10.26.2011

D.I.Y - upcycle furniture into kid's toy oven.

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,
Mel ;o)

P.S - today we're linking this d.i.y up with others at Hope Studios!

19 comments:

  1. WOW SOOOOOO neat! your have such GREAT ideas!!!! 

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  2. hey thanks soooooo much! hehe.. I can hear you squealing from here! ;o)

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  3. that is the coolest thing ever? How much talent can one woman possess? you blow me away girl!

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  4. that's it!  i'm inspired!  perfect perfect idea, and just in time to start planning a lovely corner in the new play room....

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  5. WOW, you are blessed with such creativity!
    Inspired!
    Nicky

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  6. so cute- love the mushrooms!  I did something similar for my daughter a few months ago!

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  7. by far the cutest kid's project i've ever seen!  i want one!  so much cuter than my kitchen oven!!;)

    xoxo

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  8. hey thanks Des! Thanks for the 'shout out' too... now I know I've 'made it' in the world! ;o) xo

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  9. Umm couldn't be cuter, very well done momma!!

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  10. WOW-I love this! Fabulous job!  Saw this on the Hopestudios link up! 

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  11. This is fantastic!  I am sharing this on my facebook page.  Thanks!
    www.myhealthygreenfamily.blogspot.com

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  12. Thank you!  I appreciate you stopping in... I love to upcycle anything I can get my pudgy hands on! :o)

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  13. This is really wonderful!

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  14. Congrats on the bun in the oven

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  15. thank you! Nice to have you stop by the nest here :o)

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  16.  glad you liked it, so does our daughter! heh, thanks for stopping by the nest! ;o)

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  17. Truely excellent work, we're expecting a little girl any day now and this gives me loads of great ideas for toys. Big thumbs up for not caving in to plastic junk....she'll have hours of fun...

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  18. Whoa! I've never seen this before! I LOVE it!

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