Homemade Christmas

Before I go any farther in my Christmas reminisce, I want to show you my exciting ( to me) Christmas project. Shelby has been asking for a kitchen to replace the one she has outgrown. Unfortunately, most play kitchens are designed for 3 year olds, and are much too short for the girl. After admiring all the kitchens on blogs (this being one of my favorites) I set out in search of my kitchen. Scouring craigslist for a couple of weeks, I couldn't find a center that worked with my budget. I decided that I could just use an old cabinet I had available and modify it a bit, when low and behold as heading to the grocery store, there was the very cabinet that I had been looking for sitting on the curb not 10 houses down! After asking the neighbor permission to take it, I zipped back home for some extra muscles, loaded her up and headed home. Gotta love free! So it sat in the kitchen as I worked on it for the next 2 weeks. This is last year I can work on a gift right in front of kids, but happily she never guessed what it was. Checking thru my pictures I am suprised that I didn't get a before picture, but it was a typical smallish entertainment center made of particle board. I had to do some tightening and gluing, but overall it was pretty sound. It was a huge hit, although in typical Shelby fashion, she asked for some "minor" adjustments. Lol, she is her grandmother's daughter!

The only modifications I did was remove the back board-it was falling off (she asked for it to be re-applied!),cut down one of the shelves to hold the microwave, removed the doors from the bottom and rehinge the one door to make it an oven. I primed it using Zinsser 1-2-3 so I didn't have to sand. The most expensive purchase was the spray paint -Rust-oleum Painter's Touch is my best crafting friend:) She did ask for the other door to be re-attached so" she wouldn't get confused when cooking!"

I had plans to go the the Goodwill Re-store for the faucet, but couldn't seem to get that direction. So I ended up with some plumbing from the big orange store. Faucet moves side to side, and the knobs turn. I didn't get a couple of things finished before Christmas, cutting out the sink was one of them. Since it was in the dining room, I didn't think I could convince Shelby that the hole in the center was for books. So that will get done this week:)We love Ikea! Curtain rod, dishes etc. came from there. I had the curtain material already on hand. . I did splurge on a personalized apron, but all in all I spent about $80 for everything used to create and accessorize the kitchen. The colors in the picture are a little off- inside the fridge area and under the sink are a bright green. It's a very colorful kitchen-I asked her when I started what color should I paint my new "bookshelf", so the color choices are all hers!Happy chef!