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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

My biggest craft yet!

Whew! Finally, a chance to blog. And, something to blog about.

Summer is always jam packed with things to do and I wanted to focus on this one BIG project in my spare time. Like I have a lot of that. But, haven't you ever had about a million projects all in the works at once? Some started a little, some almost finished, some waiting to be started including all the suppplies bought. Yeah, this one was special so I wanted to get it done and done well.

I first saw a play kitchen a year or so ago on a craft blog somewhere and they began popping up frequently. They were made out of an end table or old nightstand or something like that. I thought they were pretty cute and maybe someday I would make one.

Then, came Pinterest. Bad, bad, bad, addictive Pinterest :)

It was there I saw kitchens made out of old entertainment centers. It was there that I decided I WOULD make one someday. Soon. The hunting began for the perfect piece.

Finally in April I was united with the perfect entertainment center. My mom works at a church and each spring they host a 'rummage sale' as a fundraiser. Because my mom works there, she sees everything before the sale as it comes in and is priced. The best kind of pre-sale :)

My mom sent me a picture and I told her I wanted it. Unfortunately, when we went to pick it up that night it wouldn't fit in our van:( I was literally heartbroken. The perfect piece at a reasonable price-$40!! Luckily one of my mom's volunteers who was there that night with us offered to drive the entertainment center the hour to our house in his pickup truck the following week!

This piece had several hands in on it and is filled with so much love!!

I am going to put LOTS of pictures in this post. I took pictures of the entire process. I am going to show exactly how I did everything. When researching this project I would find ideas and inspiration and wonder how they did that or what they used. There are no secrets to my projects, I won't hide anything from you! So, bear with me and here we go.

I will try and include prices on everything but I don't know exactly how much was spent but I wouldn't put it over $100. For a huge, solid, heavy, hopefully long lasting kitchen set :)


Her are the before AND after shots:


About two months after the center came to our house we finally got started on it. My husband pulled out the power tools and began taking the doors and hardware off for me...


Our daughter had lots of fun with this part of the project :)




My husband cut holes for our sink and then I started to paint....
 and, paint...


 AND, PAINT!!

This wouldn't have been so bad except right around the time we did this was when the heatwave started to choke us. Temps near 100 during the day and in the 80's at night made the painting even harder...I hate sweat! I did three coats of paint (we used paint we had leftover from the last time we painted our living room) and I almost did a fourth. Then I decided that since this was for a two year old and would be decorated so noone was going to notice anyways we stopped at three.

The oven door was spray painted using a Krylon silver metallic paint.

After the painting was complete my husband had to put everything back together. Look at all of those pieces!

The doors of the 'fridge' had been glass and we of course removed those. The hubby bought a big piece of plywood (I think) and cut it to fit. We also used it on the back of the entertainment center to close off the area where the TV would go. We paid $10 for it and it would have been much cheaper if I hadn't been so fed up with painting. I wanted one that was already white so naturally it was about three times as much as the 'natural' one.

For the stove top I got a bit creative. I bought some unfinished wooden plaques and swirlies at Jo-Ann's. I painted the swirls with the same metallic spray paint and the plaques I painted orange and black with craft paint I had on hand.


I used two large 'burners' and two smaller 'burners' just like my stove has. The knobs are wooden pieces I got at Jo-Ann's and they already had holes in the bottoms. I spray-painted them and my husband somehow attached them so they turn :)

All of the handles were added to replace the wooden knobs the center came with. I got them in a six pack for $9.99 at Target. For the stove door I moved the handle from the side to the top and moved the hinges to the bottom so it opened like a stove.


Do you see my 'tile' backsplash? :) I got a roll of contact paper at Big-Lots for $2.99 and used my Cricut to cut it out and then hand applied it all. It may be my favorite feature!

