Samantha’s kitchen

For Christmas this year I wanted to get Samantha a kitchen.  However, I choked at the cost.  Luckily I found this blog and joined in a “build a-long”.  Granted, I took the author’s idea and put it on steroids a bit. 

We started with a side table I picked up from Goodwill. 

I was unhappy with a couple features of this side table #1) It was only about 19” tall which would be extremely short and Sammi would grow out of it, and #2) it was narrow.  I wanted something a bit wider so it could have 4 burners and a sink on the top.  So I decided that it would be expanded. ^_^  We flipped the nightstand and kept the drawer for storage.  We put a new countertop on the “bottom” and a fascia board to cover the old legs.  The empty cabinet then became the oven compartment.

The overhang was supported by a table leg we got from Lowe’s, a side piece and the back piece.  We added short legs to the “top” of the nightstand part to give it more height.  (now 25” tall!)

The sink is a deep cake pan and so we cut a hole in the counter top so it would fit in.

The most impressive woodworking Stephen managed (I design, Stephen builds.  A beautiful relationship) was getting the side wall to slide into the leg.  It took some creativity, a router table, and a lot of luck but he did it!  So no gaps between the side and the leg.

All painted!  The cabinet is painted with leftover paint from our kitchen, and the oven is spray painted with a silver paint to make it look like a stainless steel built-in oven. 

The countertop was spray painted with a Stone spray paint.  (weird, but cool stuff).  The faucet was made from a dowel (1 or 1 1/2”).  The knobs are little people from Michaels.  Yes, everything turns.

The stovetop burners are made from cross-stitch frames and some square dowels.  The knobs are wheels from Michaels.

       

All in all I think it ended up being around $60.  Which is a far cry from the $150 that wooden kitchens go for, and it’s much cuter.  Maybe down the road we’ll add a hutch to it, or build a little refrigerator.  But it was exciting to make my imagination come to life, and even more exciting when Samantha uses it to make playdough cookies and everything else.