Homemade Play Kitchen: Stovetop and Counter

My original plan called for an oven door below the stove. That didn't end up happening. But the boys never noticed that anything was "missing" from their kitchen. Most play kitchens that I researched when I was planning this project also included sinks. My past experience showed that my boys would not use a sink enough to justify the work that would involve. Also, on most of those kitchens with sink there is no counter space. Preparing the food is half of the fun of pretending to cook. Where exactly where were they suppose to prepare the food with no counter space? Especially since I had purchased for another one of Early Bird's Christmas presents a Cuttable Fruit set. So leaving out the oven door and a sink, I was able to complete this project with NO cutting and NO drilling the particle board, which kept the price really low and manageable.

6 months later

For the stove top, I used regular acrylic paint and painted on burners. Unfortunately, that didn't hold up very well. When I eventually find my paint I'm going to re-paint the burners and then cover that part of the kitchen with contact paper and see if that stays on well.

Little Star Detail

I thought the curtains under the sinks in the play kitchens I found on Pinterest were super cute. I didn't have a sink, but that didn't mean I couldn't have an under-counter curtain! Keeping in mind that I was going for cheap, fast/low effort, and no-sew, I purchased a blue washcloth at Walmart ($0.50?) that was the perfect size for my space. I used puffy fabric paint to add a star decal to the washcloth, purely for decoration. On the back of the washcloth I used cheap ribbon (already had some, but you can get it at Walmart for $1) and fabric glue to make four strips to hang the curtain from.

I found the wooden dowel in the painting/craft section in Walmart for less than $1, and the adhesive hooks in the picture hanging section (I think?) in housewares for less than $2/6-8 hooks. The small dowel turned out to be the perfect diameter for the hooks, so they are stuck quite firmly in place. The dowel was too long for the space, and I didn't have a hand saw, so I used my PVC pipe cutter and it worked just fine.

And that's all it took! I can't remember (six months later) how long it took to finish this project, but, not including waiting for the paint and glue to dry, it took very little total time! It took more time for me to walk around Walmart and find all the pieces for the various parts of the kitchen since my list was vague and unorganized than it did for me to put it all together. The boys love it and Early Bird plays with it a lot. Since the pieces aren't all stuck together it survived the move extremely well. This whole project cost me less than $20 for everything (because I already had the shelving units.)
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If you haven any questions about the process or if I left something out, leave a comment and I'll answer your question to the best of my memory.

If you made a play kitchen of your own based or inspired by any of these ideas, please let me know so I can share what you did!

Here's a link to my Homemade Play Kitchen Pinterest Board for other ideas that inspired me and some play food ideas that I still want to try someday.

Homemade Play Kitchen: Aprons

You can't have a play kitchen without aprons! (Okay, well, apparently you can, as my boys almost never use these, but I thought I had to make some, so I did.) I found a blue denim apron at the thrift store for $1.50. Score! But I have two kids, so I needed two aprons. I already had an idea for an easy to make, no-sew/little-sew apron, so while I was at the thrift store I looked at fabric place mats and found one I liked that would work as an apron for $0.50.

(I thought I took more pictures during the apron making process, but if I did, I can't find them.) The only other things I used for this project were some wide green ribbon I picked up at Walmart for (I think?) $1.00, and some Fray Check, fabric glue, and some Velcro Dots that I already had.














I ended up making this apron with a lot of "growing room." I thought about making the neck strap adjustable with Velcro, but decided it would probably be easier for the boys to just slip it over their heads, so I made it with enough room to do so. I cut the ribbon, fray checked the ribbon ends, and then glued and tacked (sewed on with just two stitches) the neck strap ribbon to the top of the place mat/apron.


For the waistband I measured the ribbon, again leaving plenty of growing room, fray checked the ends after cutting it, and then used fabric glue to affix the ribbon/waistband along the front of the apron. I used the sticky Velcro Dots on the ends so that it could easily secured (I wanted something that Early Bird could do on his own,) and that was that!

It's Reversible!

Green Side

Homemade Play Kitchen: The Pantry Shelves

The pantry really didn't need anything added to it. I put sticky hooks on the side for the kid aprons. At the dollar store I found two blue baskets that look a lot like shopping baskets, and some small bowls, cups, and a baby spoons/forks/knifes set (four of each.)


