Little Chef

My kid loves our kitchen.  I can't keep him out of it.  He is obsessed with opening cabinets and letting the tupperware fall out all over the floor.  Or, he can be seen sneaking into the pots and pans drawer, and then heard throwing all that metal all over.  Or, sometimes he can be found in the spice drawer, artfully rearranging all my mini mason jars full of spices (thank goodness for that tight, mason-jar-type seal, right?)  
So, in a vain attempt to *possibly* keep him out of the kitchen, I thought I would try my hand at one of those cute DIY kitchens I see all over Pinterest and remember my fave-bloggers-gone-rouge who did one.   Here it is! 

The first thing I had to do was fine a frame.  There are so many ideas of this on Pinterest but I went with an over-the-fridge cabinet I found on Craigslist.  The guy who was selling it was local, and I got it for nothing.   I don't have a ton of pictures of the process, which really isn't like me...well, maybe it is now that I have a kid.  I can only DIY at night after Z man goes to sleep, maybe an hour in the morning after Dave gets home from work but before he goes to bed, and maybe nap time...if I'm lucky and don't have 20 million other things to do (you know...shower, clean the house, make dinner, clean up toys, blah blah blah!)  I don't have time to pause for pictures, people! I bought a new jigsaw and had waaaayyy to much fun cutting the sink hole out of the top of the cabinet.  I bought a smallish metal bowl from HomeGoods to use as the sink ($7.99!!) flipped it upside down and traced a circle on the top of the cabinet.  Then I cut the whole just a little smaller, so that the lip of the bowl would sit on top.

Hello new jigsaw, you are awesome.  I love my power tools! 

Here is the bowl set it, just a little liquid nails and some time to set and there ya go!!  Sorry, some of these pictures are upside down.  Time people, time! ;)

I looked all over for a faucet.  Did you know that faucets are pricey?  I didn't want to spend more than $10-$15 on a faucet for a play kitchen.  I headed to ReStore in Aberdeen to check it out (its awesome!) cue picture...

I could this little bute for $1!!!  Can you believe it??  Anyways, I realized you had to have a special tool to drill holes for a faucet, so back to Home D I went.  I learn all sorts of stuff while building these crazy things!  I came home and again had way too much fun drilled the holes for it!  Set it in there, and voila!  Look at that thing!

Oh wait, before I set anything in anywhere, I primed, and painted. Then sanded.  Then painted and sanded again.  And again.  This thing needed a few coats.  I like to do thin coats, so that means more coats, more drying time, more waiting.  THEN I set the sink and faucet in.  

The doors were trickier.  Well, just the one door.  I put the left side back on how it came to me, but I wanted the right side to open like an oven.  I bought about 6 different sets of hinges, none of which worked.  I really wanted a spring hinge, something that would open an close softly, but none of the ones I found worked will the project.  So, I just settled for regular hinges and a magnetic clasp.  I may end up changing it because the door opens way too fast and scares Z a little, and his little toes are at risk until he learns how to open it slowly.  I'll get there...Anyways, for now it works.

I bought some new hardware and got them on there.  I blackboard painted the one side too.  I need to get some kid friendly chalk to write on there, but for now he doesn't really care.  Oh and I found a stick on backsplash from Lowes on clearance for $4, and the colors were peeerrrrfect!  So I brought them home and got them up on the little strip I added to the back for a nice visual effect.

Finally I had to add some little touches.  I found the "burners" and knobs at A.C. Moore.  I painted them black and attached them with some screws, I love the effect!!!  It's so cute!!

I used a chalkboard marker to draw on the details.  It's sort of a white-silver color.

I added some details to the sides too.  Those two little knobs on the side to hang things on...

And this little diddy for a dish towel (still need to buy one!)

Z already has the pots and pans set and a fruit basket set from IKEA which he LOVES, and I found a cheap food set at Ross for $10.99.  So I put it all together, made sure it was dry and set (I did a few clear coats and  light sanding to set it all up for extensive use) and waited for Z to "discover" it a few mornings ago...

He went right to it!!

Look at that smile.  All the frustration and DIYing is worth it for THAT smile!

If I say, "Z go stir the spaghetti," that is his cue to go over to the kitchen.  I have no idea how that started or how he even understands that?!?!

All in all, I'm pretty proud of myself!  Its such a cute "toy" for Z and it does (somewhat) keep him out of the actual kitchen.  I threw in some older tupperware, a cleaned out coffee can and sour cream container, and he is set!

Play on, my little chef, play on. <3