A Sneak Peek at Feven's Birthday Present

Zac and I have been spending nearly every spare minute working on building a kitchen for Feven as her Second Birthday present.  On her actual birthday we gave her some of the play food and cooking equipment, but the REAL present is yet to be delivered.

We plan on presenting her with the kitchen after her nap today, but I couldn't wait and just HAD to show you pictures of it in process!  It is turning out to be very cute.  I'm so glad that a friend of mine suggested this project to me - it has been fun building it and I know Feven is going to absolutely love playing with it!

Per some internet ideas and directions, we started with an old entertainment center.  We got this one from Craig's List for $10.  The guy we purchased it from was so kind he even loaded it up and delivered it to our home when he realized how small our vehicle was!  Here is a picture of the "before" (although in this photo we have already taken off the doors...and cut out a hole for the sink!). 

We tried to sand it down well so the paint would stick.  We were partially successful.  I imagine there will be some scrapes after Feven starts playing with it, but I'm trying to tell myself it will be okay.  We didn't build this to be a pristine mini-kitchen that sits for show in our living room; we built it to be a fun, well-used toy!

Once we primed the entertainment center, it really started transforming!  We had leftover primer from various other paint projects, so it added no additional cost to this project.

 

We painted the left upper and lower cabinets all white to be the refrigerator.  The center cabinet is black for the oven and has a gray cook-top above it.  We used some leftover paint from our bathroom to paint the walls surrounding the sink/cook-top area a blue-green color.

 

Here you can see the shelves back in the refrigerator.  It's really transforming!

There are a lot of things I'm already loving about this kitchen, but my favorite is the picture that we chose for above the sink.  We found an old frame at the thrift store, painted it, and framed this picture to make it look like it's a window.  When Feven stands at her kitchen sink, she will be looking out of her "window" at a view of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  I'm thrilled to infuse another part of her life with her birth heritage.  I think this picture also shows the blend of high-rise city and countryside well.

 Here is the picture hanging above the sink area.  Isn't that fun?!?

And here is my man, working hard on putting the hardware back on the doors.  I'm grateful for his knowledge and leadership in this project.  He patiently taught me how to use some of his power tools and talked me through tasks I hadn't done before.  An unexpected bonus of this project was the time he and I got to spend together working in the garage. 

Tune in Monday for some photos of the finished project and Feven receiving her gift!