Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Play Kitchen and Food DIY

 (photo collage courtesy of Smart School House)
 I have seen some really adorable play kitchens online lately.  Every time I see someone take an ugly, old nightstand and turn it into a sweet little stove top I get so excited!  I loved the idea of making one for my nieces to play with when they come and visit but I did not want to have a great big toy in the middle of my house when they are not here.  I decided to make a smaller stove top that would be easy to store in a closet or cupboard.  As always, I wanted to spend as little as possible but still have a cute toy my nieces would love.  I had already purchased a "Melissa & Doug" town block set for the girls to play with.  The Melissa & Doug toys sometimes come packaged in a wooden tray.  I realized the little wooden tray they came in would make a perfect stove top.  I started out by spray painting the tray a pretty green color I had left over from another project.  I found some wooden wheels and axle pegs at Hobby Lobby and spray painted them silver.  I drilled two holes in my tray for the axles to go through and attached my cute little knobs with some wood glue:


I then took a piece of cork board and covered it in some fabric I got from the scrap bin at my favorite quilt shop.  I attached the fabric to the cork board with some 3M spray adhesive.  I then took the cork board and screwed it into the wooden tray.  I made sure the screws were long enough to join the cork board and the tray but not long enough to come through the inside of the tray and scratch and little hands:


Next I had my shop teacher friend make me a little shelf from some scrap wood he had lying around and glued that to the back of my stove.  I screwed in some cup hooks for hanging kitchen utensils:


I got these sweet little buttons and small wooden barrels from Hobby Lobby and thought they would make great salt and pepper shakers:


I am planning on painting them blue when I find the right color of paint and then I will super glue the buttons on top.  I think they are just so cute on their little shelf!


I got two round wooden plaque bases from Hobby Lobby, painted them silver, and glued them to the stove top:


I got this little bamboo cutting board from TJ Maxx, it came in a set with a larger one that I use in my real kitchen.  I decided not to glue it down in case my nieces want to move it.


I found the cutest set of pans and utensils from Kmart the brand name is My First Kenmore.  They were the perfect size and color for my little stove top:


Now all I needed was some food.  I lucked out one day at the thrift store and found a stack of felt for really cheap.  I decided I needed more colors and bought a variety package of felt from Amazon.  I found some great tutorials for making felt food online and had the best time making goodies to fill my kitchen.  I love breakfast foods, so I started out by making a fried egg, bacon, and a pancake:




I just love the way these pop tarts turned out:


Now, on to lunch foods... I made a sandwich complete with lettuce, bread, cheese, lunch meat, and pickles.  I just made up the last three items as I went along but there are tons of great tutorials if you google "felt food."


One of my favorite pieces of felt food was the bow tie pasta:


I have no idea if my nieces will like sushi and fortune cookies, but their autie and uncle do:


This little play kitchen ended up being exactly what I wanted.  It is small enough I can stash it away in a cupboard when I do not have tiny visitors.  It also cost very little considering I used scraps, thrifted supplies, and tid-bits that were just lying around the house. 


I have two baby nephews on their way any day now.  I can hardly wait to make some cute toys for my little guys!

10 comments:

  1. I love this! I guess I need to find you on some social media, because I think I've found 3 of your posts tonight. I'm glad I've found these, you've got some great ideas.

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  2. This is beyond adorable! We just sold our huge play kitchen at our last yard sale since two of my three boys never played with it anymore. I LOVE the idea of having a small one for my youngest to play with since I didn't realize how much he was going to miss having the big kitchen around! Thanks so much for linking up at Inspire Me Wednesday! :)

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  3. OH MY, those POP TARTS! So darling! I'd love to have you come link these up over at Skip The Housework Saturday! http://www.reasonstoskipthehousework.com/skip-housework/

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  4. I love this! The kitchen and the food are just fantastic! I'm featuring it at this week's link party... http://www.thelifeofjenniferdawn.com/2014/05/a-little-bird-told-me-link-party-91.html

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  5. This is awesome.. if I and a little girl I would make it right away.. Wow.

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  6. I love your mini kitchen! So cute and all the food look great too!

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  7. Oh my goodness, this is SO cute! Love your creativity and talent (and patience)! Pinned!

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  8. I love this a lot and would love to do something like this for my boys. My youngest is VERY into this kind of thing.

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  9. I love the felt food idea. And your kitchen turned out amazing! Adore the color scheme. :)

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