Play Kitchen

For Christmas this year, we wanted to give our little girl a big present and I really wanted it to be something we made.  She loves pulling stuff our of the one kitchen cabinet that is purposely not baby-locked, so why not give her her own little kitchen!

After a LOT of searching Pinterest for ideas, I was determined that I was going to find a night stand or end table of some sort at a thrift store or off Craig's list that we would then transform.  My husband was determined to convince me that we should pay way too much for any number of adorable play kitchens.

So I spent a Saturday afternoon going to THREE thrift stores (with little girl in tow) and found something I thought would work.  So $15 later I brought home an end table and a plan.  It took a little creative convincing to get my husband to see my vision. Once he realized he'd get to use several power tools, he was in.

Here's the process (minus a few steps) in pictures.

All of the painting, stove front making and details happened at night and I completely forgot to take pictures of everything between the above picture and the finished kitchen.

Ikea has the most adorable pots and pans set

And kitchen utensil set

Some cut up kitchen twine makes pretty awesome spaghetti - and let me tell you, she LOVES 'making' spaghetti!

Hubby went a little crazy with the Ikea fruit and veggie baskets too.

Cutting fruit is a bit hit too.

It took her a few minutes to realize this was sitting in our rather small living room (which was made even smaller with the Christmas tree) but she eventually warmed up to it and has played with it every day since.