DIY Kids Wood Kitchen

I have been wanting to make E a kitchen for quite sometime. In my original minds eye I had planned on making her one out of an entertainment center. I even went as far as purchasing one and hauling it up 100 stairs from some mans garage. Then it sat in my garage for 6 months and I decided it wasn't exactly what I had in mind after all. So I went exploring on Pinterest (where would I be without you?!) And I found this. It was perfect, came with instructions and was cute as cute could be!

With my new saw and my best friend we set to work. There was cutting, sanding, measuring, and more cutting and sanding. 

And sometimes your projects fight back!

This sweet girl was the best helper! She is really good at hammering!

Oven assembled.... man I can hardly stand how CUTE it is!! This bad boy was a bit of a pain. In the original plans it doesn't have you cut the board small enough to allow the oven door to be flush, so I had to change that. Then I cut a board at 4" out of my scraps to save some money instead of buying a 4" board but forgot that 4" boards aren't actually 4" they are more like 3 3/4" (+/-) so I had to sand down that top lip where it meets the oven door....

I was squatting a bit too long while I was sanding and this is what happened to my toes.... Ouch! 

Putting in a few more nails! 

And they are assembled (I still need to put in the sink and per E's request I made cupboard doors for the sink instead of a curtain.)

So we don't have a jig saw and by this time my budget for this project we pretty tapped, so I got creative and used a drill to drill as much as I could out and then I used an exacto knife to cut out the remaining wood. Let me tell you.... it was a pain in the butt... but it worked. 

I did the same process for the sink....

 And it ended up being TOO SMALL!!!! AHHH! So I grabbed Jakob's scout knife (okay it's a bit bigger than a scout knife) and I started carving away.... it was ridiculously frustrating... BUT IT WORKED! 

 

It was at this point that I decided that I really wanted an extra shelf in the "freezer" section of the fridge. But I didn't have enough wood. Some wood glue took care of that and I pieced together another shelf. 

Time to paint it Elsa blue!

So much paint!!! I painted the inside of the fridge, oven and sink white and then I painted thhe outsides blue. I really liked how it gave it a bit more dimension!

And the big reveal! Drum roll please!!!!

 Seriously though, I couldn't love it more!!!!

 I love that it is three separate pieces which makes for a lot of versatility.

 I love how tall and skinny the fridge is. I saw a few others that were wider but this really just is perfect!

 I added a galvanized piece of metal that I purchased on Amazon here. (You can find them at Home Depot too.) It was too wide and I didn't have any way to cut it so I just folded one side under which worked brilliantly. I then screwed it to the side. Looking back, I'm not sure if I would have done the magnet board as E really doesn't do much with it. She does on occasion hang up some of her pictures but not sure if it was worth the extra $6 for the metal. I had considered doing a chalk board along this side, but then I didn't want them coloring all over the set, which I knew would be inevitable.

 This little magnet was a must! I got in the clearance section at Michaels.

 The oven is my favorite piece. I got the knobs on Amazon here. The pull is from IKEA. Which is the same pull we used on the fridge. I love the plexiglass oven door (which has been jumped on and replaced 3 times now ;).)

 But my favorite feature is the little light inside the oven. I used one of the sticky back lights that you can push on from the dollar store and I stuck it behind where the knobs are so the kiddos could reach it. It just adds that extra little something something!

 As mentioned before the E requested that we putt cupboard doors on instead of a curtian which I love! They magnet shut, and the curtian while adding color just added a bit of chaos in my OCD mind.

 The faucet I purchased on Amazon here. And it was my most expensive accessory. I also ordered a bowl on Amazon that was 9" in diameter and it was TOO BIG! There wasn't enough room for the lip and it just didn't fix. I was soooo disappointed. Thankfully I have a collection of bowls in my kitchen and so I just used one of those. It's approx 6" in diameter which seemed super tiny, but once it was installed it worked like magic!

 All of her pots, pans, tea set and cashier. 

 Oven with the Pizza!

And all of the food fits in the fridge. Most of her pretend food is from IKEA. I love their felt food and their pots and pans. The felt pizza I made last year.

This was SUCH a fun project to make! I seriously was in heaven the whole time!!! Now I want to build sooo many things. Next up, a step stool, and a kitchen table with benches!!!