Another DIY Play Kitchen-Gourmet Style

My little guy is a baker and the little gal is in training! They both can’t get enough of baking   with mommy in her real kitchen and also in their play kitchen. They LOVED the last kitchen I made for them and it got a LOT of use-so much so that he eventually ripped the oven door off. With both kids loving cooking/baking so much-I decided to DIY a bigger and grander play kitchen and refrigerator.

The fridge and kitchen both started out as cabinets bought at the Habitat for Humanity Store here in ABQ. My Father-in-law cut a whole in the piece of wood we purchased from Lowes for the sink. He also mounted it to the top of the cabinet and added the left over wood as a backsplash.

I found a real bar sink at the Habitat store and the “sink” is from Sams Club. I got the idea from a play center in town. I asked her what her sink was and she said it is the tub used to heat water for catering pots above. Perfect and Genius!

This time around I wanted something colorful but also design worthy. I bought the wooden “s” from Joanns and used Liquid Nails to attach it. Now they have a monogrammed kitchen for Sims! The stainless handles were from Lowes and one of the priceier items but they really make it feel “real.”

The right side is the oven. I opted to not have an oven door that opens down so I left the cabinet as it was and just painted a window and added an oven pull.

On top of the oven I put some tin buckets from the Target dollar store to hold all their utensils. The fronts are chalk but I have yet to write anything on there.

The burners are wooden soccer balls from Joanns. I found this idea on Pinterest.  I actually have drawer knobs to add for burner handles but I keep forgetting the hardware at Lowes. Poor kids keep reminding me! Those will probably be mounted to the right of the burners.

The inside of the kitchen holds all their pots and pans, play mixer and microwave. I need to teach those kids some good pot organization! I painted the right side of the cabinet a grey black like the burners so it looks more like an oven. The left side is a cool blue and my son informed me it is actually a dishwasher.

The fridge is a small over the fridge cabinet for a real kitchen. I turned it on its side and voila a fridge! It had a molding strip in the middle that I ripped off and sanded down. I really wanted to do the middle a chalkboard. Again the pull is a stainless one from Lowes turned sideways.

 I thought about writing out a list for you guys so it was photo-pretty but I wanted to share how they use it!

This is the inside of the fridge. I painted it the same blue that is in the inside of the kitchen cabinet. I really thought about NOT painting it because it took 3 coats but in the end it is the little touches that make it complete. Right now they mostly keep their condiments in there. I am slowly adding better quality play food and a bigger variety of play food.  (You see from the left corner that I am working on their food storage/ going to be a market!)

One more look at the finished product! I have even more changes coming up for their play area and can’t wait to get started.

I am linked up at Miss Mustard Seed, The Rustic Pig

Our Ikea Craft Room!

This is our Ikea office/Craft Room. My crafting stuff outgrew out old linen closet storage in our previous home. And my awesome hubby said I could go to Ikea last summer with all the money I had been making from selling all of our extra furniture (from the previous home) and “stuff” on CL in order to make our third bedroom a craft room/office.  I bought lots of things for the house but the main focus was our office and craft room. The hubby uses it as an office/study room and I use it mainly to craft-as in sewing, card making, designing, blogging, magazine clipping, etc.

I made the pinboard by finding a plain oak framed cork board for $3 at Goodwill. Then I spray painted the frame black and hot glued the fabric (from Joanns) to the cork around the edges Custom board for $15.

I found these red storage bins at Target. They store all my extra fabrics and my current projects. The “shelf” underneath my Ikea buddy gave to me because she had it extra from her last trip. It is a Grundtal towel holder from Ikea. I use it to display/organize my favorite fabrics.

These were the Bygel system bars from Ikea. These beauties were a steal at $3 for each bar and 99 cents for each red container! We put all of our office supplies and crafting tools. You see our scissors, knives and excacto blades labeled as “cutting.” I am still in the process of cutting vinyl labels for each container with my Silhouette machine.

This is part of the Bygel system too and it holds buttons, paper clips and whatever else we decide to use it for.

These shelves were also from Ikea at $2.50 for each set of red brackets and $6 a shelf-another steal.

The boxes were from Ikea again at $3 for two.

This is my old metal stand in our kitchen. I took half of it down so it was shorter. Now it holds my sewing machine, Silhouette cutter, laminatr and  serger.

This paper organizer was found at Goodwill for $3 but it was an 80ish brown fake wood color. I simply painted the metal red-although now I see I really MISSED some spots. Second coat anyone? Gee..sorry.

This red tray holds our printer paper and my vinyl in a magazine holder (laid flat) and my cards  plus folders are held in a plate holder.

The bookshelf used to hold our kids toys. We since paired down so they only have a 6 whole cubby system. We use this for my husband’s school books and hobby books.

These are our AWESOME DESKS!! They are each 36 inches wide and 59 inches long. We put ours facing each to create one large workspace for crafting or when we are playing board games. My hubby had one MUST requirement: large desk for his monitors, keyboard and school books. He needs a deep desk because many times he is programming and needs to have his books at the ready to look something up. These desk were a bargain at $60 for the tops and $12 for 4 legs. We were pretty excited for these since we have always had “we will make it work desks.”

I also found these red trash cans for $1.99 and we each have our own!

I made these curtains (still yet to hem) from the same line of fabric I used for pinboard. I just LOVE these fabrics. I looked and looked for a good red fabric scheme to go with our  red office. I really didn’t want to use Chevron since it seems EVERYONE is on the Chevron bus.

I also spray-painted the black frame red for my husbands Ironman poster. Now the red really enhances our color scheme!

Other side of desks….see how much space?!

I love love love the red. The little desk is our little guys’. I found it at Goodwill ages ago and it just happened to be red. Love happy coincidences :)

I laid out the remaining pinboard fabric because I have yet to reupholster my desk chair but you get the point.

Well I hope you love it as much as I do. I know I always prefer neutral but only if I can’t decorate the room to be completely colorful. Since we focused on this room-I was able to work red, black and grey throughout and I love the result. I also want to thank my Dad because he put all this together: the shelves, desks and Bygels, drilling, measuring and making it perfect!

I am linked up at IheartOrganizing