Today I thought I’d spotlight a few awesome wooden play kitchens, starting with the one my husband built for our daughter!
He put so much time and energy in the project. In his words, he wanted it to be more than just a play toy- he wanted it to be an heirloom. I think he accomplished his goal!
We used the building plans from Lowe’s Creative Ideas as the basis for the kitchen. Here are a few highlights on how we made it special:
- We used stainless steel paint for doors of the appliances. We decided to design our play kitchen to look like our stainless steel appliances in our own kitchen.
- We used Rustoleum Stone spray paint for the oven interior.
- The oven knobs came from an appliance shop off of a discarded stove.
- We scored a great deal on eBay for the sink- so we were able to put a real sink in her little kitchen.
While I’m not much of a woodworker, I did help paint. I also made a collection of felt play food for her. For details on the pattern I used to make the felt food, see this post here.
If you’re contemplating making a play kitchen for your little one’s Christmas present, the best advice that I can give is to start early. It takes time to create and paint, and if you’re like us you can only work for a limited amount of time each night while they are sleeping.
You can always design your own plans, but there are a few good free ones out there. The one that we used from Lowe’s was a good step-by step plan, but Ana White also offers another neat one on her website. See the photos and plans for it here. Using a plan allows you to focus more on the design and less on the execution.
What’s the best part about building your own play kitchen for your kids? It’s knowing that your making more than a toy- you’re creating something that they will cherish forever!
wow! These are absolutely gorgeous! My nieces would love these!! thanks for sharing!
Your husbands play kitchen is amazing! Very impressive! (linked from Sew Much Ado)
Thanks you for your kind words! My daughter loves her kitchen so much!
~Melanie
Amazing! I love that it’s stainless. I’d love for you to link this to my first ever linky party. http://trophyw.blogspot.com/2011/08/linky-party-1.html -Tara
thanks for linking to Take-A-Look Tuesday – I featured you today!! – Mandy, http://www.SugarBeeCrafts.com
This is such a cute idea! It looks like so much fun. And how special that her dad made it! I have a party going on over at my blog if you want to join! I’d love to have you! Check it out under the “Stache Party” page on my blog: mylilpumpkinpatch.blogspot.com
All I can say is WOW!! Big time! As soon as we have a house with a bit more ROOM I am going to have to make one. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!
Love this! And the felt food you made is awesome. We built our son’s play kitchen too, it was a lot of fun!
My daughter would love this! Great job. 🙂 Would love to have you link this up to my {wow me} wednesday link party going on right now over on my blog.. if you haven‘t already. 😉 Hope to see you there. {I’m a new follower.}
Ginger
gingersnapcrafts.blogspot.com
I made the play refigerator from the same plans from Lowe’s! Here’s mine: http://ajennuinelife.blogspot.com/2010/09/diy-play-refrigerator.html
Love the kitchen! My husband and I are thinking of doing the same thing For our little girl for Christmas (and I’ve already been sewing felt food, too!). How much did the kitchen cost to build?
The Mascarenas Family- I don’t remember the exact cost- I just remember it was cheaper than the average priced kitchen that we looked at at Toys R Us. We saved money by purchasing things from our local building supply salvage store.
Melanie
Hey, I just wanted to stop by and say thanks so much for joining the Stache Party in August and sharing your creativity with everyone! I hope you’ll come back in September!
Stephanie
mylilpumpkinpatch.blogspot.com
Your husband is so talented! He built such an amazing kitchen for your daughter!
I have a huge MAJOR favor to ask. I have search the Internet all day and the directions for this Lowes kitchen cannot be found :(. It is by far my favorite! Is there any chance you still have the magazine and can email me a copy? I would be forever great full. We are starting kind of late but wanted to make this for Christmas for my son. I understand if not but I just had to ask! Thank you
No, we never saw the plans in a magazine. We had printed them all off online. The one on Ana White is similar- have you stumbled across that one? So, sorry!