting on top
I really wanted a wire rack for the oven. I used one of my old cooking racks that was dying along slow death… it was 1/4 of an inch too long, so Justin cut off the edges, and drilled holes into blocks that he later nailed in place… it worked perfectly.
The door, was just cut from a scrap of MDF. He cut out the opening then routed a groove for some glass. I plan on just grabbing some plexiglass for a dollar store frame or two.
We decided to let the door just fall to the ground when open, we considered a chain, but figured, with a small baby toddling around, it would be better to not have sharp corners hanging in mid air. We had a few hinges left over from our family room storage project. I liked the extra fun detail it added.
Everything was all built at this point and now it all just needed to be painted!
Once everything was painted, I decided to age it with a little glaze. I added some black and brown to some clear glaze. I only needed about 1/2 cup total, you don’t actually use a lot. Brushed it on, making sure to get it in the cracks, and then I wiped it off with a wet washcloth. This may not be the “real” Way to do it… but oh well, It worked for me. And if I took off too much I just reapplied till I liked how it looked. 
In the picture below it was all glazed, but only the right side has been distressed with a light sanding of edges. I thought is was amazing how the sanding really made the features of the legs pop. Just compare the two legs and you can see what I mean.
Painting the old hutch doors took me about 5 hours a piece, cuz I brushed it on, and I am hyper critical about the direction of paint brush strokes… and the amount of detail to work around and make sure the paint wasn’t globbing, or dripping or puddling just took a long time.
The second picture shows the difference glaze makes in helping the moldings on the door to pop!
The burners are a .99 cent pack of clear coasters, that had a thin layer of cork on them. The cork was really poorly attached and peeled of in one easy piece. Then I took some black puffy paint and filled the edge with black. I may add a spiral of black paint, or print out a picture of a spiral. laminate it and put it under the piece, it is just screwed on in the middle.
I painted all the fixtures and handles with Rust-o-leum Oil rubbed bonze spray. I should have primed the MDF first, cuz that stuff was DRINKING the paint. I realized too late that I shouldn’t have painted the bread pan… it does not stick, so I need to replace it already.
I never remember to keep Styrofoam for spraying screws, so this is my solution… can we say “Ghetto” I sorta think it is funny… uh remember do NOT eat the bread after it has been sprayed!
Okay, after putting it all back together, this is what we got:
Even Kitty likes it!
(And I had to throw in a picture of the hutch, cuz it is so bright and cheery next to the kitchen!)
Well, THOUGHTS? I REEEally wanna know what you think?!!
If you like this project, I hope you would consider sharing the link on your Facebook, or pinning it!
I love it! What lucky kids you have! You really take the idea of a hand made gift to a whole other level! Beautiful details too.
I am so impressed! I want this for my kitchen.
This is adorable. And I couldn’t figure out how big it was until I saw your cat in the picture. Where is that because the ceiling is quite low. I can’t believe you barely bought nothing for this project, it is beautiful and far nicer than any plastic kitchen! I’m super impressed!
Jen, it is in our kids play house that we have been building from a walk in closet… the link for that project is here: https://www.remodelaholic.com/tag/indoor-playhouse/
Wow, amazing job.
This is absolutely my favorite version of creating the kitchen yourself. How much was this to create? Last, where did you get the front facing cabinets to the far left? If you add this to Pinterest, please let me know so I can repin this to all my friends!
Thanks for sharing. Elizabeth
Elizabeth, WE have probably spent about $15.00, cuz we used almost all scraps, odds and ends. When you are asking about the cabinet on the left, do you mean the red one? We built that, if you are asking about the green one, we made that here: https://www.remodelaholic.com/2011/12/indoor-playhouse-built-in-hutch/
Very nice. I love how you used lots of old odds and ends to make one. I love doing that. My husband often complains of all the stuff I keep, but we end up using it all the time. Good job, makes me wish my kids were small again.
This is ridiculously cute! Your did an amazing job. I love the idea for the sink, instead of using a stainless steel bowl (as I’ve seen done elsewhere). So cute seeing the scale of it compared to the kitty cat.
Well done and your photos are outstanding. We’d love to feature this on Built by Kids.
Cutting the leg in half – that is a BRILLIANT way to save some $ I’m pinning that one!
Love your girls’ play kitchen! We hoard all our leftover bits of wood from projects, too. Too funny about the bread! That’s thinking outside the box. Thanks for sharing.
Perfect! Its every girls dream.
Cassity!! That is AMAZING!! You guys are the coolest. =)
Brittanie! Thanks! Kiss that little baby for me, I hope you are all doing really well!
Love it!
A very fun space for your girls!!
Great job.
Cassa and Justin! You two are amazing! I love the little kitchen you made for the girls! I wish I had your talent! Love and miss you
WOW! Amazing a family member read our blog! THANK YOU!
Thanks for the inspiration. I make these little kitchenettes as gifts and to sell…but your kitchenette takes it to a whole new level! <3 <3 <3 it!
So great,Thank you for sharing with us at Creative Mondays 🙂
Very cool!!!
Awesome!
This is one of the cutest little kitchens I have ever seen, so fantastic!
Soo darling- love how it turned out!! 🙂
Such a great kitchen. I’m happy to pin it for you!
I have to say this is my favorite out of them all! Absolutely want to go in there and play. Will you be home tomorrow? LOL
LOVE THIS!!! Love the red, love the details! Thanks for sharing on Fancy This Fridays! By the way, SOMEBODY has a FEATURE! 😉 http://www.trulylovelyblog.com/2012/01/fancy-this-features-58-and-winner.html
I love this idea, such a great use of crativity. I look forward to comming up with something like this for my girls. Thanks for the inspration!
Donna
I love this and am featuring it at my party today! Thanks for linking to my party.
I’ve got to know, what tool are you using for rounding the corners of the backsplash? Is that the same took you used for routing out the oven door? WHAT IS IT!!!! Thanks!
Hey Ashlee- It is just a router! Depending on what you are cutting you change the blade head and set the depth! it is a great tool!
How cute is that! I’m sure your girl’s are enjoying it…as well as the cat. lol. Thanks for sharing. Hope you’re having a grand evening. Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse
I LOVE this!! I want one of these for my 1 year old now. II would like to create one myself, but am nervous about the cutting and as we are new in our home, I wonder if Home Depot will do it for me? This is an awesome project!
Thanks for loving our project. All I can say is ask Home Depot if they will cut what you want. It never hurts to ask.
Looks awesome! What kind of joints did you use for the cabinet?
Thanks Christa, I just butted the joints together. I didn’t do anything fancy like a dado or rabbet joints. I just simple nailed them together. If you want you could add glue for extra support.
Wow! Never mind my children… I want one… Well done!
I know this is an old post, but I just stumbled across your blog through Pinterest (the modest Barbie post) and had to tell you how much I love those carved doors. That has to be one of the neatest play kitchens I’ve seen!
Thanks for the kind comment about the kitchen. It was really fun to make. The doors were from another piece of furniture that we remodeled. Thanks for visiting our site. We hope that you come back for more.