We did it. Holy cats, we did it.
Just a few days before Christmas we started Clara’s homemade play-kitchen (in secret of course, since she thinks Santa brought it)… and we actually finished it on Christmas Eve! Yes folks, it was a Christmas miracle. We went into it with a goal of spending under $99 since this basic play-kitchen from Ikea is that price – but we wanted to add a bit more detail like oven knobs that actually turn, an oven light that goes on and off, a wire baking rack inside the oven instead of a shelf, and a real faucet (not plumbed of course, but movable!). So here’s how we made our own little Clara version in the last 72 hours before Christmas, for what ended up being $74.
More pics in a moment (lots more!), but first the dirty details. The core of our homemade kitchen was initially going to be a real kitchen cabinet, so we had it around already (yessss!). It was actually the one we bought for $14 from the Habitat For Humanity ReStore when we intended to hang a big microwave next to our pantry. Heck, we even hung it temporarily when determining where we wanted the electrician to add our microwave plug a while back.
But in the end it never got used (since we opted for a smaller microwave – more on that here) so we hung onto it in preparation for its eventual rebirth as a play kitchen.
It was a little low (only 15″) so we began by building it up on the bottom with a quick box made out of a 1 x 4″ remnant that we had in the basement. We offset it from the front a bit so it would even look like a real base cabinet in a kitchen (toekick and all).
John also had a spare 1 x 12″ board in his scrap wood pile that, when paired with a leftover plank from our desk-building project, fit perfectly as a counter and low backsplash. Well, perfectly once they were cut down a bit.
Picture me rubbing my hands together maniacally and saying things like “it’s all going according to plan!”
But before attaching all that, we had to build our sink area. We hit up the ReStore again and snagged a real faucet and handle for $10 (and inadvertently crashed their company Christmas party in the process – sorry ReStorians, thanks for letting us quickly grab that faucet!). We thought those two real kitchen features paired with a metal bowl (found at Target for $7) would make for a purty chrome and stainless steel kitchen sink area. Only the best for our girl. Haha.
After tracing around the lip of the bowl, John jigsawed a hole just inside the line (so the edge of the bowl had something to rest on). It didn’t have to be perfect since the bowl would be covering it.
After cutting matching holes in both the counter and the cabinet top (and sanding them both smooth), the bowl was officially transformed into a sink – just by dropping it in.
I wish I had peeled that sticker off for this pic, but you get the idea.
Adapting the sink hardware was also pretty straightforward. The faucet was pretty much ready to go, but the handle had lots of tubing that was just going to be in the way under the counter.
Luckily, with a wrench and a copper pipe cutter we removed the excess mumbo jumbo. Oh, and since the bottom of the fixture will be concealed between the top of the cabinet and the counter we don’t have to worry about Clara messing with it.
Then it just took drilling some holes…
…and securing both fixtures to the underside of the counter (though the handle was so thick it required an extra block of wood to keep it secured).
Now that we could finally secure the counter to the cabinet, it was starting to look like a play kitchen! So yes, this is where we got all weird / annoying / giddy / hyper.
But just wait, there’s more excitement in store. Check this out…
Every play kitchen needs an oven right? So we bought some $3 fence hinges to convert one door to open downwards.
And we also snagged a piece of pre-cut plexi from Home Depot (for just $3!) so that we could give Clara’s oven a proper window (the girl’s gotta check on her souffles). We completely lucked out that this pre-cut pane was the perfect size.
We weren’t so lucky when cutting the hole for the plexi though. John can’t figure out if it’s him or his Dremel Trio, but he has trouble getting straight cuts sometimes (his words, not mine). It looked okay from a distance…
…but up close he was less than happy with it. Yes, there may have even been some hushed cursing.
So after a dash to the craft store (we had to buy materials for some oven knobs anyway) we grabbed some thin pieces of craft wood and cut a miniature frame to trim out the imperfect opening. Huzzah for Plan B!
We didn’t want to actually attach the plexi until we were done priming and painting, so it was onto making some knobs for the oven. I guess knobs are usually for a stove, but we figured it wouldn’t hurt to have something for Clara to spin and interact with. So we took some small wood discs from Ben Franklin (for $2) and drilled a hole in the center for a washer and bolt.
Luck was back in our favor when it came to drilling holes for the nut on the back of the oven door. The Kreg Jig drillbit (which has a small pilot drill on the tip before becoming larger) made the perfect sized holes for not only sinking the nut into the door (since our oven wouldn’t close if they weren’t flush) but also kept the nuts from spinning too, which made attaching everything really easy.
