It’s official — Nora’s new play kitchen is finished!
It was actually finished a couple weeks ago already; I just wanted to wait until her birthday week to share the finished product — since it’s technically her birthday present 🙂
We ultimately decided that since the cabinet was fully finished well before her birthday, and since a two-year old has no concept of birthday presents, we would bring the cabinet inside a bit early and let her have 3 extra weeks of kitchen fun.
That was a good decision on our part!
I’m super happy with how the finished product turned out — so much cuter than I ever thought, and so much like a real kitchen. I had a lot of fun with this project!
Oh, this is what it started out like — so a pretty big transformation.
I’ll warn you right now, this post is REALLY long. There are just so many pictures to share, plus I wanted to provide a few details about how I did certain parts of the projects, and of course I needed to include the price breakdown at the end of the post.
However, if you don’t care about all of that, just scroll through the pictures and enjoy the transformation without all the details. I just know that if I don’t provide at least some details, I’ll spend the rest of the week answering emails and comments 🙂
So without further adieu, let me share…
Nora’s New Play Kitchen!
(yes, I know Kitchen is spelled with an “m” — we only have one of each letter!)
Isn’t it cute!
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A Little More about the Process:
On October 12, I purchased an old-fashioned TV cabinet from a local thrift store. It was EXACTLY the size and type of cabinet I was looking for, solid wood, and still really sturdy!
I immediately removed everything that could be removed (doors, hardware, back, etc.). I did save everything just in case 🙂
I washed the entire cabinet with denatured alcohol, primed it with Kills Primer, and gave it 2 coats of a satin white paint we had extras of. I painted the inside of the oven black — although that’s not pictured below.
We cut a hole for the sink (after we purchased the one we wanted from Craigslist) and cut out the middle of the oven door so it would be see-through.
Then I sprayed the counters with “Stone” spray paint — such cool stuff! And the refrigerator door, oven door, and stove top with a metallic dark steel spray paint.
I used plexy-glass for inside the oven door and an aluminum/steel sheet (glued to a piece of scrap wood) for inside the refrigerator door — so yes, her refrigerator is actually magnetic!
I used a piece of 1/8″ thick scrap wood for the stove top and 4 craft circles for the burners. The smaller ones are 4″, the larger ones are 6.5″. The “knobs” for the stove are just drawer pulls — but they actually twist, so she loves that!
I used bead-board for the back of the cabinet (painted white) — and we even had enough left over for another project I had going on inside.
I made the curtains out of an old table cloth and hung them with a wooden dowel (over the window) and a tension rod (under the the sink).
The light is just a small lampshade I already had, attached to a light bulb socket cord kit, which I also already had. I hung it with a hook in the ceiling of the cabinet and then ran the cord out the back (via a tiny cutout in the bead-board).
I found all the other “accessories” via thrift stores and/or around our house.
I was completely finished with the cabinet by November 1, so we surprised Nora by moving it inside the next morning!
Price Breakdown:
My goal was to spend $100 or less for this kitchen as many of the nicer (but still used) plastic kitchens on Craigslist were running between $75 and $100. The new plastic kitchens were much more than that. So I figured if I kept the cost to around $100, we would definitely be getting a nice kitchen for a great price.
Plus, it’s technically Nora’s birthday gift, so I could justify the expense a little more 🙂
- TV Cabinet = $18 from local thrift store
- White / Black Paint for cabinet = FREE — we had left over paint from previous projects
- Bar Sink + Faucet = $10 from Craigslist
- Small Tension Rod to hold skirt under sink = $2 I had a couple at our house but they just weren’t small enough
- Bead Board for back of cabinet = $19 (I purchased one 4′ x 8′ sheet from Home Depot and they cut it to the specific sizes I needed on the spot… for free!)
- Hardware for refrigerator and oven = $6 (This was a deal of a lifetime at our local Habitat For Humanity Re-Store. Almost the exact same pieces are selling at Home Depot for $12 each!)
- Plexy-Glass for inside the oven door = $2.50 (This was also an amazing find by my dad. I had NO idea how expensive plexy-glass was until after we had already cut out the middle of the oven door. The stuff I saw at Home Depot was $20 for a really small piece! Yikes! However, my dad found a big piece on clearance at Menard’s because it had a large chip off one corner. It was only $2.50 and we could simply cut off the size we needed and trash the chipped part.)
