Play Kitchen Renovation

I've received several questions about the play kitchen which was seen in the post about Sophie's Sesame Street Party.

My dad built this play kitchen for my sister and I when we were kids. But at that time, it looked like this:

We remodeled it a little over a year ago and it's been getting heavy use from Sophie ever since. See how we did it after the break!

Quite a difference, huh? But boy did we love playing with it. We spent many happy hours "cooking" in that kitchen.

Here is me and my dad on Christmas morning when he first gave it to us:

 

And my sister playing with it:

It's been up in the attic collecting dust for the past 2 decades until I decided to freshen it up for Sophie. I told my Dad he did a great job building it but it needed a woman's touch in terms of color! First I sanded it down really well.

 Then removed all the hinges, sink and faucet and took the doors off to sand those as well.

Painted it with a primer to cover the dark stain:

I selected some bright and cheerful paint colors. 

And Robbie cut a hole in the oven door and covered it with plexiglass so it would look more like a real oven.

Then we spruced it up with new hardware, stove burners, and sink/faucet. My husband got the "sink" from a restaurant supply store. It's actually one of those warming trays that caterers use. I found the faucet on eBay. To make the stove burners, I spray painted cork mats silver and cut strips to look like burners from glitter foam sheets. 

 

These great bins for holding food and dishes came from Dollar Tree.

Sophie has lots of fun food items to stock with kitchen with (you can click any link below to go directly to the product page at Amazon): 

Green Toys Dish Set 

Made from recycled materials, Sophie loves to serve what she cooks these.

Green Toys Tea Set 
What little girl doesn't love tea parties? Enough said.

Kidcraft Deluxe Cookware Set  

Melissa & Doug Slice and Bake Cookie Set
I would highly recommend any of the Melissa & Doug toys, and this one is my personal favorite. You can remove the icing and stack the cookies together in the canister, then cut them apart with the knife. The icing attaches with velcrow so you can "decorate" them yourself..

Melissa & Doug Ice Cream Scoop Set
This one is a close second favorite. The ice cream easily attaches to the scoop with a magnet.

Melissa & Doug Bake and Decorate Cupcake Set
This one comes with markers (aka icing) that you can use the decorate the cupcakes, then easily wipe off when done. Just don't leave a 2 year old unattended with this. I didn't realize they were real markers when we first got it and marker almost ended up on our white rug!

Melissa & Doug Birthday Party Cake

Melissa & Doug Pizza Party

Melissa & Doug Felt Food - Sandwich Set

If you'd like to purchase any of these products, please click on the links above or the image in the carousel below to purchase directly from Amazon.

I couldn't be happier with the final product!

And most importantly Sophie approves! (These pictures are from March 2012 when we gave it to her! Look how tiny she is!)

I hope it brings her as many sweet memories as it did me!

Linking to these parties!