DIY: BOYS Play Kitchen!

Yes, that's right. A kitchen for boys. Some people are probably thinking I'm ridiculous, and I've heard it all before. But those of you who have boys know that they like to pretend play too! I honestly don't know why play kitchens are aimed only towards girls in the stores... MEN COOK TOO! (ugh. sorry. lol) Anyway, I went online looking for a kitchen that was made for boys- at least not pink. And definitely NOT plastic. (cringe). So of course I came across the beautiful Pottery Barn Kids kitchens... which sadly wasn't happening because, well let me just say.. about 1000$ for all the "appliances" plus everything else to actually play with it... No thanks. I can do better :)

Eventually good ole' google is to blame (or thank as it turns out) for my next idea. It seems LOTS of people look for kitchens for boys, to no avail. So they make them using up-cycled furniture- entertainment centers, nightstands, tv stands, etc. the list goes on.. there are some really cool ones out there- so I started looking for a piece of furniture. I searched craigslist on and off for a while- but I'm kinda extremely picky, and never could find something that fit what I had already envisioned. I finally decided nothing was ever going to work that way- so I decided to just put my math skills to the test and build my own the way I wanted it!! I thought about buying some MDF from ikea, or just wood from home depot, but both options were getting pricey! (and my goal was to do it for as cheap as possible!!) So back to craigslist- I ended up finding a broken kids bookshelf for free- (which it better have been free, because not only was it broken, it was disgusting) haha. I don't have 'before' pictures to post, you're welcome. ;) I cleaned up the usable pieces and made that part into my base. I took a bunch of the 'shelves' to home depot and the old man so kindly cut me the dimensions I needed (for free). He was great- even jigsawed some parts for me- (twice because I gave him the wrong dimensions). I took home all my pieces (hoping my math was right for my design), laid them out and spray painted them! :)  Its not a great picture, but gives you an idea of the process..

I had a ton of brown/espresso spray paint already- which is what I wanted most of the kitchen. I decided on "stainless steel" appliances, because my boys deserve the best ;) haha. So the rest got sprayed with some metallic spray paint.  (first purchase towards the kitchen). 

While I was in the spray paint section, I found the best thing- "stone" spray paint! Immediately, I knew it was going to become my 'granite' counter tops! I wasn't really sure how it worked, or if it even did- but I had faith and grabbed a can. Turns out, it works great :) I definitely recommend it. ;) 

Heres an up close shot of it!

See that stove top burner up there? Another craigslist score. Someone had a plastic play kitchen on the curb as a "take it if you want it, trash man will be here tomorrow type deal". I wasn't sure what I wanted from it, but decided to at least check it out. And Im glad I did. Thankfully I brought some tools- well, really, I just popped off the burners (that were pink) and the handles unscrewed (also pink) then took the sink & faucet!! Apparently there is plastic specific spray paint that I didn't know about... But I got lucky and the metallic I had from earlier, worked and didn't melt anything. haha :) 

Heres the countertop with the burners and faucet installed! 

I used the back (cardboard) part of the original broken bookshelf and made a little backsplash- Which was absolutely THE most annoying time consuming part!! I used some wooden "tiles" I had from some previous project, and kept trying to figure out a good pattern that would fit the space I needed and look good. It took forever. And I hated every second. haha. Oh did I mention I then had to paint each tile?? :p  I started thinking this backsplash wasn't such a great idea. hah

 yeah, it took forever.. and I ran out of hot glue (second purchase)... no painting progress photos... haha. For a while I couldn't even figure out what colors to paint the tiles, and how many different colors would look okay and not ruin all my hard work of positioning each tile. (because 2 of the same color tiles next to each other ended up looking like one tile.) I ended up with dark blue, light blue, grey and white. (Brads room is blue, grey and white so it worked out in the end)

Eventually, I finished glueing and painting- and I lacquered them to give them a nice shine to mimic real tiles. & I was finally ready to assemble! :)

VOILA!! finished :) 

And here it is in his bedroom- You can see the blue/grey wall and how it coordinates ;)

  Little shelf for storage :) And the sink. Bradlee told me his sink didnt work and I needed to fix it so water could come out. haha. 

 Every guy needs a microwave in their kitchen ;) I used those plastic file folders for the little windows on the microwave and oven. (mostly because I already had them & was going to throw them away otherwise) When I find a lazy susan small enough, it will become the turn table thing inside the microwave. :) 

The 'controls' on the microwave and the 'water/ice dispenser' I made using shapes and clip art with Pages/Word on my computer. Printed them out, and mod-podged them straight on! (the time 11:28 is Bradlee's birthday - November 28th). I need to get a better up close picture of the water/ice thing, because the clip art pictures took me forever to find, and are really cute. :)

 I do have lights for inside the appliances too :) I found some little "drawer lights" (at the dollar store) that work with magnets. Each light has 2 parts, one inside and one on the door. Basically when the door is shut, the light is off. You open the door, the magnet separates, and the light turns on! :) perfect. except they are super hard to match up perfectly... annoying!!  I also have a couple little wire pencil organizers that are screwed onto the inside of the refrigerator door as a "door shelf" :) 

 The cabinet on the far right is supposed to be a dishwasher, but I screwed the handle on wrong. (he has no idea, and wouldn't know the difference even if I fixed it). Im still in the market for some wire baskets to go inside the dishwasher (so far, they are all too big or too small) I have also contemplated making a control thing for the dishwasher.... but it might be too much going on. we'll see :)

 I wish I would have planned for some actual counter space, haha, but I didn't want the kitchen any bigger, and he doesn't seem to mind :)

 The oven knobs actually turn without unscrewing!

Not bad for MAYBE 15$?? :) Serious, you can totally DIY! :)

And of course to "play" with the kitchen he has mini metal pots and pans! I decided to sew all of the play food because I totally hate plastic toys and to be totally honest the play food these days is junk food!! Let me just say, we saw a donut play food set and he thought they were bagels... haha. Point is, even if I bought him that crap, he wouldn't know what half of it was or what to do with it. So I made him all the foods he knows & loves... shrimp, steak, etc. :) Check out some of it HERE