play shop DIY
Hello everybody.
My son has a little play shop now. He loves it and it is so much fun to play with him there.
This became his first role play every morning now.
I really appreciate playing this with him because it teaches him counting and negotiating (and also tidying up after himself).
Since I did not know before if he would like to play with it a lot and we only have limited space available in his crowded room i have developed this low-cost and double-use-space solution:
1. AWNING:
A bought 1m of striped cotton and sewed an awning plus thread to be pulled up by himself (the shop is open then), When the awning is closed the fabric hides the shelf behind with the store items. The room does not look so chaotic this way. It was a little tricky to do a construction which slides UP when you pull a thread DOWN. But after doing some sketches I understood, how that can work.
ca. 10Euro
2. WALL SHELF:
I built a small and not too deep wall shelf (ca. 20Euro material costs)
3. SIDE BOARD:
the side board was already in his room. It is an old IKEA Shelf which can be used multifunctional as bench, table or Lego Storage. And now also as presentation board for shop items like fresh bread and cakes. 0 Euro.
4. and last but not least - and really most important:
A CASH REGISTER.
Ebay used: 7Euro.
I will need to get a wooden one. This one is from plastic and makes funny beep-noises but here is would be worth it to spend more money next time.
I really figured that without a cash register, there is no shop.
The shelves themselves are not important at all. Only the register and the awning opened up the shop space.
For not even 40 Euros we created a unique play shop which exactly fits into the room and does not occupy too much extra space.
If not in use the bench is pushed back toward the wall and the awning even hides the shelf and the shop items.
My next mission now was to create items for his shop to be sold there.
Luckily play food for the play kitchen can also be sold in his store.
Here you'll find a list of play food I had already created.
I am going to update the list permanently:
