IT IS FINISHED!
Brian and I built Allison a play kitchen! I have wanted her to have one for SO long, and I'm so glad that she finally does! And I guess its only "mostly" finished... but finished enough to give her this morning.
I teased this project back in March, but things didn't go as I planned. The plans I drew up, although cute, weren't really working out for us, so I turned to Knock-Off Wood. Ana White has posted FREE plans for all sorts of furniture build projects. I love this site... its amazing! We intend to do several more projects from her plans, including this console table (topped with a slab of marble instead of the wood planked top), this bed (in King size, if I get my way) for our room and these bedside tables to match the bed... or maybe this one instead. But first we'll need a miter saw (can anyone guess what Brian's getting for his birthday this year?)...
We stuck the phone on there becuase the kids love playing with it. Allison frequently "calls Grandma and Grandpa." Its very cute... and the phone is more useful as a pretend toy for the kids than a connumication device when you don't have land-line service.
Anyway, the plans we used for the kitchen can be found here. There are several other plans on that page too. This kitchen is patterned after a now-discontinued Pottery Barn Kids play kitchen.
Was this cheaper than just going out and buying a plastic or MDF play kitchen at Walmart or Target? No. Total cost ran us almost $200... but it would have been cheaper if we'd through through the plans a little more and had bought the right wood the first time around. But caulk it up to experience. But this kitchen is larger, higher quality and CUTER than what $200 might have gotten us at Toys R Us... and something similar to this at Pottery Barn Kids would have run us anywhere from $300 (for the most recently discontinued model) to $600.
We still need to find something for a faucet (we're thinking a straight and a U- or a J-bend PVC pipe painted with a large pair of those glass faceted knobs) and I need to sew a curtain to hide the shelves under the sink (I tried last night, but my serger just WOULDN"T play nice! The needle kept hitting the upper and lower loopers, and it was casting the stitches onto the throat plate, instead of the pressure foot... tying knots that I had to snip off. I re-treaded the stupid thing 3 times and still could NOT figure out the problem... so I gave up until another day). After the curtain and the faucet it will be done... until we find more accessories to add to it! :)
$200 is a lot... but we love it, Allison loves its, Carter loves it and it will see a LOT of play time over the next several years. And that, makes a project worth it.
5 comments:
Congrats on finishing (well, mostly) the project. It really did turn out super cute! I love the knock-off-wood site. Since we literally have no tools other than a hammer and screw drivers, we aren't building anything ourselves. But I asked my brother-in-law to build us the side tables you referenced (the first one with the bead board) and the turned out great! I'll be blogging them eventually. My sister has that bed next on his to-do list.
That is adorable! I love it! I'll have to go check out those sites...
Emily, if you get yourself a power drill and a few bits you can build things from that site. We don't have a power nailer... we did this all with screws. Its takes more time (you have to pre-drill and counter sink, then put the screws in instead of just point & shoot with the nail gun), but it works and things turn out just as well. We had Lowes do *almost* all our cuts for us, since we couldn't very well get 8 foot boards home in our little sedan. :)
It's beautiful -- glad to see my brother putting his skills to something useful for a change :)
How cute! Next she needs a play house outside to play house in. Add in a table and chairs and doll beds....
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