Hooks (Command brand bought at Walmart)-$3
2 Baskets-$2
Set of 6 cups-$1
2 sets of 3 bowls-$2
Set of plastic forks, knifes, and spoons (four of each)-$1
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$9.00 (not counting tax)

Homemade Play Kitchen: The Refrigerator

I searched the dollar store, thrift stores, and finally Walmart and I found these plastic baskets: a set of three for less than $2. They are almost perfect. I measured them against the measured paper I took shopping with me and they were the right size but the corners catch a little bit when you try to close the door. I finally figured out with the last one to keep it from catching, position the basket slightly more towards the hinge rather than perfectly centered.




I hung them on adhesive hooks (no drilling!) which I got at Walmart for about $2/2 hooks, so total price for the refrigerator baskets and hanging them was $8.

I found a magnetic floor vent cover that I had hoped to turn into an area for refrigerator magnets on the door, but it didn't work out the way I'd hoped, and it wasn't strong enough.

Early Bird likes having different shelves and baskets in the fridge because that means he can sort his play food by food group.




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I was going through old drafts of blog posts that I'd never finished or posted and found my plans for sharing what I did to make the play kitchen that was Early Bird's Christmas present. I'm not up to doing much, but I can finish these up at least....

Diaper Box Play Kitchen

Two years ago it was Builder Boy who was the one very interested in "cooking" and play food. So one day I used paper to turn a diaper box from Sam's into a play kitchen. It took maybe 30 minutes and he was thrilled. I made it look like our kitchen. All the paper was cosmetic, there were no "working" knobs. The paper was cheap construction paper that I glued/taped on. The top was laminated with clear packaging tape (I didn't know about contact paper at the time) to make it last longer.

It was perfect. He loved it. Then his friend who is a girl came to play and asked "where's the sink?" So that night I spent two hours making a sink. That barely got used by Builder Boy. But I wanted it to be a complete kitchen, so I made it.










I cut a hole in the box and attached a recessed box (we have a rectangular metal sink, so that was perfect) that I painted gray. The faucet was a prescription diaper cream box that I cut and then taped at an angle.

I am posting this for those who would like to make a play kitchen for their young children who do not have the time or money to make a wooden one.

Homemade Play Kitchen: The Plan

So here's the plan (because I love plans.) I am using these shelving units that I already had and wasn't using very much. (Considering the price, I would not have bought them specifically for this purpose.

They are laminated particle board which means I want to do as little drilling/screwing/hammering as possible. 

The pantry needs nothing added to it except for storage baskets. I will be adding two hooks on the side to hang the aprons. I found one at a thrift store and I'm going to make a no-sew apron with a place mat I got at the thrift store and some ribbon and Velcro.

I saw on Pinterest the idea to add baskets on the "refrigerator" door to make it look more real. I found a way to do that myself without making any holes so that is on and it looks good. I also found something I am going to see if I can make it work. If I can then I will have a magnetized area on the front of the fridge for play refrigerator.

I will be leaving the counter space clear instead of adding a sink like all the play kitchens I've seen. When I made a play kitchen out of diaper boxes a while back, they didn't even think of needing/wanting a sink until my friend's daughter came over to play and asked for one. If I put in a sink there will be no counter space to "cut" and prepare food. So that will remain as it is. I will however have a curtain under that part on a rod. I'll be using a hand towel and some ribbons and some sticky wall hooks to make it work.

The stove I'm just going to paint on the top. I don't think there is any room for temperature controls, even if I could think of a no-drill way to make them. That's the nice thing about having young boys: I don't think they're going to notice or think of all the details that "real" things have that this won't. This can be pretty simple and that (with their imagination) is all they need.

The oven is going to be the hardest part. I am probably going to need to install hardware, have a wood door (??) that's the right size and not rough on the edges. I know they probably won't notice if there isn't one, but it's something that I think should be there, and I'm going to try to make that happen.

We already have quite a bit of play food and dishes. I ordered some cool "cut" and "peel" Small World Living Fun-With-Fruit from Amazon, and I have a cool idea to make a play cookie baking set.

Keep checking in for the latest additions!

Homemade Play Kitchen, Part 1

Shelves (left,) sink and stove (middle,) and refrigerator (right.)

Guess who's making a Pinterest inspired play kitchen for Christmas?! My friend gave me the idea, Pinterest is giving me the details, and I already had these in the closet being under-utilized.