a play shop

One of my favourite little people has his 4th birthday next weekend. He's been pointing out play shops in brochures and asking his mum to please buy him one. She ( one of my besties) wasn't as keen and said her preference would be for something that's not plastic and a bit more robust- so I offered to make him a wooden one.

I had an old wooden bread bin in the garage ( as you do lol!) which I thought will make a nice- sliding up- feature on the counter top. I 'rescued' two wooden drawers from our demolished rental property and used them back to back as frames for the shelves. I gave everything a light sand and used liquid nails and tacks to join the parts together. I painted it with an undercoat of white and two top coats of a nice pale blue ( given to me by my dad). I used some of our chalkboard paint on the front of the bread bin for him to use as an open/ closed sign and also put chalkboard paint on sheet of hardboard that he can use to display the weeks 'specials'.

To stock the shelves I've collected empty food boxes and packets and bought a set of life sized fake fruit off trade me for $5. I bought a till, some play money and some price stickers from a 2cheap shop for $2 each. On the side of the shop I've glued a slatted box lid, he can hang and peg things off there. To stock the shelves I've been collecting empty food packets, washing and drying them, filling them with paper towels and gluing them closed.

The bunting is made from some red ribbon and some red and blue felt from my stash. This little project cost me about $15 and my time as I used things I had already- an upside to being a bit of a hoarder! I hope he likes it and that his mum and dad have lots of time to play shops in future : ).