- Magnetic Sheet for inside the refrigerator door = FREE Thanks to knowing someone who works for a heating and cooling place 🙂
- Spray Paint = $12 for 4 cans (2 can of “dark steel metallic”, 1 can of “stone”, and 1 can of white. I was lucky that I found it on sale at Meijer BOGO plus I had a 15% off coupon. Otherwise this would have put me over my proposed $100 budget!)
- Burners for stove = $3 from Hobby Lobby
- “Knobs” for stove = $4 from a local thrift store
- Window and light = FREE — we already had both
- Chicken Towel Hook = $4 from Hobby Lobby — this was my little “splurge” as it’s a baby version of the chicken towel hook I have next to our sink. Nora LOVES it!
- Wooden Peg Hooks = FREE — I used scrap wood and extra pegs we already had (see how I made it here)
- Fabric for curtains = FREE — it was a table cloth for a REALLY small table so I never used it. I gave the extra fabric to Dave’s mom and she’s making Nora a tiny apron, pot holders, oven mitts, and dish towels!
- Random scrap wood for stove and the back of the refrigerator door = FREE
- Food = FREE — as you can probably tell, I’ve been saving our boxes for a while!
- Dishes, accessories, pig timer, pans, strainer, etc = $8 (I had a bunch of it, found some at Goodwill, and a few other things at our local dollar store)
- Child Size Table and Chairs = $10 on Craigslist — and it came with a matching toy box! I know this isn’t really part of the kitchen, but since I was under my budget and I purchased this set just after buying the TV cabinet for the kitchen, I figured I’d lump it in with everything for the grand total.
GRAND TOTAL = $98.50
Not too bad — especially considering this includes ALL the extra accessories, tons of food, the table + chairs, and a toy box!!
Also, as I mentioned above, Dave’s mom is making her some fun fabric accessories, and I know a few other family members are getting her mini pots and pans, a mini teapot, some actual “play food”, and probably a few other cute play kitchen things. So her kitchen will be FULLY stocked after her birthday party!
I’m simply thrilled with how well this project turned out — and that I was able to make the full transformation in just 3 weeks.
It did take quite a bit of work on my part, but this is the ONE crafty / creative kid’s project I’ve been dying to tackle since even before we had kids. I know Nora and future kids will get lots and lots of use out of this play kitchen for many years to come — so it was most definitely worth 3 weeks of late-night labor… and the $100 bucks!
Oh, and in case you can’t already tell, Nora LOVES her kitchen 🙂
Debbie says
Cute! That is so creative and amazing! Good job!
Nuria says
Impresionante la transformación!!! Me encanta!! Ojalá tuviera sitio para una cocina así!!!
Enhorabuena
Vickie says
Wow! What an amazing transformation – you did a great job!
Lizanne says
Impressive! I think it’s even much nicer than the plastic store-bought kitchens. I don’t have little ones yet, but when I do, I’ll keep an idea like this in mind. 🙂
Kathy B says
Cutest little kitchen ever – what a wonderfully creative idea!! And, it looks like it is built well enough to last through several Dekker children!! I hope this idea will be submitted for publication somewhere!!
Kristen @ Joyfullythriving says
Great job, Andrea! The kitchen looks amazing. It’s no wonder that Nora’s having a great time playing with it!
Abbey says
That is amazing! Such a transformation, you did great! I’m sure Nora is having so much fun!
Kathy says
Well…………I would have to say that is your BEST PROJECT YET and so much better than a store bought plastic one…………….totally love it. You have outdone yourself the whole thing, mirror window, light fittings, curtains, fridge………..I want one!!! Regards Kathy A, Brisbane, Australia
sandy says
That is the coolest kids kitchen I’ve ever seen. You’re such a good MOM!
JoDi says
That turned out AMAZING! Just love it, and it’s so special when you make it yourself with all the extra personal touches. Your kids and their kids will be enjoying this for a loooong time to come!
Courtney says
This turned out awesome! Thanks for the detailed info…this will def be on my to do list now!
Kelly K. says
Andrea, I totally share your excitement and enthusiasm! What a fantastic end result. Nora and your future children and those you hand this kitchen down to in the future will be so lucky to have this! Great job!
Debbie says
Great job with the kitchen! Looks better than the plastic ones out there and I love how you recycled/repurposed items to make yours.
Lynn says
This is so awesome! If only mine were still young …
Kiescha says
I love it!
Jennifer says
Love this! A very clever DIY furniture makeover project!
Debbie says
It’s so cute! It must give so much joy to see Nora playing with her new kitchen. Great job! I almost want to play in that kitchen.