Final attachment of the knobs wouldn’t happen ’til after painting, but here’s a preview (check out the assembled one on the left). John used some of the leftover craft wood (that he had from the Plan B oven window frame) to cut some little arrows that would later get glued over the bolt head on each knob. But back to these in a minute.
Now that everything was constructed, we snuck it upstairs to the sunroom after Clara was asleep and primed the whole darn thing (after patching some holes with wood putty). It was actually not that bad since we were in priming and painting mode for our real kitchen too. Then it was painting time, and we did all those finishing touches like gluing in the oven plexiglass and adding hardware over the next 48 hours.
The rest of the finishing touches are easier to explain while looking at the “after” kitchen, so through the magic of the Internet we’ll fast forward a bit:
We primed and painted it using leftover paint that we already had. The top is our kitchen wall color (Sesame by Benjamin Moore) and the base is the same stuff we used for our office cabinets (Benjamin Moore’s Advance paint in Decorator’s White in a satin finish). We painted the inside of the pantry Sesame also, but did the oven in a medium grey thanks to a test pot of paint that we had leftover from grey-washing our living room beams (in Benjamin Moore’s Shaker Gray). It’s sort of hard to see in the pics, but in person the gray oven and the grellow cabinet are fun little details to help each side feel more defined.
To dress up the inside of the oven we used heavy duty velcro to hold up a simple tap light, so Clara can actually “turn the oven on” just by pushing it. We also found this black wire shelf (it’s actually one of those bottom-of-the-sink drying trays) at Target for $5. It definitely helps things feel more oven-ish in there.
Oh, and here’s what the plexi-glass looks like from the back. We just used some clear silicone caulk to adhere it to the backside. That keeps it in place, but is totally invisible from the front thanks to the blessing-in-disguise frame that John had to add. Three cheers for happy accidents along the way.
We also whipped up a last-minute shelf on the sink side when we realized that most of the play food Clara was getting from her grandparents (they sweetly offered to give play-kitchen-themed Christmas gifts, knowing what we had up our sleeves) would be dwarfed by one big open cabinet. She’s got the basics covered… soup, cereal, crackers, pasta, tuna, sugar, milk (oh wait, maybe this girl needs a fridge someday…).
We opted not to add a stovetop so that she’d have more flexible-to-use-for-other-stuff-too counter space (you know, for mixing and setting out dishes, etc). It has already been a handy choice because there’s room to house the play toaster her Grammy and Tom-Tom bought her for Christmas (yes, it’s kind of the cutest thing we’ve ever seen). But I did make her a makeshift hot plate of sorts, so she has one burner to play with (instead of four space-hogging circles). What does she use it for? To fry sandwiches, apparently.
All that little DIY hot plate entailed was buying a $5 trivet from Bed Bath & Beyond and a $4 round of wood from Michael’s (which I painted teal with leftover paint from this project) and then drilled into it in three spots (to allow the feet of the trivet to “sink” inside the wood round so it was nice and solid). Then I used a flat washer and a screw to hold the trivet into the round of wood from the center. Voila: instant burner.
Oh and I used little felt furniture feet on the bottom of my burner (to lift it up ever so slightly to keep it from scratching the counter) which you can sort of see in the picture below.
Here’s a closer look at the final oven knobs too. I sprayed them with leftover spray paint (Rustoleum’s Titanium Silver that we bought to test on our old kitchen hardware). It’s not a perfect match to the new shiny chrome door hardware ($5 each from Home Depot) and our sleek sink and faucet, but it’s close enough. And it sort of glitters, which is semi-adorable (new rule: every play kitchen should have at least one glittering element).
We actually bought three of those Home Depot door handles so that one could act as a towel bar on the side of the sink. Little details like that were kind of my favorite part. As for hatching this whole kitchen plan, John and I took Clara and Burger for a nice long walk and chatted about things we could add to “our kitchen” (didn’t want to spoil the play-kitchen surprise for Clara) which is how we came up with things like the towel bar, the wire rack, the oven tap light, all the other little details like those spinning knobs that we thought would make it Clara’s favorite thing ever. The brainstorming part of a project is always my favorite. So much possibility…
So now I think you’ve see just about every nook and cranny of this puppy (can you tell we’re proud of it?)…
So how about a budget breakdown?
