New Kitchen!

After finally completing the walls and floors of every room in the house and allocating the furniture to each room the ugliest piece was left over.  I hate throwing things away even if they are ugly.  I had considered building Li a play kitchen years ago and probably would have if he had been a girl - crazy thinking I know.  I finally decided that it wasn't too late and at least the new baby would get lots of use out of it too.  The inspiration for homemade play kitchens on the internet is amazing but it was this one at Vintage Songbird that tipped me over the edge and helped me decide it was too cute not to do.
So here is our BEFORE, a chest of drawers:

The good thing about waiting so long to do this project was that Li was old enough to help me and it became a great activity.  He had imput into design, construction and painting.  Check out those muscles!

We used one drawer as the hutch, one as a little oven that opens sideways and one to store pots and pans in the bottom under the curtain. We used the drawer knobs and old DVDs for the stove and our old bathroom taps, off cuts and bowl for the sink area.  We finished it within a week, motivated by the fact that Li would get up every morning and start playing with it before he did anything else (we would have finished it even sooner had it not been so hot this week- I really couldn't stand working outside past 9am). 

 AFTER:

I made the felt food almost two years ago and still gets good use (should have been a sign to make a play kitchen earlier).  I am in the process of 'miniturising' one of my husband's old chef shirts and aprons for dress ups too!