A Kitchen Set for Oliver

Yesterday during the Far Hills Rummage Sale recap, I showed off our new hand-built wooden toy fridge. This was a huge boon for us because we want to set up a kitchen for Oliver’s birthday, and we wanted to add a fridge to what we already had.

The fridge is the perfect companion piece and size.  Pardon the lousy shot (our basement is dark and this piece is heavy and I didn’t have the energy to haul it upstairs), but this is Oliver’s "new" kitchen set:

It’s a family piece, built by my great grandfather for my mother and my aunts. They played with it. I played with it. My sister and cousins played with it. Then it sat in storage and basements for probably 20 years. And well, it looks like it. It’s pretty beat up. The dark basement pictures are probably doing it a favor.

But I love it. I’m very sentimental. I love family pieces. I love history. I get teary-eyed when I think about Oliver playing with the same toy kitchen my mother did. It makes me so happy thinking about the love that went into building this, and how honored I am to be able to pass it down to Oliver for another generation to enjoy.

However… it needs work. Overall it just needs a good scrubbing, sanding and painting. But the countertop is damaged and we have to figure out the best way to repair it. I’d also like to add a couple of modern touches while I’m at it.

In a perfect world we’d like to have this piece refinished by Oliver’s birthday in June, all set up and ready for play along with the fridge (which doesn’t need any work at all). We’ll see if I can meet my deadline!