Nycki's Trunk: Building American Girl Grace's Bakery
Hey Everyone! Hope you had a great holiday season! We kept ours low key because of all the moving, but we still had a good one! About the same time we started working on the kitchen in our old house, we started working on another project. If you remember from a while ago I started a thing called "Nycki's Trunk". Essentially it's a tote where I'm collecting a whole bunch of things to give to Nycki for a big Christmas in a couple years consisting of American Girl things. So far I've made a bed and trundle. I've found various things at craft fairs, made a few things, and have started quite a cute collection. Back in May Josh and I decided to take Nycki down to the American Girl doll store in Charlotte, NC to get the doll she wanted. She has always wanted the Caroline Abbott doll, but unfortunately they were retiring her in the fall (insert sad face!). The good thing was that we were able to get her and bring her home!
What she also liked was the Girl of the Year Grace's Bakery. But when I saw that price tag, I said "woah, sorry kid!" At the end of summer I found a wonderful blog called American Girl Ideas. On there she had plans on how to make the bakery. Can anyone say "Hallelujah!". I tried to follow the directions as closely as possible with very few modifications. She spent about $160 on theirs, my goal was to spend only half of that! I purchased a 1/2 inch piece of plywood for $35 at Lowes, and then had them cut it down to the various widths that I needed. It made it so much easier to fit into vehicle and less rip cutting we had to do! We got to work pretty quickly and put the body together with the base being made of mdf that we already had.
We focused on the kitchen for a while. But continued whenever possible. We got paint cards and matched the colors to the Our Generation Kitchen, that my mom and I went halves on for Nycki for Christmas. We got sample paints from Lowes in Quite Red and Aqua Ocean. First I painted the inside of the windows white. Then I painted the inside of the bakery with the Aqua Ocean. On the bottom of the sides I used liquid nails to glue trim to cover the kreg jig screws I used to put the bakery together with.
I had a few extra pieces of vinyl tile and put them on the bottom inside of the bakery to help with durability. My motto for this project to use the most of what I had. We got 2 inches hinges according to the directions. We had to go with home depot because Lowes didn't sell 2 inch hinges for some reason. We ordered them online and then picked them up in store. We had to buy FLAT head screws separately, which wasn't a big deal, just annoying. It's important you buy FLAT head screws because round heads didn't let the doors close completely. I had 4 leftover magnetic cabinet latches from the kitchen renovation that I installed for each door to help keep the doors closed. They were really helpful for keeping the small doors closed if you want to have just the large doors opened.
What she also liked was the Girl of the Year Grace's Bakery. But when I saw that price tag, I said "woah, sorry kid!" At the end of summer I found a wonderful blog called American Girl Ideas. On there she had plans on how to make the bakery. Can anyone say "Hallelujah!". I tried to follow the directions as closely as possible with very few modifications. She spent about $160 on theirs, my goal was to spend only half of that! I purchased a 1/2 inch piece of plywood for $35 at Lowes, and then had them cut it down to the various widths that I needed. It made it so much easier to fit into vehicle and less rip cutting we had to do! We got to work pretty quickly and put the body together with the base being made of mdf that we already had.
We focused on the kitchen for a while. But continued whenever possible. We got paint cards and matched the colors to the Our Generation Kitchen, that my mom and I went halves on for Nycki for Christmas. We got sample paints from Lowes in Quite Red and Aqua Ocean. First I painted the inside of the windows white. Then I painted the inside of the bakery with the Aqua Ocean. On the bottom of the sides I used liquid nails to glue trim to cover the kreg jig screws I used to put the bakery together with.
I had a few extra pieces of vinyl tile and put them on the bottom inside of the bakery to help with durability. My motto for this project to use the most of what I had. We got 2 inches hinges according to the directions. We had to go with home depot because Lowes didn't sell 2 inch hinges for some reason. We ordered them online and then picked them up in store. We had to buy FLAT head screws separately, which wasn't a big deal, just annoying. It's important you buy FLAT head screws because round heads didn't let the doors close completely. I had 4 leftover magnetic cabinet latches from the kitchen renovation that I installed for each door to help keep the doors closed. They were really helpful for keeping the small doors closed if you want to have just the large doors opened.
I painted the base and roof top dark gray from my leftover gray paint from our master bedroom. I glued a piece of 1/4 x 2 x 15 inches above the doors and painted it with black chalkboard paint. After we moved to Utah, I finished up touch ups, painted black chalkboards on the inside of the small doors, installed a sign holder, and sewed a few clothes. Nycki got her bakery for Christmas and she loves it! Stay tuned for the reveal, coming up!
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