D.I.Y. Friday – Kid’s Kitchen

Friday is the last day of our weekend and Ali usually has a sleep-in so I try and occupy the kids downstairs to keep the noise levels down to a soft roar.

Today I decided to finally do the kid’s kitchen I have been promising for months now. In fact when my sister was here I went and got all the materials but it just got put on the back burner (oh, hehe excuse the pun!).

The kids LOVE play kitchens and if we ever go anywhere that has one they are straight into it. We had a cheap little plastic one a while ago but it kept falling to pieces and I got fed up and sold it in the yard sale. We have all drooled over the nice wooden ELC one but with a price tag of 120 Rials (approx AUD$340 / USD$311) it was out of the question. So I figured I would upcycle some shelves into our own “not so grand but still functional” wooden kitchen.

OK for those of you who don’t want to read through all the details of the construction etc I will just post the finished pictures now to save you the agony. If however you feel like hearing about the materials used etc so you can make your own then hang around… (all pics can be enlarged by clicking on them)

Front View three units together doors closed …

Front view three units together doors open …

(if you click on the picture you will see that kids were cooking cookies and veggies together! why can’t they eat them that way too????)

Alternative configuration …with no sink (stored below for more working space). Having three separate units means you can move them around as you please and the towel rack on the end just hangs so you can move it easily.

To get started I dived into my recycle box. In here I keep boxes from old presents etc that have nice strong board, plus plastics, ropes etc.

After measuring the bottom, sides and back of the cupboards I cut out two sets of cardboard to cover. I had some great flame fabric so I covered the cardboard I had cut out for the oven back sides and bottom with it. For the microwave table I burnt a whole in this takeaway plate, put a hook pin (those paper fasteners that when through the paper you then split the legs open IYKWIM) through to the foil plate and presto we have a swivel turntable! You can also see in this picture the sink. Initially I wanted to cut a hole in the cupboard and place the bowl in but then a I had a thought, lets make that surface dual purpose. So it is a kitchen sink when you need it and a working space other times. I glued the bowl to an old serving tray we had and I found these groovy tap handles in the bathroom section of Carrefour.

The inner is some metallic contact I had from a previous craft. The contact is on the back and bottom but for the sides I used aluminium foil and covered it with clear contact as I figured it would get some pretty rough wear and tear in there. The metallic contact was not the easiest to work with but the pattern makes it very forgiving. Then for the outer of the microwave I printed a picture of keypad, blacked out the ABC (it was a telephone pad) added some cook labels, scanned it and then printed it onto printable fabric. Put the fabric on some board and sewed (yep my machine was a real trooper today) three side, stuffed it then closed it and stitched around the keys so they have a real good feel to them. Then stitched on to some more metal contact and taped onto the door.

The hotplates are some recycled CD’s and these cute little foil plates I got in Carrefour which I glued upside down, I am not sure what they are usually used for…maybe condiments?

For the front of the oven I got a piece of card and covered it with the flame fabric. Then I printed some pictures, glued them to board and then covered them with clear contact. In the middle of the flame board I stuck a loop velcro dot and then stitched it in place to make sure it was secure. At the back of the pictures is a hook velcro dot so you can change what is cooking today. This card then slides into a plastic sleeve cover with enough give for little hands to change the card easily.

Half way through the project the kids had enough of standing back and gluing (which suddenly was very boring “work” LOL) and so they got cooking while I had a cup of tea and some of their mushroom carrot soup – yummo!

In the open unit the sink can go on top or be stored underneath. I also have the wooden baskets for all the wooden food. It is that stuff that has the velcro so you can “cut it up” that keeps the kids busy for ages ;-). To hide the mess I made two little curtains from some fabric I have had sitting in my stash for some time. In hindsight I should have made them wider so they were a bit more ruffled and full, maybe one day I will make another pair.

I cut some tea-towels in half and stitched them together with some twill tape in the corner so they could hang them up. Also gave them a pair of gloves and an oven mitt.

I was heading up the stairs tonight and caught Sami at it again (just after I had cleaned up sigh LOL!) and I asked him what he was making. He mumbled off something long but it was said with true passion so maybe we have a chef in the making!

The three shelves / cupboards were purchased from Carrefour (a hypermarket here in Oman) for 5 Rials each. I bought some hooks, play taps, the little foil things, double sided tape, superglue and gloves. All up it would not have exceeded 22 Rial at the most.

So the moral of the story is … if you have some things you can already use at home, or are prepared to spend a little on some inexpensive cabinets then you can save yourself nearly 100 Rial and have a lovely, functional kitchen which hides all the mess at the end of the day and it is a fun activity to do with the kids. I am exhausted and off to bed :-)

Thanks for stopping by …

No, wait! here is a glimpse of my next DIY project for Lulu’s birthday … can you guess what it will be????

And yes the real one is yet again 120 Rials from Toys’R’Us! No way am I spending that, so lets see if I am up the challenge?