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!