Mim's Christmas

A kitchen set!  My parents' have one at their house that my dad made (from scratch) for my older sisters and when ever Mim's over there, it's the only thing she wants to play with.  So I decided to make her one for Christmas.  I've loved this idea ever since I first saw it out in blogland- this post, via Ucreate, was the first one I'd ever seen.


First I got my nightstands on KSL (a local classifieds).  They were 20$ a piece each, solid wood, and had the scallopy look I was hoping for.  I intentionally didn't want them to match- I figure if I ever add on (like a tall nightstand for a fridge), then I won't have to worry about the one of these things is not like the other look.

Here's what I started with (I didn't take these pictures until after I had begun the deconstructing process):

 

I love the hardware on this dresser.  I'm saving it for something else, though.

The other dresser:

This one wasn't as lovely, but was perfect for the stove/oven combo.  

See?

Mike put in the acrylic window so she can see what she's baking, and you can't see it, but there's an oven rack (cooling rack) inside.  The knobs are craft circles with half a heart glued onto the top, which, besides giving it that real knob shape, hide the screws drilled through the circle and through the door front, so they really turn.  

The sink unit was easy- the thing that probably took the most time was making the nightstand structurally sound.  I was lucky with the faucet- my dad had an old one out in the garage that he had uninstalled years ago that I could have.  The sink is a dog dish.  The curtain covering the front is on a little tension rod.  Easy.  

Also, the sink is intentionally off center; it wasn't some horrible accident.  I put it off to the side because of a conversation with my sister in law I'd had a few days before- she was talking about her daughter's kitchen set and how she wished there was just some counter space.  So with the sink off center, she has the other half to put her cutting boards and stack her plates.

Mim loved it.  It was all set up for her to see when she got up and she headed straight for it asking "Wha is it?" over and over, then she filled up cups in her sink and gave them to me and Mike to drink.

I love it, too.  Mim has a toy she'll play with for years (size-wise, it'll be at least another two or three years until she's proportional to it) and that subsequent kids can play with for years, too.