Easy Bookshelves for Kids' Rooms

I have a confession. I can be a big procrastinator. Not news at all to my husband or my parents, but something I generally can cover up at work.  I first saw this bookshelf idea before we left Toronto, in 2011.  The bookshelves are actually spice racks from Ikea (called Bekvam).  They sell for $6.99 each and are very easy to put together.  Knowing we were moving that summer into our new home in the Maritimes, I picked up 9, 3 for each of my children.
As with many well intentioned projects, the bookshelves were put aside.  They lived on the top shelf of my daughter's closet among baby blankets and a Costco size box of diaper wipes.
I am very pleased to say that this summer was the summer the racks made their way out of the packaging and onto my children's walls.  It really is one of those easy projects that looks so cute that I can't believe I didn't do before now.  Here are the results:

Little Miss O looking through her new bookshelves

J's room

E's shelves and bulletin board that I had hidden away too

I have to say as I was measuring, leveling and drilling that this kind of work would have been much more useful to learn how to do in my grade 8 shop class than making a wooden tool rack.
 

DIY Play Kitchen - Furniture Makeover

Before - old TV/Entertainment Unit

After - cute play kitchen for my little girl :)

I've seen these play kitchens floating around Pinterest and I just fell in love with the idea.  But we didn't have an old TV unit to use.  I found this one for free on Kijiji and bribed a friend of mine with dinner to pick it up in her truck and bring it over.   Here's how the transformation went.
1st - we waited until the nice weather to do the makeover.  I originally got all the materials back in January as it was to be my daughter's birthday present - it's a good thing she's 2 and really won't remember that her present ended up being 7 months late :)
We brought the unit outside, took off the glass doors and shelves and started sanding it down to rough it up a bit.

I then started painting.  Because I used a darker, funky colour, it took a few coats to get it just right.  I used a smaller can of paint - a semi gloss.

Painting more coats to get the colour just right.

I then started adding on to make it more 'kitchen-y'.  I used a very small can of black semi-gloss to paint on the stovetop burners and oven glass.
I used a jig saw (yes, me using power tools!) to cut the hole for the sink.
The sink is a small mixing bowl I picked up at the dollar store.  I found a hook to become the tap (not seen in the picture below).  My husband was so kind to help me out with the drilling to fit everything on properly.  (He even drilled a hole into the metal hook so I could attach it to the kitchen.)
The stove top knobs are inexpensive drawer knobs - as are the handles for the stove and under-sink cupboard.
I found cafe rods for hanging up the curtains.  The curtains, I made with a metre of fabric from the local quilting store.

I am really pleased with the way it turned out.  My kids love it too.  The first day we had it ready (along with some kitchen toys) friends of ours were over with their 3 kids.  That made a total of 6 kids ranging in age from 2-12 playing restaurant together and loving it.

My daughter with her new kitchen up in her room, making me a pizza and a cup of tea.