Kitchen Tutorial: Part 4 (Towel Rack, Shelves, and Accessories)

This is a continuation of the Kitchen Tutorial. See Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 for the rest of it.

To Make the Towel Rack:

Step 1: Determine which side you want the towel rack on. I put it by the sink. Eyeball two dots roughly an inch from the edge of the box and poke a hole in each one with the tip of your scissors.

Step 2: Tie a knot on one side of your string/rope and thread the other side through the hole so the knot is inside the box, not outside. Thread the other end of the string/rope through the other hole and tie a few knots in the end (yes, practically blindfolded. It’s tricky, but possible). Hang your napkin from it and Tada! You have a towel rack!

To Install Shelves for Your Oven and Fridge:

Step 1: Trace the side of your kitchen on one of the other, unused diaper boxes.

This piece you traced will act as a wall between you oven and fridge/freezer to hold up your shelves and divide the two areas. When you have it outlined, cut it out and place it inside your kitchen to make sure it fits well. It should attach to the inch of cardboard you left between your oven and fridge. Make sure the wall is big enough, if not a tad too wide. Mine was a bit too wide, so it is wedged in my kitchen pretty tight, but it does make the whole kitchen more stable and it’s very secure.

Step 2: Put the wall inside your kitchen. Trace around the wall along the interior of the kitchen to remember where you want it to stay inside the box.

Move the wall out of position just a little and hot glue over your line and put the wall back in place over the glued line. Squeeze the sides of your kitchen together along the wall while the glue hardens to make sure it sticks together. Do this on all three sides. I also used more hot glue as caulking around the edge of the wall for more stability and to fill in some gaps.

Step 3: To make the shelves inside the fridge, set the kitchen bottom on the other diaper box again, and trace the hole that is in the bottom of your fridge. I did this by sticking my arm through the sink hole and tracing the bottom of the fridge.

Do it twice. You’ll need two shelves (one for the fridge and one for the freezer). And now you’ll see why it was helpful to leave the sink removable!

Step 4: Again, cut these out, place them inside your kitchen where you want them, and hot glue them in place. Also, start with the fridge shelf first so you can work through the sink hole on both shelves if necessary. I liked to place the shelves close to each door opening so there was very little lip inside. Caulking with hot glue around each was also really helpful. I also had my cardboard face down so the printing was facing the floor and the brown side was up.

Step 5: Do this again for your oven, tracing the oven bottom on another diaper box, cutting it out, and gluing it in place. I frankly think it would be really cute to have two shelves in the oven, but I ran out of steam and didn’t do it. Or putting an open area under the oven for more storage would be fun. I didn't think of it until later, so I didn't have enough room to do it justice.

Adding Accessories:

Ideas #1: Find whatever you have around the house that could be used for handles, knobs, etc. I used dowel sticks and Gatorade bottle lids, and one bubble bottle. Just look at the pictures of what I did… or experiment and have fun.

Family Fun has a great idea of using soap dispensers for the sink faucet and knobs! And I am actually redoing mine because my daughter keeps snapping them off and they were crooked to begin with. Turns out hot glue on contact paper doesn’t hold up very well. Perhaps superglue works better? I also used foam stickers to cover up the logos on the knobs and also used some as “magnets” on the fridge. I put a post-it note with a grocery list on it for kicks. ;)

Ideas #2: Now you'll need to stock up your kitchen with all kinds of amenities: pots, pans, plates, etc. I found that my metal measuring cups made PERFECT pots, and they nest! I also rounded up some less-used Tupperware, took labels off small bottles (Pediasure bottles are perfect), and found some old baby spoons. I guess my point here is you don't need to buy all the fancy sets out there. As for food, well, I am out of luck there. I might make some felt food or buy some Melissa and Doug food sets that can be cut and sliced. Right now, my daughter makes me pretend milkshakes and soup, and that is plenty good for me.

Enjoy your new kitchen!