When we visited my parents this past summer, LB and I tried to travel light so no toys came with us. My parents found a tool bench and trike through CraigsList and friends, so he wasn’t by any means bored. Not that he played with them as much as the Collies! But I also brought my own childhood play kitchen up from the basement and spent a day sprucing it up for him. It hadn’t been touched in two decades (at least!) so it had water damage, dust, spiders, and paint chipping. It was last painted two shades of pink in the 1980s so it definitely needed some updating.
The splintering wood you can see through the open bottom section carried over to the outside sides as well. Our neighbour friend generously took the time to secure some fresh wood to limit the dangers of those pieces and make them paintable.
I removed the four vintage glass knobs and for the sake of time, I chose to spray paint it without removing the four doors. If I had the luxury of time, I would have removed the doors, cleaned the old paint off the hinges, and taped off the inside and outside for a clearer line between paint colours. But I was trying to do this in just a few hours with what we had on-hand. The green was already leftover from painting a mirror years ago. I would have preferred white inside and orange or navy outside, but the kitchen was for LB not me so my Dad and I brought him to the hardware store and let him choose the colour from the selection. He chose the sunniest yellow they had. Ok, he actually chose pink first but I felt like it needed a change from pink so I asked him to choose again.
After each light moving spray layer of paint dried, another was applied. Finally after a dry cool overnight outdoors for the paint to cure, I brought it in so it could fulfill its playtime destiny. This first photo is closest to the actual colours. There is a photo bomb from one of the Collie tails.
Knobs put back on and some empty tins added for maximum clank appeal. We even filled the enamel bucket (IKEA) with old wood Easter eggs from Lillian Vernon when I was a kid!
Liam’s tea set is a perfect fit for his kitchen. I think his Beastie Boys tee adds a certain charm too.
I’m glad I decided to paint the inside of the drawer too since he found that especially exciting.
Here is one nice look at the entire piece out in the sunshine looking almost neon.
Here it is in their newly redecorated breakfast room.
Here is one final look at the play kitchen before and after.
