our diy play kitchen

so here's how the whole kitchen thing started.

belle's been asking for the longest time...for a kitchen.

she fell in love with a wooden play kitchen from ikea. but it was $140.

my parents were really set on getting it for her. but i was really hesitant.....$140!!? for a toy??

the ones i researched online are basically the same price.

the ones in toys r us weren't "talking" to me.

but binh gave me the idea of making one after seeing one on pinterest. but hello? i am no handy girl. hesitation again.

then one day my dad gives me $100 for belle's christmas gift, "here, get belle a kitchen"

but i still didn't wanna spend that much. haha. so i researched on pinterest & googled.

and i was inspired by the other diy kitchens i found!! (lightbulb moment)

i asked binh if she was up for it. & of course she was.

we went to a thrift store to see if we could find a night stand, or something to work with & we found this....for $14.99!! whaaaaat? and i already planned on having the kitchen be white.

didn't even need to paint. it was a sign.

we bought this in the beginning of december but we only started working on it last thursday. cause we are just crazy procrastinators like that....

the faucet is a plastic one from home depot. it was $11.

the handles were originally those plastic clear ones. it really turned me off so i had to spray paint that part!

then binh screwed a hook, i sewed a curtain. and just used velcro to stick it on cause we were running out of time. & it works just fine!

looking at the pictures, it looks so easy.

ok, the concept was easy....but we are 2 girls who spent over an hour in home depot, getting lost. cutting that circle for the "sink"...HA! don't even know how long it took. & when binh was able to cut it out, her brother comes home & tells us the "knife" we used is for cutting sheetrock. HAHA! we have no fancy tools, our only fancy tool was to drill screws in....& we still had a hard time with it!

so yeah, building it was really an adventure & so funny! cause we didn't know what we were doing half the time. it's more fun thinking about it now. but this handy manny stuff is definitely not our territory!!

all the utensils & stuff ...we bought separately. my mom found tiny utensils at an asian store....i found a couple at the thrift store....& the microwave, belle already had.

so all in all...the nightstand & all the materials (spray paint, faucet, plywood, screws, L shaped things, hooks, etc)....came out to $50-$60.

everybody do a happy dance!!! whoo hoo!

still can't believe we were able to do it. even aris was impressed!

success!!

that's insane.