Play Kitchen Build Along- Lesson 3- Assembly & Body Paint

Welcome back! I hope that these tutorials are user friendly and that you are encouraged!
This week, it's time to assemble and paint. I kind of did a little of both along the way.


First up the oven door:


I thought I was so clever clamping the door in place to easily drill holes and screw the hinges on. However, the hinges were too small for the shape of the drawer and it didn't have room to open!



The flat edges of this drawer front and larger hinges made for an easy and smooth opening. So, larger hinges could have been a posible solution. However, I didn't feel like a trip to the hardware store, so I considered other options.


In this picture you can see how the edge is sort of carved out. My solution was to cut a thin strip of wood the length of the oven opening (I angled the edges with my miter box and saw.) Attach the screws outside of the kitchen (much easier than trying to squeeze a screwdriver in a tight place) and then glue the strip to the front of the kitchen like this. Notice I left the hinges on.

I used Gorilla Glue and clamped it well and let me tell you, it's strong! As always, you can click on any picture to look at it larger in flickr. I recommend looking at the Play Kitchen Build Along flickr set because there are more notes with each picture. I also used a flat L bracket thing in the middle just for extra hold. You can see that in this picture. I don't think it was necessary, that Gorilla glue is strong!

Once I had this in place, I screwed the door on to make sure it worked before painting. I didn't take a before painting picture of it, but here it is painted.

You can see that the door doesn't open all the way flat. I am OK with that.

I never really liked was how the first pink kitchen oven opened. I was always a bit concerned that this door could bonk a child on the head. One kid opens the door and gets distracted while another kid is looking in the cubby below. Ouch! It hasn't happened, but it could. Note- now that I see this old picture, that door also has those carved out edges, but it has the bigger cabinet hinges that make it work.

If you are building your oven door from scratch, read the notes with this flickr picture.

A good look at this picture shows how the door was made and atached.

Shelves
My top shelf had those gaps I talked about here. So I cut some wood strips to fit inside and Gorilla glued them in place. That's what is under the paint cans. If you click on this picture- there are notes about support L brackets too.


Once I did that, I primed the whole thing. I hate crouching down to paint tiny areas. The balcony is a tiny area to begin with. So I primed and painted everything before I assembled anymore. This way I could turn the cabinet upside down to paint parts and on it's side to reach others.


It's much easier to paint the shelves before you put them in! Decide what color you want your oven and bottom shelf. Paint them up and then glue them in.

Here is a picture of the half painted backer board. I held it in place with one hand and reached through the sink to draw a line delinating the oven from the cupboard parts.

Back to installation-the front edge of the oven shelf will rest on the front crossbar left from the original dresser. The back needed supports and I used L brackets. First I screwed the bracket in place.

Then I put a bit of tape to block the hole. My shelf material was too thin to screw into, so I used Gorilla glue again. The tape just blocked drips from falling on the wood below. Before it all dried, I removed the tape. Believe me once dried, that glue would hold the tape forever! It worked well, I put the shelf on top, weighed it down and removed the tape. I wiped the bottom of the bracket with a paper towel to remove any extra.


The bottom shelf had front back and middle supports from the dresser construction, so it glued in easy peasy.

Now that it was painted I installed the oven door. (See above oven door picture.) I didn't have any trouble there. My extra edge plan worked beautifully. However, in spite of the extra leaning slant the door now has, it won't stay shut on it's own. In the past some ovens have just stayed shut because of their snug fit. I have also used claps to hold doors shut that came with the origional cabinet. For this oven I think I am going to use a strip of black velcro.

Back Splash

This backsplash was made from a scrap of plywood. I traced the edge of the kitchen counter to get the curvy line for the top. It is screwed into the top edge of the back.

For this kitchen I took a strip of 1"X3" wood and screwed it into the back.
For my current kitchen I am doing the same thing.

This funky L shaped strip of wood came from my old futon. When it broke I dismantled it and saved the wood for other projects. In every case I try to reclaim scraps!

I plan to spray paint the counter with Rust-Oleaum American Accents Stone Spray Paint for a faux granite finish.

A couple of notes about this stone spray paint.
-I love it! It really looks like granite.
-Base color is really important.The wood must all match before applying that stone spray paint because the  white becomes the background color with the flecks of gray and black on top. The base color does show through!
- I use saran wrap to wrap and protect the whole cabinet body while I paint it on. I just wrap the whole thing up similar to the way moving companys wrap your sofa.
-Make sure to tape off the sink hole!
-Several light coats work best.
-It will take a full can to cover.

So, how is it going? As usual, please leave questions in the comments and I will update the posts with answers for everyone to see. Next week- the fun stuff- burners, knobs and assorted detail work.

Why I make play kitchens...
Introduction
Lesson 1
Lesson 2

* If you make a play kitchen from this free tutorial, I'd really appreciate if you would add a picture to my Play Kitchen Build Along flickr group and link to this tutorial on your blog! Thanks!