I'm still trying to decide what to do about the flooring in my kitchen. I don't want to lay the sheet vinyl until I've replaced the flooring in the living room, and finished the flooring in the play room. Well, anyway, it's a long story and it's been driving me nuts, so I decided to take a break and have some fun. This is for my grandson's birthday:

I had read a thread in Home Decorating a few months ago, about what to do with an old entertainment center that no one wanted, so I started looking for one that would fit on an old rolling cart that I'd been using to store paint cans. I found one on craigslist for $30.00 (less than the cost of lumber to build it.) On the way home I stopped at a yard sale and found the wire shelving pieces for $1.00 each. I bought a 6' 1x10 board, a rubber sink stopper, a couple of L-brackets, some spray paint, and two inexpensive touch lights. Everything else was already laying around the house or garage, left over from other projects. The cabinet is attached to the cart top and bottom, with L-brackets for safety. It's very stable--I can stand on one side without tipping the cart, and it can be rolled from room to room, or out on the front porch, when I need to set up tables for family dinners. I forgot to take a pic before I started re-working it, but here's an early one:

The over-the-sink light is one of the extra LED flashlights that I used for under cabinet lighting in the kitchen, and I added the touch lights to the oven and fridge. The cabinet doors and drawers are all from my old kitchen. The 'barrel hood' is a popcorn can, cut to shape, painted, and trimmed with metal duct tape. The top of the hood is a scrap piece of expandable ducting:

The crisper drawer is a $1.00 plastic bin:

Remember the sink from the old school cabinet that I put in the kitchen? The backsplash is a left over piece of plastic from a shop light fixture, sanded to prevent knuckle scraping. The stove burners are DVDs (obviously, lol.):

There is a fold-up cutting board for counter space, and a 'gray water' collection system ;), for supervised water play:

The oven rack is from an old toaster oven. I've been using it as a cooling rack, but it was perfect for this:

I bought a couple of cans of spray paint, to repaint the cart, and because my grandson wanted a blue fridge, but the green, white and gray paints were leftovers.

The other side of the cabinet is a work shop, with bins for scrap wood pieces:

I used the extra set of folding hinges, from the table in the guest room, for the work bench:

And even the sides are used for storage, books, and hooks:

When the grandkids outgrow it, the cabinet can be removed, re-worked, and used for craft storage, etc., and the cart can be taken back to the tool room. This has been a really fun project, but it took much longer that I thought it would--don't all kitchen remodels? ;)

very lucky gkids to have you!
and I looove that it's on a cart w/wheels. I've been thinking a lot about putting wheels under a number of furniture pieces I have.

shades, thank you! On one of my google image searches I found a pic of your bedazzled kitty perch.

desertsteph, I cut the fridge handles from a left over piece of 1x lumber, using a jigsaw. I sprayed them black, then put a strip of metallic tape along the front edge. They're modeled on the shape of my real fridge handles. Thank you!

BTW, when I googled 'kitchen center' I found the following link. Who knew those things were so expensive?!! My recycled one was about a tenth of what they charge.

I know your grandson will LOVE it.

It was a hit, not only with my grandson, but also with my 8yr old niece and nephew. I offered to make one for them if my brother can find another old entertainment center. He declined, lol.

EATREALFOOD, thank you! Today my grandson played 'restaurant'--the menu was: 2 frozen pies, spaghetti and meatballs, and a sandwich.

My FIL is in his 80s, retired USAF, a very traditional gentleman. When he stopped by one day, I was excited to show him the almost finished project. I said, "Look at the kitchen center I'm making for K's birthday!" His response was, "Hmmmmmm." I couldn't understand why he wasn't more impressed until I said, "And look on the other side--it's a workshop." Then he was impressed ;).

With a twist! Not many grandmothers have such abilities....so your younger generation, grandies and nieces and nephews, will have a long memory of what strong women can do, at any age.

You're the greatest!

Deedles, energy_rater and Kali, thank you all so much!

I have a couple of questions:what are the oven and refrigerator made from? They look like cabinets, are they? I know the sink is made to work, but is anything else?

Again, it's an awesome idea! ;o)

Nothing else works, except the touch lights in the oven, fridge, and over the sink. If you click on any of the pics it will take you to my photobucket album, which I made public, so everyone can see how to make a play center--it was so much fun.

A trip to the Restore would probably provide most of the pieces needed for the project--no two will be exactly alike anyway. Good luck!