Step 4: We found some nice thick treated wood planks that once belonged to a closet or something lying on the curb outside our apartment. The first piece I cut to size (using a lot of patience and my trusty jigsaw) and attached it with four brackets to the two night tables for both support and to work as a bottom shelf.

Step 5: It was now time to get the sink on. So that is exactly what I did. I got the sink on. Aw yeah. I thought this was going to be the most challenging action to get right but it proved to be much easier than I anticipated. I purchased a piece of MDF from a local store (this was one of my only purchases for the unit up until now), cut it to the proper length so it would fit nice and snug between the two night tables and had my trusty collaborator Ziva guesstimate the circumference of the sink and then drilled a hole smack in the middle of the circle. Several holes actually. I then meticulously cut out a circle in the mdf board. I purposefully cut less than I needed to for several reasons. First, I’m very inexperienced with the jigsaw and second – I only had one shot to get this right. Luckily, Ziva’s measuring skills were spot on (at least in this case) and I am apparently naturally talented when it comes to the jigsaw. After some trial and error and a lot of tweaking, I managed to get the bowl to fit in the hole nicely. The lips rest perfectly on the counter – which is now a sink.

Step 6: I firmly attached the sink (!) to the unit with brackets which brought even more stability.

I then stood back, smiled and called it a day.

Costs so far:

8 plastic wheels: $6:00
MDF Board: $15.00
Metal Bowl for sink: $5.00
Shelving brackets: $5.00

Total: $31.00

Recycled materials used:
Night tables: Purchased nine years ago
Wood planks found on the street

Next step: Figuring out how to properly attach the sink to the wood so Tzofi can’t just lift it out.

Building a DIY children’s play kitchen in 30 easy steps. Part I

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We decided the time was ripe for an upgrade and purchasing a new bedroom set and getting rid of our old Ikea night stands afforded us an opportunity to get the brain wheels churning and to design Tzofi a kick ass solid kitchen she can play with for the next few years. And one that won’t put us in debt. We also recently renovated our walk in closet space and have a few old bookshelves which are in pretty bad condition so we have even more raw materials to work with.

This is a pretty big project with many steps involved and we still aren’t 100 percent sure how it’s going to turn out. I plan on documenting this DIY project here as we move forward. Today we made major progress and I got to use my new jigsaw for the first time. I like tools. Power.

These are the night tables we are dealing with:

Step 1

The first step was to measure the legs and decide just how much we wanted to cut off. Ziva meticulously measured the height, marked it off and I sawed off the legs with much pleasure. I even wore safety goggles which was also enjoyable.

Step 2

We then attached wheels to the bottom of all of the perfectly cut legs. I figured that after all the work it’s going to be a pretty heavy unit so we wanted to be able to move it around fairly easily. Plus it added a little extra height.

Step 3

The “drawers” of the night stands open vertically. The idea is that one will be the oven and the other the refrigerator so I removed one and reattached the hinges on the side so it opens horizontally. Here’s what everything looks like right now.

The next step is to figure out how to get the sink in. I’m probably going to cut out a circle in a piece of wood and slide in a stainless steel metal bowl so the lips rest comfortable in the hole and then place this piece of wood somehow between the two night stands. We also plan on putting a shelf underneath which will be covered by a curtain (sewed by Ziva of course). We are still trying to figure it all out. There are many design elements that still need to be decided – extra shelving, knobs, burners, etc. We welcome all suggestions and advice. We are trying to use as much recycled material as possible and to keep the cost down.

What do you think about it so far?

Building a children’s play kitchen in 30 easy steps. Maybe. Part II

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