I blame Pinterest. For most things actually. I can happily do without a tv, Facebook, barely check Twitter, never had an Instagram account and I’m still not entirely sure what Snapchat is. But please, never take away my beloved Pinterest. From ideas about simple tech-free living ( yes I’m aware of the irony) to elaborate party themes (fairy glades for a 1 yr old,j’accuse), it’s my spare time addiction. Luckily, that also provides me with tons of inspiration for most areas of my life, especially all things Coppertop related.
I’ve been drooling over play kitchen makeovers since Coppertop was still a strawberry sized wriggler in utero. I love the thought of taking an unloved charity shop piece of furniture and creating a beautiful custom made toy for next to nothing. The kitchen truly is the heart of my home, Coppertop adores cooking/baking with me, so it made sense that this would be the only ‘big’ pretend play toy in our house, especially as we keep toys fairly minimal.
THE COST OF BEING CREATIVE
When I saw this bedside cabinet for £6 in a local charity shop, I knew I’d found our kitchen. The sink – pet bowl for £1.49. Spray paint was £12 (primer and paint in one). Window frame £2, photo printed £1.Gingham curtain fabric £3. Dowelling rod £1. That’s it. I paid £26.50 to make our perfect play kitchen.
Now I know what you’re thinking ( besides how cool it is and that you wish your full size kitchen looked like that – or is it just me?!).That clearly there are quite a few other bits to the kitchen than what I’ve mentioned. Well, I’m lucky enough to have a dad that hoards crap ( I mean bric-a-brac) in the outhouses of the family farm.Therefore, the rest of the kitchen was a family affair. Chipboard from my old tv unit for the back and mini shelf. Tap – parents’old bathroom sink. Cooker dials – gran’s old cooker .Inside shelf – parents’ bookcase. Cooker rings – old grinding discs. Towel rail – spare towel rail (seriously, who has a SPARE towel rail lying about?!) resized. Plus a few hooks and oven handle. So lucky to have access to those things but all could easily be sourced from salvage yards or even Ikea for very little extra.
HOW WE PUT IT TOGETHER
Firstly, we measured the chipboard and cut to size, cutting the mini shelf from the leftover. Corners rounded off. Sanded it all down. Cut the hole for the sink, slightly smaller than the width of the lip of the bowl. Positioned the tap and bored the hole. Cut out the window in the oven door. Handle and towel rail positioned.
Chipboard edges smoothed off with polyfilla. Inside shelf measured then attached through the sides with screws. Holes drilled for curtain dowelling. Grinding discs and cooker dials sprayed with blackboard paint. Now everything had been positioned and drilled, it was all taken out so we could spray paint. When dried, everything was screwed in, picture frame and discs glued down. The cooker/oven dials have washers on the screws so they spin without scratching the paint. The curtain was a simple hem and looped at the top then sewn down. Easy to take off to wash. The photo is of a place Coppertop loves near the farm. Insides of the grinding discs were painted black and used a copper metallic marker for the notches on the dials. And voila! Bespoke play kitchen for under £30.
Coppertop adores playing with it, using her felt fruit, veg and pasta that I made (details in future posts) and using a wooden block as ‘soap’ to wash her (and Matilda her doll’s) hands. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about our creation ,I’d love to hear about all your projects too!
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