Psssst! Can you keep a secret? Here's my 'labour of love' creation I've made for our daughter's second birthday this weekend! I've been planning this gift (and tutorial for you) for a while now.. and am excited to show it complete!
If you, like me, fear a house being overrun with plastic toy imitations of all your 'adult appliances'.. you may enjoy this do.it.yourself way to create toy station/play areas.
You will need a wooden side table/small dresser... anything you can envision upcycling!
Plus a variety of other creative accessories I'll show you below...
We cut a hole into the top of the cabinet - that a steel lipped bowl could fit into.
My sweet father-in-law even installed an old faucet as a plus!
If you choose to paint your piece, a good oil primer will seal any varnish.
I wanted to paint ours a retro avocado green. I then sanded/distressed the edges to give it an already 'worked in' appearance.
A thrifty way to make the stove top burners/elements is to use frozen juice lids.
We just happened to recently pitch out our oven (you may remember that stinky scenario) so I had the oven dials I could use (if you fill the dial holes with hot glue and then jam them onto extended nails... they'll hold and spin without coming off).
One side of the oven has hooks for holding towels/oven pads. The other side has chalkboard paint and a ledge for chalk (stole from a Scrabble game). I also sewed some quick curtain panels for the front hole to hide her wood bowls and cooking pots.
Of course I had to paint mushrooms on the oven too, since it is her woodland themed birthday this weekend!
Fun eh? I had a hoot creating this. Hope it inspires you to see some old furniture in a new way too!
Happy upcycling!
bun in the oven mama,
