repurposed nightstand into a play kitchen center

I started this play kitchen project a couple of weeks ago, then I went out of town with Delta Faucet and Krylon paint. So it got put on hold. It’s still not done, so maybe if I show you a partially built kitchen center, it will nudge me to get it finished!

 

I have put the kitchen center on the “back burner”  (pun intended) so that I can deal with all this fence I’ve gotten from my sister and her son. They not only took it down (while I was out of town) but they also took out all the nails and screws AND bundled it up with shrink wrap. So, it got moved to the top of my list of things to do. It’s wet and it needs to be stored somewhere. I spent Tuesday trying to dry it, and then I went to my sister’s house to get more.

 

So, back to our regularly scheduled post:

I have so many great scraps to shop from. I found a perfect piece of bead board.

 

 

I also found a great piece of plywood.

 

 

The bead board was just a little too long to match the plywood. I used my jigsaw to cut the end “tongue” off.

 

 

Then, on to repairing the broken drawer. It was missing the drawer front.

 

 

I found another scrap piece, and cut it to size. I wanted to router the edges so it resembled a drawer.

 

 

You can clearly see that the drawer front won’t fit because of the end pieces from the dovetail joint.

 

 

I took the drawer apart, and removed the small end pieces with the jigsaw. I used Gorilla Wood glue to reassemble the drawer.

 

 

To attach the drawer front, I used wood glue and my nail gun.

 

 

The entire nightstand need to be reinforced. I used the Gorilla Wood glue and my clamps to square everything up.

 

I am doing a dry fit here to see if the counter top will work with the backsplash.

 

You can see that I have added another scrap piece for a top shelf. I used some scrap 1x’s for the side braces.

 

I cut the 1x’s by clamping them together and cutting them at the same time.

 

I left the boards together so I could sand each to match the other.

 

 

 

this is my question to you. Do you think the counter top should be to the left? I could add spindles as legs.

 

 

Or should the counter top be centered?

 

 

I found another piece of scrap wood to make the oven door.

 

 

I purchased a pet bowl to use as a sink. I used a flower pot to trace the circle.

 

 

 

I drew the first circle but thought it would be too small, so I drew it larger. I drilled a hole in order to use the jigsaw to cut the circle out.

 

 

I’m usually not very good on a jigsaw, but I’ve started going slower and letting the jigsaw do the work. Pretty good circle, eh?

 

 

The bowl fits perfectly.

 

 

That’s all I have for today. It’s late on Tuesday night, and I’m very tired. This post is way too long anyway. I’ll give you more updates very soon. I’m still needing to find some knobs and a faucet.

so, center the counter top? move it to the left with legs on the right? Legs on the left? what say you?

gail

update: you can see part II here: Update of the Kitchen Center   And you will LOVE the Play Kitchen Center Reveal