- Secondhand cabinet (from the ReStore): $14
- Secondhand faucet & handle (also from the ReStore): $10
- Stainless sink bowl (from Target): $7
- Oven knobs and frame (from Ben Franklin craft store): $5
- Hinges for oven door (from Home Depot): $3
- Pre-cut plexiglass and wood trim for oven window (from Home Depot): $4
- Wire oven shelf (from Target): $5
- Tap light for the oven (from Home Depot): $2
- Wood counter, backsplash, and toe kick: $0 (already owned scrap lumber, but it might be $15 or so to buy it all)
- Trivet (from Bed Bath & beyond) and wood round (from Michael’s) for hot plate: $9
- Three hardware handles for oven, cabinet, and towel bar (from Home Depot): $15
- Primer and paint for counter, cabinets, and hot plate: $0 (already owned, but a few $4 paint testers would do the trick if you needed to buy it)
- Miscellaneous wood pantry items (by Plan Toys): $0 (Christmas gift from Grammy and Tom Tom, but they might cost around $15 if you were to buy them)
- Play toaster (also by Plan Toys): $0 (another super thoughtful gift from John’s parents!)
- Total project cost: $74
And as they say in the commercials, watching Clara play with what Santa brought her: priceless.
If only a certain larger kitchen were this easy to knock out. Oh well, I guess that’s the difference between one cabinet and 20 of them. But I gotta say that this little guy is getting a ton of action. Stuffed animals regularly get bathed in the sink, fake slices of lettuce and tomato get toasted, boxes of cereal and crackers get baked in the oven, and random cars, balls, and trains get stuffed into the pantry cabinet. It’s also really nice to have a little “Clara zone” shaping up along the living room wall right off of the kitchen (we moved it to the wall on the left side of her new desk after Christmas). Good stuff.
Oh and oddly enough, folks ask us all the time what we want to “parlay” this blog-thing into, and for the past few years we’ve never really known how to answer that question because we love blogging as-is (we don’t want a TV show or anything – ack, that makes us break out in hives – so, we’ve actually turned those opportunities down a few times). But I can honestly say that “designing” Clara’s desk and her play kitchen have been hugely amazing and fun projects for both of us. So for once I might have an answer the next time someone asks what sort of side projects we’d love to end up doing in a decade or two (right along with the blog of course, since YHL = our first baby). Designing cute and affordable kid furniture (which seems to be surprisingly hard to find for some reason) might just be the sweet spot. Ya never know, right? So I’m just putting that out there into the universe. Who knows where we’ll end up…
Katie says
Ah-mazing! I am so in love with this and want to get started on a play kitchen for my little girl right now! (she’s 2 months younger than Clara and would absolutely love that kitchen!!) Do you remember the link you had about a play kitchen that another blogger made from an old entertainment unit? If you know the link off hand that would be great, but I will do some searching on my own too. This may have been asked already (I didn’t read all the comments, sorry!) but did you put the faucet handle on the left side on purpose since Clara seems to be becoming a lefty? Just curious…as a righty it looked odd to me at first but then I remembered Clara’s tendency to be a lefty :) You guys continue to amaze me with your ideas and talents…so inspirational. Good luck on your last few hours before the book is due! I’m sure you’ll be happy to have a little more breathing time once that’s officially handed in :)
Katie says
Found the blog with the entertainment unit turned play kitchen so no need to find it for me! Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
So glad!
xo,
s
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, we made her a little leftie knob, just since she definitely favors that hand! As for that play kitchen, we blogged about it on BabyCenter so if you click the blue BabyCenter bubble on our sidebar you can scroll back through our posts to see it! Hope it helps!
xo,
s
winnie says
next project: a fridge and a microwave! :)
Erin says
I would have been obsessed with this as a child. In fact, I am still jealous!
Great job!!!!
Gabbi says
Oh my gosh…that was seriously the cutest video! She is the best and so are you guys…what an amazing Christmas gift for her!
Lane says
What a wonderful gift. I’m sure that’s going to be handed down for generations. Great work John and Sherry!
Gale says
Oh, too too too cute!!!!! I love it! So much fun for Clara and for us! :)
GREAT JOB!
JenWoodhouse.com says
OMG. Of all the amazing stuff you guys do, I think this is the one I’m most impressed with! I love that DIY kitchen for Clara… so sweet and how awesome that you guys made it from scratch (almost)! You are amazing. Well done, guys!
Rachel says
Love! This just makes me so happy!! What a lovely gift.
kathy says
My dad was just talking about how much fun he had making a kitchen set for my siblings and me back in the 70s! It was one of our favorite gifts! He said he got the plans for a fridge, stove and sink from the Boston Globe and, boy, did his hard work pay off! Good work!
Dan Polley (@polleydan) says
That is such an awesome idea for a gift. Amazing.
Erin @ His & Hers says
SO cute, and SO much better than the Ikea one. Yours is absolutely adorable. I love the little details! I hope I have kids who want a play kitchen someday! :)
Jenna at Homeslice says
how great! it’s so fun that you made your own. I also love that it’s a little more realistic than most ‘kiddy’ kitchens. Great job you two! (again.)
