After a recent viewing of the Better Homes & Gardens show on TV, I had a friend ask if I could make them the featured ‘Kid’s Cafe’ for their granddaughter. The plans were in the magazine (Better Homes & Gardens, December 2020 issue), along with step by step instructions for it’s construction, so it looked like a relatively easy job. However once I looked at the material list I could see that it would be fairly expensive. Using the design and materials included in the magazine it was going to cost over $400 for materials alone.
A study of the plans convinced me that there was an element of over-engineering in the design and that there may be cheaper ways to do things. I also had tools available to me that enabled substitution of some of the more expensive materials. My revamped design, which kept to the original dimensions, dropped the cost to to around $250, which then allowed me to add a small margin and come within a budget that was acceptable to the friend.
Probably the major change I made to the design was to go from a double layer of plywood and mdf paneling to a single layer of mdf with routed grooves to give it a similar look as the paneling.
As expected, construction was fairly easy and I had the whole thing put together quite quickly. Painting probably took as long as the construction, with 3 colours of paint and also varnish being required. Most parts were painted before final fitting.
As an added extra for the friend, I made a double sided sign using my router pantograph that had the granddaughter’s name with ‘shop’ on one side and ‘cafe’ on the other.
This was a project quite different to any other I had undertaken, but was fun to do and a result I was very happy with.
I originally thought the Better Homes & Garden design was over-engineered and now think that even my pared back design was still a little bit over-engineered, but the friend was pleased with the result and that is really all that matters. Hopefully it becomes a feature of hours and hours of play.
