A Handmade 4th Birthday Gift: Play Kitchen for Kyra!

Last weekend, remember I mentioned here we were doing a family weekend project? Well, it's finally completed, just in time for Kyra's small 4th birthday party yesterday evening. Basically 80% were done by yours truly :D, did I mention I loved loved loved our Living Skills class back in secondary school many years ago? Yeap, I still do, obviously! (Just the practical part though, not theory)

So here you see, I used the leftover plywood from our Headboard Project, very minimum if you ask me. I had to maximize the entire piece to create a play kitchen that's big and tall enough for Kyra to last her playing time for the next few years, maybe? LOL! Photos below will help you browse through the entire process......

LET's BROWSE!!!!

Made of 18mm thick plywood of good quality, and solid 'Selangan Batu' for some parts, also from the same headboard project. The hardest part would have to be cutting out the BIG HOLE for the 'basin' manually, using that tiny thin ruler-like saw and drill!

This (below) is the 'OVEN' door, seen here, I was starting a hole to cut out the little 'window' for the oven! Also not an easy thing to do, especially when you do not have gadgets or cool tools to do it! The most 'hi tech' tool I used for the entire project would be this BOSCH drill (also not mine! LOL!, it's Godpa's).....

Tadaaaaa!!!!! Birthday babe could not help but lurve the play kitchen.....the best thing is, while I was doing wood filing, sanding, sawing.......she would run to me and hug me, and tell me "MUMMY I LOVE U!", or "THANK YOU MUMMY".......isn't that sweet and so priceless?! :D
She did that more than 5x in a day! hahahaha!

She just could not help playing with it a bit while I took five!

Before painting could be done, I filled up 'holes' and joints with instant wood filler....wait for the filler to dry and harden before sanding it down! After I sanded down the entire thing, I painted it semi-matte white, also using leftover paint.

For the 'OVEN' interior, I sprayed it silver....good thing I found a lil bit of paint in storage room! And yeap, that's baking paper you see there...hehehe.....last minute improvisation.


ALL DONE FINALLY!!!!
After 4.5 days of hard work.
Seen on top of the kitchen are all the birthday gifts that Kyra got from relatives, and to my delight, their gifts seem to coordinate perfectly with the kitchen!
In the oven are felt cupcakes and pie that I made at the very last minute for Kyra 2 days ago, will write about it soon! Stay tuned for that one! :)
The other side of this kitchen island is for storing all their toy 'appliances'!
See the Hello Kitty toaster, rice cooker, blender, cake mixer and weighing scale?
The babes got these from relatives for their birthdays last year!
The side of the kitchen, with hooks for keeping all their mini kitchen stuffs organized!
Here they can hang oven mitts, grocery bags, aprons and such!

That silvery thing is actually a remove-able LED light, it will light up when you press the middle button! Cool little thing that hubby bought out of his impulse-buying spree at the hardware, but he never found a use for it till now.....so, there you go! :)

Kitchen Design & Details:
***In case you're wondering why I designed the kitchen to be an island styled counter,
well let me tell you, we have let the TWO babes try out IKEA's mini play kitchen that's RM390,
and both seem to fight for 'cooking' space! So this is the main reason I did the 'island kitchen', so both babes can play together without fighting, hopefully! Furthermore, with my limited wood pieces, I cannot possibly make a longer wider single sided kitchen too anyway! :D



KITCHEN 'FEATURES' & cost breakdown:

Ultra modern hobs made with IKEA Panna coasters : recycled! Thus RM0
Basin = stainless steel bowl: RM8
Water tap from our basin at the back which is already leaking anyway
Plastic knobs from hardware store & other hardware stuffs: RM30
Real stainless steel mesh that got turned into the 'oven rack'
Acrylic piece for the oven 'window' courtesy of Sis#2's supplier
Stainless steel handles ie. IKEA Lansa N! : RM35
IKEA Rill caster wheels: RM19
Wooden hook set (on the side): RM20
Hot pink curtain found at 100yen shop: RM5
Curtain rod system: RM16
Wood filler so the kitchen will be smooth and hole-free: RM8

TOTAL COST: RM141 only (approx. USD40)
+ PLENTY OF "I LOVE U" and "THANK U MUMMY" hugs from Kyra while mummy was making it :D....that is priceless alright! :D
And honestly, though it's not lightweight works, I really felt a huge sense of joy making this, and even more so after seeing the outcome.