Shreya says
That. Is. Amazing.
You are wonderful parents to such a lovely daughter!
Sarah D says
This is the sweetest thing I have ever seen! I’m sure Clara will treasure that for years. I’m 22 but I still hang on to the beautiful rocking horse my father made for me out of solid cherry when I was 3. I’m saving it to pass down to my kids someday!
Kathryn says
It is very cute! I may have to steal this idea for our kids, who are turning 4 and 1 at the end of February. Our almost 4 year old son wants nothing to do with his workbench toy, but is always puttering around in the kitchen with me.
On another note, be careful how much you post about your time “helping” in Santa’s workshop. You’ll be amazed at how quick Clara will get perceptive to little inconsistencies like that. We’ve had to get super-careful with our 5 year old.
Elisabeth says
Clara’s little voice gets me every time! She is so stinking cute! =)
Olga@StardustDecorStyle says
OK this is great! You know, I was reading this post with my 5- year old daughter and she was watching how you guys created the kitchen out of a simple old cupboard. She was amazed! Then we watched the video with Clara and she asked me to translate it for her. So I did. And then a question rises… “mom, why did they say that the Santa brought the kitchen, since they’ve made it by themselves???” Oooops! Busted! Maybe you should consider marking this post as “Adults content only”! LOL!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Totally busted! Yikes!
-John
Kristin says
DEAR GOD IT’S THE CUTEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN!!!!
Amanda says
OBSESSED. I don’t even have a kid but now I want one just so I can build them a play kitchen this amazing. You guys never cease to amaze me! :)
Theresa says
One of the cutest videos EVER! What a sweety! I just love her.
Alyssa says
Love this so much! My parents surprised my sister and I with a wooden house for our barbies when we were younger and it was always our favorite thing ever to play with! It was so much more lifelike than a store bought one; I remember my dad even cutting down carpet samples to cover the floors :) Even after years of use, it’s still intact and will hopefully be passed down to the next little girl. What a great Christmas gift, I’m sure Clara will treaure it as I did my barbie house!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s so sweet!!
xo,
s
jan says
wow – that’s simply amazing!
Rachel S. says
ADORABLE!!!! You guys are awesome!
Erika says
Absolutely adorbs! Your skillz never cease to amaze me! The video of Clara telling you what she can all do with her new kitchen is presh!
kelsy says
I just have to say… that play kitchen is pretty farkin cute!!! WTG! C seemed beyond excited!
jeannette says
as a writer and a reader, i find “parlaying a blog” rather a strange not to say rude question. it is enough to blog. i’m with you on that.
the upcycled play kitchen is genius. i was just discussing the problem of buying children’s gifts that don’t go straight to the landfill. i’m not going to be doing that any more.
happy new year, guys. clara’s first big girl christmas. it is priceless.
xxx
jeannette says
oh, p.s. did i discern that her smile is most like grandpa petersik’s?
YoungHouseLove says
Totally!
xo,
s
Erica says
That is sooooo cute! If or when I have kids, I want to make one of these little play kitchens myself. I saved a whole bunch of pictures (before Pinterest existed!) How cute that you guys made one for Clara as well!
Ali says
I think this is your most bad-ass project to date. :) And we have looked at play kitchens and for $74, that is way better than what you could have purchased for the same amount. Nice work!!
Destiny says
This is so seriously my all-time favorite post for so many reasons. It shows both your extreme (unreal) talent as DIYer’s and your sweet and loving side as absolutely terrific parents.
I love any post that includes a video of Clara. She’s such a happy baby – a real cutie! (And looks a lot like John’s Dad, IMO)
This gift will mean so much to Miss Clara in the years to come and it looks like it just might have been the inspiration for growing the Petersik brand too. Very cool!
BIG blessings in 2012!
Ashley @ House on Pender says
That is the cutest thing EVER! The best part is “Santa” could also create a cute little matching refrigerator for next year. :)
We are going to try to whip one of those up for our little one next year. You guys are SO creative!!
Dana says
Wow! Good work, Petersiks!
Jena @ HappyLittleMesses says
I’m reading through this post and saying oh my goodness through the whole thing…I swear it was over and over, maybe 15 times. This is so beautiful!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks you guys! You’re all so sweet!
xo,
s
Jenny says
Wow!! I wish I had one of those when I was little! I don’t have any little ones of my own, but reading this post makes me wish that I had a reason to make one.