Jen says
This project is so adorable and so creative! I love all of the “added” special touches like the towel hook, the stove knobs that turn, the working light, the magnetic fridge… the list goes on. And the price! $100 is nothing for a gift that she will enjoy for years to come. Great job!
Andrea says
Thanks Jen — I had so much fun with the special touches (especially since most of them were thrift-store finds or just extra “stuff” lying around our house!)
M@SSBD says
This is amazing!
Sue says
I am so proud of you! You are one amazing and talented woman! Nora is so lucky to have you as a role model. She is going to have hours and hours of fun with this. Well done, Andrea!
Andrea says
Thanks Sue 🙂 Nora has been very entertained by her kitchen so far!
Amy says
That is simply amazing! You can tell a lot of time, thought and love went into it. So impressed!
Linda (Phila burbs) says
i can’t get over how incredibly amazing this is!! well done!
Andrea says
Love the pictures and explanations, Guess what project I’m adding to my list. This would be great for the Grandkids coming in to my life as my kidlets grow up, mutiply and come back with more 🙂
I had a question and a thought.
Question, You said that the metal on the fridge is aluminum…yet aluminum won’t hold a magnet, so is it a steel product possibly?
Thought: Speaking from experience here…Nora will eventually get the notion that pretend water is not good enough and will pour liquid down the sink. It looks like you don’t have any piping down there, so you might consider adding a bladder of some sort that can contain liquid until you can empty it. I wouldn’t advertise this fact to her but it will save you water damage when she gets to that point and doesn’t tell you what she’s done.
She’s adorable, Enjoy her, and new brother too. The days are long, but the years are short.
Andrea says
Thanks Andrea — the fridge is magnetic, but I’m not sure exactly what material it is. It’s from a heating/cooling place — it’s what they make the ductwork out of. It’s about 1/16″ thick and pretty heavy.
Rose says
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love it!!!!!!!!
Charmb says
Andrea, what an awesome job you did on this kitchen. Love it! Would you be able to share the dimensions of the kitchen. Thanks
Evie says
Oh wow, Andrea! I love it! AMAZING! She loves it SO MUCH! :-))) Is the kitchen in your kitchen, or did you put it up in Nora’s new room?
Rachel says
I love this! I saw this idea a few weeks back somewhere but I love what you did even more. Definitely going to keep this one in the files for someday if we have a baby girl!
Andrea says
Thanks Rachel — and boys love the kitchens too 🙂
Felecia Cofield says
Andrea, you did an outstanding job on Nora’s kitchen! You are such a multi-talented person! Nora looks just like you! And she’ll probably have a lot of your talents, as well! She is a very fortunate child to have parents like ya’ll! And the new baby too! I love what you did with this cabinet and I’m so glad you shared the bread-down with us! You live in an area where you can find things like this and at good prices. Our thrift stores are very ‘picked-over,’ being this is a low income area, so not as much to choose from here. Happy Birthday, Nora! Blessings from Bama!
Andrea says
Thanks Felecia,
yes, our thrift stores are very abundant in West Michigan so I can always find great bargains. That’s definitely helpful for projects like this!
Linda M says
That is so stinkin’ cute:)!!! And so much more lasting and some recycling and not crummy plastic….you scored big time!
Tracy says
Oh my Goodness! So cute, so creative. Awesome job!!
Kristy Farrow says
You did a fabulous job! I hope you put it on Pinterest because it deserves to be shared. Lucky little girl and to think under $100.00.
Monique says
Very cute!
Kimberley says
In one word…IMPRESSIVE! It is adorable!
Pat says
Awesome job!
Kim says
Adorable! So much better than anything you could have bought!
Angie says
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this!! It is the most adorable play kitchen I have ever seen! Andrea, you are one talented, creative lady! Lucky little Nora!
Jamie says
Love it! You did a fantastic job. We have a store bought kitchen that was way more than $100 and doesn’t look half as good. Nora will have lots of fun and memories!
Andrea says
Thanks Jamie, and thanks for sharing that you paid more than $100. I felt a little bad spending $100 on a kitchen, but when I started looking at new prices, I figured this was still a good deal (although if you consider my labor, it would be WAY more than $100!!) Labor of love right 🙂
Jen says
My mind is blown. This is fantastic.
Stacie Kaltz says
Andrea it is AWESOME! You guys are so creative! I would never think of anything like that. She is adorable and definately looks like she is loving it!!!
Amy says
Wow Andrea! That is fantastic! What an idea! Much better than all those plastic ones out there. Nora is very lucky to have such a talented Mommy and Daddy!!!!!! 😉