Wednesday 17 October 2012

Homemade wooden play kitchen

Well, you know the kind of thing I'm sure, something like this or this one below, both of which are along the lines of £140?

Wooden Play Kitchen
Myriad's Play Kitchen
Here's my version, which cost a LOT less!

And yes, the dials do turn!

About a year ago I found this old unit on Freecycle. Thanks to darling hubs' skills, the rather dull 'telephone unit' was transformed by taking off the two original sliding doors below the shelves and turning them into opening doors, one for a cupboard and the other for the oven. 

This is with the sliding doors off and already sanded (it was originally going to be bare wood): I decided against those hob tops in the end

The girls played with it like this for almost a year quite happily
Jude cut a hole in the base to accommodate a spare dog bowl to use as a sink and added a set of old Bakelite knobs scavenged from a rusting cooker. 
Aw - this was October 2011!
A year (and a new baby!) later, it's finally finished!
The cute little shelves to the right is a spice rack found at the local carboot painted the same colour
  My only extravagance for this project was to buy a tin of Annie Sloane's Chalk Paint, which is probably the nicest paint you can buy, both in terms of toxins and odour as well as being environmentally kind. Jude put in a copper pipe to hang a set of hooks from, and I used a marker pen to draw hob rings on top. Total expenditure £17 (for the paint!) - but I only used a third of a tin and plain emulsion would have done the job just as well.

All the goodies on the shelves were bought in charity shops/carboots or gifted: nothing (our poor deprived girls!) is new. Granny very kindly bought a set of lovely fabric foodstuffs from the wonderful (but pricey) Myriad for a birthday, plus all the kitchenalia - pans &c - she bought from Ikea. A few weeks ago I found a boxful of toy grocery supplies in a charity shop for about £2, and everything else has similarly accumulated over the years.

(repeat after me) Re-use, re-purpose, recycle!


One very happy Milly May!

Unit: Freecycle
Paint: £17 for 1L tin in Old White
Knobs & copper pipe: Scavenged!
Sink: Pet food bowl, hole cut to fit.
Hinge and magnets for the doors: £5
Hooks: already had
Marker pen:"

Total cost £22!


I'm joining Fiona for Green Day today!





NB Sorry for the slightly crappy photos - my camera's been playing silly buggers lately... 






18 comments:

  1. Dear Chloe,Very happy girl yfaces! Glad to see them! Iv got a little granddaughter and your little girls reminds me! Very nice job you did in wooden furniture! Congrats you!Have a restful night my dear!
    Dimi..

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    1. Thanks Dimi! I'm writing this at 4:30 am so not so restful, but thank you for your thoughts :-) Hope you see your grandaughter as often as you want - they grow up so quickly! x

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  2. That turned out very fine! I love those kinds of repurposed projects that turn out even better than the pricey store-bought version, and you can tell it was made with love. Nice job!

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    1. Thanks Nikole! It was a real pleasure to make actually, mainly because the original unit was such a perfect shape to start with. Milly plays with it ALL the time too, so I'm thrilled with it! No way we could have afforded to buy it from new, and this way a slightly crappy piece of furniture gets a whole new lease of life: win -win! :-) xx

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  3. Wow it looks fantastic Chloe.

    Great job.

    It will last years and your grandchildren will enjoy too!!

    I love it.

    Have a great weekend

    x Fiona

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    1. It might not last quite that long because Mil keeps backing her bike into it.... it's her latest obsession, cycling round the house! :-)

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  4. That's fabulous!! I wish I had a 'big' version for myself!!

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    1. Wouldn't that be lovely? Not sure my skills extend that far though!!

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  5. Maravilhoso trabalho e a menina um encanto sempre! Adorei!!Dá vontade de brincar!beijos,chica

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    1. Thanks Chica!! I'd invite you over if you were a little closer :-)

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  6. cool! a testament to ingenuity and skill! I love it....

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  7. Adorei a restauração, fotos lindas...um abraço!

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  8. It looks terrific - good job!

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  9. SO looking the part!
    your house appeals to me, did you know?
    n♥

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    1. Ha - not if you saw its true state most days (weeks)... I seem to spend most of my time shunting STUFF from one place to another: every so often a little patch of it looks nice and tidy....

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I love reading your comments, thank you for taking the time to write ♥

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