Years ago, my brother and his wife gave us the play kitchen their kids had outgrown. It was fantastic. Our girls got a lot of use out of that thing. You can see part of it in this picture here...
Then we made plans to move to AZ, and (being naive and inexperienced in the world of play kitchens) we thought we'd sell it at a yard sale and just get a new one on Craigslist after we moved. We figured it would be easier than trying to move the thing 'cause it was pretty big. I think we sold it for like $11 or something ridiculous like that. Fast forward to post-move when I find out that some people actually expect you to pay $100 for a used play kitchen!? Obviously we were crazy to part with our FREE one. Yikes! Seeing that there was no way we were going to pay that much for something so non-essential, I did a google search to see if anyone had a site with do-it-yourself play kitchen ideas. That's when I found forty-two roads. She made a play kitchen with cardboard and contact paper. Not a bad idea. What do you have coming out your ears after a move? BOXES! Stacks and stacks of flattened boxes were residing in our garage.
So, two years ago, my husband and I (with a little help from our girls) created a play kitchen using recycled cardboard boxes, contact paper, packing tape, glue, and a few knick knacks, screws, and gadgets thrown in. Voila! A pretty stinkin cool hand/home-made play kitchen for my little girls to go nuts with.
We were quite proud of our little creation, particularly the special features not included in the forty-two roads' original. We sort of took her idea and modified it to our liking. The special features include: a window in the oven door (with a sheet protector acting as "glass"), two functional cardboard drawers, a "granite" countertop, a faucet (bike hook), and colorful contact paper. Here are some pics of the work in progress and the final product:
The folks who sold us our house left a couple of things in the storage closet, one of them being an old Sony stereo cabinet. We didn't have a stereo fit for it, and it had just been sitting in that closet for months... So... we covered the glass door with cardboard, contact paper and tape to make it safer, and it was instantly transformed into... you guessed it... a refrigerator! Check it out!
They were a lot of work, but it was fun work. We've decided they're definitely better than anything we could have bought at the store.
4 comments:
That's adorable, I love it! We bought a ridiculous one, it's big and bulky (and I was thinking since it had all the the bells and whistles, and it was big, it would be more interesting and both girls could play with it at the same time.) The result: They play with it rarely, and practically drool over the cute little one at the Church in nursery (it's much smaller, lower and simple), lamenting, "I wish we had a cool kitchen like this one!" Learned my lesson on this one!
That's awesome! You guys did a geat job!
Rather cool blog you've got here. Thanks the author for it. I like such themes and everything that is connected to them. I would like to read a bit more soon.
Best wishes
This is AWESOME. I am so going to make one.
BTW, we see them curbside for free all the time around here, but I like the idea of cardboard so much better than plastic filling up landfills.
Post a Comment