I took the measurements from the Ikea kitchen and reworked it so that one of our spare shelves from our oven would fit in her oven and made it no wider than the little bit of wall separating our kitchen and living room, so it would fit nicely in the corner and not get in the way.
I made my design using sketchup.
It's hard to say how long the actual project took as I did it before I started back at work but when E had just started nursery. They have a good system here where they break them in gently by going for half an hour one day, an hour the next etc. and then slowly building up to staying for lunch and then for nap time. This meant that I had various half an hour slots in the morning to have a quick tinker in the kitchen and just slowly worked on it over time.
I built the main kitchen using spruce wood. The units are painted white and the worktop is stained chestnut and then nicely buffed so it's super smooth to touch.
The tap is made out of 3 pieces of spare wood I had that are all loosely screwed together so you can still twizzle it round in all directions.
Added extras:
Kitchen mixing bowl for the sink
Door knobs for the taps and for the oven knobs (all attached loosely so they spin around)
Cork coasters painted black for the hob
Door handles left over from our kitchen for the cupboard and oven handle
Grill shelf from our oven
Battery LED light that turns on when you push it for the oven
Perspex for the oven window with a balsawood frame on the inside to protect it
Hinges painted black for both doors
Opening hinges for the oven door so it doesn't bang directly on the floor (These need to withstand a lot of wear and tear and E loves to lie on the door and generally mishandle it!)
Hook rack that I had lying about and some S hooks
Magnetic paint for one side
Chalkboard paint for the side and the cupboard door
E was ill with bronchitis and a fever over Christmas so it wasn't the lovely look of surprise I was hoping for when she saw her new kitchen... in fact, she didn't want to open any presents at all! Since then though, she has played with her kitchen every day so far and loves baking her cakes and making a cup of tea. The only thing missing for her is that no real water comes out of the tap!
Here are some snaps of the work in progress...
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| A door clamped in place to dry after gluing and screwing together |
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| Painting in progress |
And here's the big reveal Christmas morning!
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| Checking her cakes in the oven! |
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