Becky says
This is so absolutely adorable. I’m excited to see what more you guys have in store for Clara projects. I will have to save them all for when I get around to having kids!
emi says
Big HUGE sap here. You two are such great parents. Each time my finger scrolled down this post, I was blown more and more away by your creativity. By the end of the post (since I always like to save my Clara videos to the very end) I teared up as I saw her begin to explore mommy and daddy’s (I mean Santa’s elves) new creation. Oh the learning and development she will gain from the loving creation of two such beautiful parents. =)
michelle says
goodness she’s too adorable! can i have her? jk jk :P that is one seriously nifty kitchen. and you’re right — if only these quick fixes could be applied to real-life, much larger kitchens. :)
Meaghan says
I just smiled the entire time I watched that video! Clara reminds me so much of my oldest daughter (now 4 years old) when she was Clara’s age- such the talker and just so sweet and interested in everything. She is just the sweetest thing- Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to your sweet little family. :)
em says
This is so great- Clara will love it for years to come. If I may, I just wanted to share a project we made that you might consider in the future (and one you will certainly do a better job with!) My kids love this almost as much as they love their play kitchen. http://www.ohdeedoh.com/ohdeedoh/diy/a-play-store-from-ikea-components-136857
YoungHouseLove says
Adorable!!! I love it!
xo,
s
Sarah says
What an awesome kitchen!! It is so cute and I love the oven light…. And I must say how amazing clara’s vocabulary is. I have a little girl a couple of weeks older and she is not saying nearly as much. Not that I mind since all kids grow at their own pace….I just love hearing her as I know that is what we are in store for soon!
kirah says
This is lovely! Definitely going into my dream box for when I have kids!
Elisabeth says
You guys are creative geniuses! Cue the maniacal laughter! But seriously, I took one look a this and told my husband “we’re making a play grill and mini fridge.” He didn’t even bat an eye and said “Done and done.” It’s a little harder for us to be DIYers when you lack some power tools and you live in an apartment but this will happen. And it will be just as glorious.
PS. A little off topic but how the heck do you get on pinterest? I have requested an invite about four times and nada. zip. zilch. Did you have blackmail on the ceo of pinterest or something? Is a medical exam required? I have a dire need for pinning!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- I love a play grill and a mini fridge! Sounds awesome! As for getting on pinterest, go to our Facebook page and just sweetly ask for an invite! Someone should email one over to you soon hopefully!
xo,
s
Michelle says
I loved watching my kiddos “work” at their play kitchen. Great job….it really is beautiful!
gld says
Clara is SO cute in that video! And that diy play kitchen is the BEST I’ve seen on the web yet. Amazing work.
mp says
Clara is one of the luckiest little girls in the world!
Ayisha says
Priceless is correct. Watching that video brought tears to my eyes as I’m sure it did to yours. My husband and I are trying to start our family. Since it hasn’t happened yet, we bought my 2 year old niece one of those pricey Step2 kitchens for Christmas. I was so determined to buy that kitchen, assemble it and deliver it to her on Christmas morning that I broke my rear view mirror off trying to fit the 35″x 35″ box into my two door car. After returning the thing and repurchasing it at another toy store closer to my home, I got my husbands SUV and brought it home. All that work and sacrifice (rear-view mirror) was worth it when that little girl ran screaming to that kitchen on Christmas morning and began putting her stuffed food in the fridge. I was so happy that she was so happy that I wanted to cry. The joy that you two felt when Clara started playing with that kitchen must have been tenfold because of all of the work put into making your vision a reality. I just have to say that I started following your blog back when you posted about dyeing your wedding dress and it was the first time I had ever read a blog. I now follow about 20 blogs daily and in so many ways, it has changed my life. Keep up the good work you guys. Ayisha from Farmington,Michigan
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, what a sweet story! I love that you got to see how happy your niece was with her kitchen! I can’t wait for you to have a little one of your own – it sounds like you’ll be the best momma ever!
xo,
s
Evan says
You’re good parents. Keep it up.
Meghan says
Clara just made my day!! What a little angel! <3
Melissa says
Loving this!! You guys did an AMAZING job!
Leslie N says
You guys did such an awesome job. That’s one of the best kitchens I’ve seen around!! It’s always better for the little one when the knobs and stuff actually turn! Great job!!!
Jan C. says
That turned out super cute. I still have the homemade kitchen set that my dad made for my sister and me. He built a stove with two “ovens” and a drawer. The burners are made with plain old silver thumbtacks in circular patterns, which I have always thought was so clever. The other piece is an upper/lower cabinet with a linoleum countertop. Just the right height for a teeny tiny chef. All of my kids have played with this kitchen set. It is a family heirloom and I love it, just as I am sure Clara will love the set her mom and dad made her!
YoungHouseLove says
So charming! I love it!
xo,
s