Outdoor play kitchen

Many months ago we found an old cabinet on the side of the road. It was in pretty bad shape – peeling paint, dirty orange contact covering the wooden shelves and a weird asymmetry to the legs. We brought it home, set it up on our patio and pondered what to do with it. I decided to turn it into a play kitchen for Boo. I thought it would be a fun project for us to do together.

The BEFORE picture

Boo and her playgroup friend helped me wash the cabinet. They had great fun dousing it with sudsy water. It did occur to me that I should strip off the old paint and then sand the cabinet but I am way too impatient for that sort of thing. I did however strip off the old orange contact from the shelves.

How did I miss the right leg????

Boo and I took a trip to the hardware store where she chose the paint colour. We also went on a little trip to our local material shop so Boo could pick out some material for the curtain I wanted installed. She chose the first material she saw and would not be swayed.

I painted the cabinet during nap-time. I was super fast, so fast that I missed an entire leg of the cabinet.... which I only noticed when I downloaded these photos. Whoops!

The curtain was attached using plastic tubing and cable pins

Chris made some curtains for the bottom shelf. We attached the curtain by threading a piece of plastic tubing through a sewn loop. The plastic tubing was then nailed into place using cable pins (one on each side and one in the middle). When it was finished the kids and I loaded in all our play kitchen equipment.... and the girls set about preparing a pretend feast.

In the future, I would like to paint one side of the cabinet with blackboard paint so the kids can write/draw up their menu. I would also like to add a rail on the other side to hang tea towels.

There are lots of ways to turn old or unused furniture into pretend play kitchen pieces, here are two of my favourites:

• DIY Modern Play Kitchen from small + friendly, this is an amazing kitchen, way better than our simple cabinet and way better than any of the commercial play kitchens I have seen.
• Play Oven from A Little Learning of Two, another amazing example of upcycling.

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