The Story of Josie’s Kitchen

Matt and I were talking a few months ago about what Josie might want for her second birthday and I came up with the idea for a play kitchen. Every time we are trying to cook she is up in our business hanging off kitchen cabinets, underfoot, sticking her hands in everything, standing on the counters and sometimes is wielding knives.

I tooled around the internet looking for ideas and saw some ADORABLE DIY play kitchens. This is doable and easy I thought. I took these ideas to Matt and he met them with a combination of excitement and skepticism at how much work this would be. Here is the story…

Two months ago we started by finding an old cabinet at Home Resource for $15, some handles, knobs and a faucet.

Then we ripped off the burners and knobs from the dirty old oven in the basement.

Matt spent many hours in the freezing wood shop during a below zero cold snap constructing, measuring, swearing, and perfecting.

After hours and hours of toiling in the wood shop, the structure was complete and it was time to dig out remnants of old paint from the basement and get painting.

Once we got some paint slathered on, Matt started attaching all the pieces. We used the old backyard dog bowl as the sink – cleaned of course! Glued the burners on and I found and re-painted a little mirror from Goodwill for $2. To some grumbling from Matt, I insisted that he attach the dishwasher and stove top knobs so they could still turn. I have great vision and no skills.

We spent most nights over the last few weeks watching the Olympics and working on the kitchen – what exciting lives we lead! During the day, the kitchen lived in the back hall with the dogs. Josie asked a couple of times, “What that?” and Matt would tell her it was a sheet and she would say “Oh, okay!”

Last night Matt and I made some final adjustments, set everything up and wrapped the darn thing.

This morning was the big reveal! Josie loved it, maybe not as much as the skateboard we are trying to put off getting, but love nonetheless.

The kitchen was used and abused during Josie’s party.

It was obvious from the post-party carnage that the kitchen was a huge success.