The fridge didn't really seem like a fridge to me so I glued some of those magnetic letters to it. Much better :)



The sink was a bowl we found at Wal-mart for $1 in their summer/picnic section. I like that it's red. The fixture is an old one that my husband had saved from our last update. Finally, a reason to be glad he keeps everything! The window is actually a picture of our back yard-the same thing I can see from my kitchen! I printed it as a 8x10 and my husband made a window frame for it. I made the curtains from a fat quarter and hung them on a dowel using a set of those 3M removable hooks. The basket is a last minute find I got for $4 and I am working on getting more flowers for it. My mom gave her that empty soap bottle because she told me her sink needed soap.  She is obsessed with washing her hands these days :)

The other side of the 'wall' really had me stumped. The hubby said the board wasn't strong enough to hold a shelf or anything and I was bummed. And at a loss. I finally decided to make a clock. I used a Chinet plate, some scrapbook supplies and number stickers. Perfect for the space. I used another fat quarter to match the curtains to make her a pot holder and oven mitt.


This may have been one of my most involved projects but it is currently my favorite. My daughter loves it and I hope we have it for years to come. Plus, I love to hear her tell people "mommy and daddy made me a kitchen".

A successful project if I ever saw one!


OneCreativeMommy.com


Reduce, Reuse, UPcycle

19 comments:

Wesens-Art said...

This is so cute!!!
Greetings from Germany!

Kathryn said...

Wow! Love the amazing detail-- the tile backsplash, curtains and matching oven mitt & pot holder, the knobs that turn, and my favorite: the "swirlie" stovetop burners! My 3-year-old would LOVE one of these... If I could have the patience to do it! ;)

Shiloh said...

What a super cute kitchen! I love the transformation. I bet she loves it!

Unknown said...

Thanks so much for sharing with us at Someday Crafts today! I will be featuring your project on my round up of party favorites tonight! Please stop back in an grab a Featured at Someday Crafts Button for your blog. Thanks for the inspiration!

Melissa Coleman said...

This is so stinking cute! I really wished I would have done something like this for my daughter instead of buying a plastic one when we did. I didn't start seeing this idea until afterwards. It's so much cuter.

xoxo,
Melissa

Rachel Sue said...

This is adorable! I would love to feature this on Reduce, Reuse, Upcycle. Feel free to stop by and grab a featured button. Thanks!

Angela said...

This is genius! :)

Kathy Penney said...

Love this right down to the magnetic fridge panels! Found you via Friday Fun Party.

Natasha Mairs - Serenity You said...

this is just so fantastic!!!! love it!!!

would love it if you could share this on my link party Serenity Saturday, that runs from Saturday - Thursday @ www.serenityyou.blogspot.com

Hani said...

How fun is that! YOur little girl will be thrilled. Thanks for linking up at Friday Fun Party. Have a nice weekend. :)

Heidi@OneCreativeMommy.com said...

This makes me want to dump my plastic kitchen! What a great idea--especially with these types of entertainment centers so easy to find now days. I'm hosting a linky party "One Creative Weekend" at OneCreativeMommy.com. I'd love for you to visit and link up this idea and/or anything else you'd like to share.

Kathryn Ferguson Griffin said...

It's so cute! Thank you for sharing this at my Make it Pretty Monday party at The Dedicated House. Hope to see your prettiness again on Monday. Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse

Heidi@OneCreativeMommy.com said...

I’m so glad you linked this up at One Creative Weekend! I love it! I hope to see you back tomorrow.

Heidi@OneCreativeMommy.com said...

I'll be featuring this idea tomorrow on One Creative Weekend at OneCreativeMommy.com this week. Please stop by and grab a featured button if you’d like.

Kendra | Our Homemade Happiness said...

Good job! It's way cuter than anything I've seen for sale!

MommaChelle said...

wow yours DID turn out great! how cute is that backspash and little window curtain! so much fun! a lot of work though, huh?!
http://mommachelleblog.blogspot.com

Kristin said...

Oh, wow! This is awesome! My little one would LOVE this! =)

Jen said...

Would you mind giving a few dimensions? I'd love to know the height from the floor to the stovetop/sink area and also the width of that same area. Thank you!

Unknown said...

Did you prep the wood at all? As in sanding? Primer? Thanks!

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