DIYODS Play Kitchen: part III

DIYODS "Do It Your Own Damn Self" Play Kitchen: part III

Remember on the part II post where I said that hinges are evil? Well I further proved that point when I worked on the play kitchen yesterday. It turns out that trying to attach hinged doors to beveled corners is the cause of all my tears. I suppose that is a direct result of me trying to convert a desk into something with doors instead of drawers. ARG!

On to part III:

Yay! The silicone caulking worked! I was actually surprised since the plexi-glass piece was smaller than the hole by about 1/8 of an inch all the way around (oops). The silicone held it in remarkably well so we scraped the excess off the plexi-glass and attached some hinges.

It wasn't easy, but we managed to turn the beveled edge into 90-ish degree angle with the help of some paint sticks. The door doesn't open all the way so next time I will attach the chain I bought in order to stabilize the door against rough use.

The oven door is a bit more secure with a magnetic closure in place.

Now go take a walk...

DIYODS Play Kitchen: part II

Another round of DIYODS "Do It Your Own Damn Self" Play Kitchen. Mission: to repurpose a ratty desk into a fab play kitchen for my daughter. Skill level: Moderate to WTFudge

Part II begins with some lessons I've learned thus far.

1. silicone caulking is your god!

2. it's a bad idea to cut a hole in the "oven" door to later insert a small piece of plexi-glass... instead, find a way to just attach it to the back

3. hinges are not user friendly

4. don't try to use the faces of the drawers for the doors... it's just a bad idea that leads to tears

Almost the "before" picture... I forgot to take one when we started working on it last week. Here we had already cut the hole for the sink and used the original drawer sides for bottoms of the microwave and oven spaces. There also used to be a thin drawer below where the sink is now that we removed last week.

I drilled holes and installed the knobs for the faucet (hot/cold) and for the 4 stove top knobs. My husband cut a piece of particle board for the oven door and cut a hole in it to insert a piece of scrap plexi-glass with silicone caulking (keep your fingers crossed on that one!)

Do not do this... if you are trying to use the drawer face... STOP. I'm just trying to save you an hour of blood, tears, and verbal censorship. Just suck it up and use a piece of particle board.

My husband installing the -particle board- microwave door since the oven door is still drying. What a handsome man!

Camster asleep on the job... she could have at least helped her dad hold the board steady! Jeez...

So far for this project we have spent $11.00 on hinges, chain (for the oven door), magnetic latch for microwave and oven doors, and a plastic plumbing elbow to use as a faucet. Everything else was free.

DIYODS Play Kitchen Part III will be coming soon!

DIYODS Play Kitchen: part I

The "Do It Your Own Damn Self" Play Kitchen: part I

The past few months I have been on a felt food kick. My husband knows all too well that I work in creative phases... or as he calls them- "waves of destruction". I tend to leave a trail of scraps and pieces and patterns and thread bits in my wake when starting new projects-- and most projects I never finish.

However, my felt food phenomenon has escalated to scary new heights. I have even gone as far as to make a nearly life-sized felt turkey with velcro drumsticks and wings. I know... it's a sickness. So even though Camster won't be playing with any of this stuff until (about) the ripe ol' age of one, I have decided to take the last step to occupy my remaining time. I will make a play kitchen!

We looked online to research how much a play kitchen might cost premade... bad idea. I'm sorry, but what the hell happened to good ol' American craftsmanship?! All we could find was $200 hunks of Chinese plastic. Fail.

Who knows where I found this idea, but whilst surfing the web I stumbled upon a site where two parents had made one out of a "repurposed" t.v. stand. It had a sink, stove burners, microwave, oven, and even a space to store play food. AMAZINGLY GENIUS! (*insert mad scientist laugh here*)

So I scavenged around until my grammy was kind enough to give a small desk she wasn't using. Score! And my mom found a metal bowl to use for the sink for free. Score #2!

We got right to work cutting a hole in the top for the bowl/sink to fit it in. Gosh... I hope Grammy knows I'm planning on hacking this desk up. Too late now! It was easier than I thought it would be to cut. Then we broke apart the 2 drawers (since we are only planning to use the faces for the microwave and oven doors) and glued the wood from the sides down as the bottoms of the microwave and oven spaces. Even with a 3 month old in tow, this only took about 2 hours. I was impressed! I thought it would take 9 months to finish this project, but then again-- you haven't seen me paint.

I will upload -part I- pictures on Sunday... check back