Top Chef

Thanks to Pinterest, I was inspired to do some DIY gifts this year at Christmas. The first was a little play kitchen for Homegirl. I'm not very crafty, but sifting through ideas on Pinterest made me imagine that I could be. Pinterest is hypnotic that way.

These were some beauties that stuck out to me:

By All My Little Gems

By The Ordinary Beautiful

By The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking

There are also some bigger versions out there using old entertainment centers. I really love them, because you can make an entire kitchen, complete with a window, with one piece. But they aren't ideal for a short one year old. So for our first go at it, we opted for a small piece.

I picked up this little cabinet on wheels at Goodwill for $7. After a good cleaning and tightening everything up, I gave it a couple coats of paint.

The color is "Azure Snow", a really pale gray blue. This was great paint. It went on really well and hardly smelled at all. I plan to use it on some other pieces in her room.

We also added some stove knobs that I found for a few bucks on Amazon and painted on burners. For the sink, I used an old dog bowl we had (because our dog prefers to eat his food straight from the floor...weirdo). I completed it with a set of pots and pans from Ikea that look real, since she prefers to play with things that don't look like toys. She's a rebel, that one.

So, at this point, we have this:

Is it perfect? Of course not. You know better than that. Also, it's not finished either, 'cause that's how we do. But thankfully, one year olds don't care if things are perfect on Christmas morning. She loves it. She wiggles the knobs and bangs the pans, but her favorite things are sitting on the stove and spitting in the sink. Just a delicate flower, that one.

We talked about adding an oven, which may happen. I also need to find something to work as a faucet, and perhaps adding a back to it. Maybe a pretty little curtain.

Or maybe we'll just talk about doing those things but never do them. Entirely possible.