Tuesday, December 14, 2010

New kitchen that I did not make


Remember
this post in which I confessed that I hopped off the Hack-Old-Furniture bandwagon and bought the girls a play kitchen?

Last Thursday I dragged the box to the basement and assembled it. Took me about three hours, and I had a blast. Three hours is peanuts (compared to the at least 10 years if I had attempted to reincarnate a Craigslist TV stand/entertainment center)!


Over the weekend, we gave it to the girls.

But first, we forced them to open small parcels containing new
aprons:



Emily has been wearing the same one I sewed her when she was two. And she's now six - it barely covers her bellybutton. So she badly needed a new apron.



And Kate has zero aprons, so I made her one too.



And although Jenna has an appropriate-size apron already, we didn't want to leave her out, so she got one too:



If you're wondering, I used tea towels from IKEA. Came as a set of three, one of which I gave away. I worked with whatever I could of the two remaining towels, scrounging the hanging loops and motifs for trim, applique and pockets. So yes, I did do an IKEA hack after all, even if it wasn't the kitchen itself.



And then we gave the girls their new kitchen, share-sponsored by their grandparents. We let them believe for a while that it came all the way from Singapore before telling them amazon.com sent it.



Very pastel, very pink, very sturdy, very large, very happy. An early Christmas present so they can enjoy it well before the impending barrage of the other non-handmade, some-even-plastic gifts.





7 comments:

  1. There is an incredible amount of cuteness going on there!

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  2. My kids have the same kitchen and they LOVE it - even though two of them are boys. I can see lots of handmade felt food in your future -can't wait to see your creations.

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  3. Adorable aprons! We have the same kitchen - my girls received it for Christmas 2 years ago. They still love it and it's still going strong!

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  4. Sweet aprons! We have the same kitchen (though in a different colorway), gift from a doting aunty who lives far away. Enjoy!!!

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  5. Love the aprons! We have the very same kitchen also, but it is not as pink. Because I could not stand to have that much pink in my dining room, which is the only place in the house the play kitchen would fit. (And I couldn't find any non-pink play kitchens that fit the space, size, configuration and budget specs.) So although my husband and I assembled the thing in probably under an hour on Christmas Eve that year (we're pretty good at flatpack furniture assembly, I guess), it took me a solid week of very late nights before that to repaint most of the pink parts white. In the neighbor's garage, so that my daughter wouldn't see it. Totally nuts, yes, I admit it. (I did a good job though; it's been four years and the paint still looks great. Not chipped or anything. The kitchen itself has held up well too, other than a fatal injury to one of the hands of the clock on the side.)

    So, is your girls' kitchen completely filled up yet with cardboard cookies and felt cinnamon buns?

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  6. Super cute aprons! I like the elastic neck strap. (also, I think I mentioned this before but I always wanted to do the entertainment center kitchen but haven't seen any available every either)

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