Step 1: Find a good table.
Check the size and make sure it has a few drawers or doors.
In this case, we used a small table with long legs, and multiple drawers.
We don’t have a ton of space, so we wanted to go small.
The key to this project is working with the piece you have. Figure out how
to use the lines and details of the piece to your advantage.

Step 2: Modify as necessary.
In our case, the table had long legs, which weren’t what we were looking for
in a kids stove.
So we measured 1 ½ to 2 inches, and cut the legs off, using a circular saw.

Step 3: Sand/prime.
We took the drawers out, and sanded everything down enough that it had a
‘tooth’ to take paint.
Then primed the whole thing with white primer. If you’re lucky enough to
have a piece in a light color, then less primer will be required, but for
us, several coats were necessary.
Lesson learned, for this one, we should have done more coats of primer to
cover the dark green. If there is anything you want to leave the original
color, tape off before priming.

Step 4:
We had taped off anything we wanted to stay green, in our case the panels on
the drawer fronts. The rest was painted yellow. Allow to dry thoroughly,
multiple coats if necessary.

Step 5:
Make the knobs.
What we did: cut 3 circles out of ½ in thick MDF (we had three knobs in the
current top drawer, modify per the number of knobs you have/want).
Paint the circles yellow.
(While this dries you can put more coats on the base piece if necessary.)
For the black centers of the knobs, cut scrap wood into triangle or
trapezoid shapes, and paint black.
{ For the less carpentry inclined, you have multiple options with the knobs
. Ours were circles cut out of MDF, but if you want, you can buy disks from
the craft store, or even easier, find some flat round drawer knobs
(something like like this knob) and paint on the details. If you
use store bought knobs, your step 7 will actually be easier. }

Step 6:
The top.
Tape off the bottom (yellow) and spray the top with a metallic paint (we
used a hammered aluminum).
Let it dry.
After it’s dry, tape off the top with painters tape.
Use a circle cutter (or a saucer or something else round) to cut out circles
that will become the burners.
Peel out the circles, leaving the remainder masked.
Paint the interior of the circles Red. Let dry.

Step 7:
Attaching the knobs.
Remove the original knobs. In our case, there were three drawer pulls which
we were replacing with burner knobs.
For Homemade knobs:
You’ll need for each knob, a washer, your disk, a screw, and the
triangle/trapezoid shape. Additionally, you’ll need some scrap MDF to screw
into, inside the drawer.
Place a washer, then the disk, then slip the screw through. Screw into the
scrap MDF, leaving it loose enough to turn. Then glue the black triangle to
the top, covering the screw.
{For Store Bought Knobs: Simply attach the knob as you would to any drawer,
but leave loose enough to turn easily. No extra MDF backing is required. }

Step 8:
Now to finish off the top of the stove.
Peel off the paper you were masking with, to reveal the red circles. The
size of your burners will depend on the size of your circles, so estimate
accordingly.

To make the burners:
Take about a 1 in wide piece of MDF, about 7 in long in our case, and cut at
a 10 degree angle on each side.
Do this 3 times.

Sand edges, paint tops and sides black.
Glue to top of stove, as shown, using wood glue. Put something heavy on top
until it dries.

Step 9:
Send the Chef in!

Oh, and The 6 o’clock stitch asked me to include this in their tutorials round up… check out other cool ones here.

Jenny’s play oven ( at one of my favorite fun sites, ikeahacker) was made from a small laminated cabinet from the as-is department. If you are lucky enough to have an Ikea near you, the As-is department is a great source of material for projects (they give away broken glass you might use for a mosaic, plus you can buy cheaply broken furniture pieces or tabletops which can be used as wood) and also for almost complete items that just need a little love (like the toddler bed). If you don’t have a local Ikea (you poor thing), you could do something similar with any small laminate furniture you might find.

Go to the post to read the whole thing, but I love some of the clever repurpose they did with items from the hardware store:
– 4 pinewood wheels designed for making a toy cart, painted them with black enamel paint to make them shiny, superglued to top panel, to create hotplates.
…- 6 pinewood doorknobs, again enamel painted black, then once dry added numbers and dial-style icons, using a tippex pen – for the oven and hob controls, superglued to front
– red electrical insulation tape (self-stick), to smooth out the plywood rough edge of the top panel (chance, it was exact width)…

They glued their knobs on, but you could use the techniques from the one we did to make your knobs actually turn.

Also from Ikeahacker – a really simple cardboard stovetop requiring no carpentry at all!

Ariacielo writes on the Mondopiccolo Blog on how to use the actual box that this little kids cookware set came in to create a mini stovetop to make the cookware even more fun. They do it with the Ikea kids cookware set box, but I suspect you could modify their techniques to work with any right sized box. I think this is a great idea for when you have a small space (or let’s face it, a boy*) and one of the full kitchen sets isn’t in the priorities, but the little one still needs a place to cook when he feels the urge!

The $2 Play Stove
And finally, a super-cheap option from Dollar Store Crafts. It even has storage! I love the re-use involved here. Go get the instructions!

Related Posts:
– Toddler Bed – Hack a toddler bed to use a smaller crib mattress
– Kids Play Stove from an old side table
——————–

*OK, OK, before you send the hoards after me for gender stereotyping, let me state for the record, my little boy loves to cook. In fact, he has a chef’s hat and his own little kitchen gloves. But the typical pink and purple storebought stoves just didn’t fit with his decor. He doesn’t play chef all the time, and a homemade little stove does just fine for his needs. So go make your little boy a playstove! :)

Cutting Sushi; Playstoves are also for jumping, apparently; Making a cake with Daddy.
Click through to see the cuteness of The Boy in all it’s cooking glory :)

Make a Fun Kid’s Playstove from an Old Side Table

Check it out – I plied the husband with much beer to get him to document the process for creating the Playstove, and the full Tutorial with lotsa pics and diagrams, is available on Whip Up. The theme for Whip Up this month is kids crafts, so be sure to check out all the other cool stuff.

Get the .pdf of the Tutorial here!

HOW TO writeup is here
Pretty spiffy, no?

The original crappy little side table: