Play Kitchen Makeover

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 me and my sister when we were kids. But at that time, it looked like this:

It was one of our favorite toys and we spent many happy hours “cooking” in that play kitchen. Here I am with my dad on Christmas morning when he first gave it to us:

And my sister Ellen playing with it:

The play kitchen as been up in the attic collecting dust for the past 25 years 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 I removed all the hinges, sink and faucet and took the doors off to sand those as well.

I painted it with a primer to cover the dark stain:

Then painted it with some bright and cheerful paint colors. These are Valspar colors from Lowes: Surfer Waves (blue), Star Bright (yellow), Minty (green), Easter Baster (purple) and Fairytale Pink.

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. Robbie 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.

I bought some bins to help organize all her kitchen accessories and food.

Here is the finished play kitchen makeover! Quite a difference, huh?

Sophie has lots of fun food and kitchen accessory items to use in her new play kitchen.

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I would highly recommend any of the Melissa & Doug toys. They are all very durable and well made. Sophie’s favorites are the Slice & Bake Cookie Set and the Bake and Decorate Cupcake Set. Can you tell she has a sweet tooth?

She loves removing the icing from the cookies, stacking them together in the canister, and cutting them apart with the knife. Then she decorates them with the icing that attaches with Velcro. The cupcake set comes with markers (aka icing) that you can use the decorate the cupcakes, then easily wipe them off when done. Just don’t leave a 2 year old unattended!. I didn’t realize they were real markers when we first got it and the white rug in our living room almost got ruined!

I couldn’t be happier with how the play kitchen makeover turned out!