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Fold a kitchen into your pocket -- UPDATED WITH VIDEO

Fold a kitchen into your pocket -- UPDATED WITH VIDEO
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With just two sheets of paper, a color printer, a cutting board, an exacto knife, a ruler, a scoring tool, glue and 30 minutes of your time you will be able create a kitchen which can provide hours of cheap and portable entertainment for your kids.

This project came about when I was playing with my son and some colored paper... he asked me to make a house, and I was only too eager to comply (one the reasons I'd wanted kids was to have an excuse for building a doll house...). But since I live in an apartment with limited space and I'm allergic to dust, I wanted a house I could fold up and put away. You can see pictures of the fruit of many hours of labor here, or you can skip ahead and make your own kitchen by following the steps in this instructable.

UPDATE January 2010:
You can now sign up for a chance to win a PDF file of the bedroom at
www.makeanything.net

UPDATE April 2010:
Now you can make the whole house! It took a LONG time to put together, but finally the whole eight room, two story house can either be purchased in book form or downloaded as a PDF file (either the whole house or room by room) by going to www.makepopupcards.com. The site has some free templates and I'm planning to add even more, so it's worth the visit.


UPDATE February 2012:
For those who prefer video tutorials to step by step instructions, just click play. The music is by John M. Davis, and was originally composed for an HBO documentary "A Matter of Taste"


 
 
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Step 1Preparation

Preparation
Download the 4 files.

"Kitchen" and "kitchen support" are the pictures you will need to print on your color printer (a fairly heavy stock works best). The two other files are for reference only. Red lines show where you need to cut, green lines show where you need to score and fold. When you print, make sure you turn scaling off.

Get your equipment ready:

An exacto knife
A cutting board (a piece of cardboard will do)
A ruler
A scoring tool -- I use a ball point pen which I painstakingly emptied of ink, but you could also use something like a DS stylus or a knitting needle. Anything with plastic tip, not too sharp so it won't puncture or scrape the paper should work -- even an other ruler.
Glue
Kitchen-support.pdf(2100x2996) 900 KB
Kitchen-with-lines.pdf(504x719) 140 KB
Kitchen.pdf(504x719) 1 MB
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46 comments
1-40 of 46next »
Feb 19, 2012. 12:09 PMporcupinemamma says:
You are BRILLIANT!!! The video really helped me understand better. Thanks so much :0)
Jan 8, 2011. 4:18 PMCraftBear says:
Awesome make thank you so so much! Now I really can carry everything including the kitchen sink!
Sep 16, 2010. 4:06 PMtheREALcybercat says:
i've just make my own and its really awesome!

5/5!!!
Apr 17, 2010. 5:59 AMporcupinemamma says:
5/5!!!!   voted way to go :0)
Apr 17, 2010. 6:01 AMporcupinemamma says:
I'm also thinking aboout adding smoke and dirty dishes and a caption somewhere that says-"Wanna come over for dinner, or shall we go out?" (lol)
Jan 20, 2010. 9:44 PMpersephone94 says:
 I love your instructable -- and the accompanying website for the bedroom printouts -- and can't wait to modify it, literally: I'm making a MOD 1970s styled ranch house dollhouse from an old architecture magazine I found. I had no idea where to start, but you've made it actually easier to compress the visual-spatial stuff :)

Thanks!
Nov 30, 2009. 11:02 AMdelicate_secret says:
beautiful work! I love making stuff for the kiddos-- and get waaaayyy into detail, too ;)
Jul 23, 2009. 12:54 PMThePlatapus says:
Oh wow! When I read your Instructable on how to make a kitchen, I was so excited I made it right away! It turned out perfectly and I saw the website attached to the kitchen so I decided that I would look at your website. When I saw your doll house it was one of the coolest papercraft I've ever seen. So I was wondering if your could make more Instructables on how to make the other parts of the doll house?
Sep 13, 2009. 3:59 PMWafflicious says:
Cool! you could probably have the refrigerator open up too.
Sep 15, 2009. 6:36 PMWafflicious says:
Ya I saw those they are incredible!
Aug 25, 2009. 9:54 AMbedeboop says:
Fantastic.... :) Kids have got to love this!
Aug 15, 2009. 5:19 AMendawmyke says:
This is some awesome paper craft
Aug 13, 2009. 12:55 PMwenui says:
LOL...... ASTERIX
Aug 9, 2009. 5:56 PMsamyboyster says:
HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!
Jul 28, 2009. 8:25 PMsideways says:
Very cool and thanks for posting it. I've been a fan of popups and paper engineering for years now. Your skill is outstanding.
Jul 27, 2009. 12:25 AMstephenlast says:
you're a dedicated father
Jul 23, 2009. 4:34 AMbethmwl says:
Great job on the kitchen! Great detail.
Jul 17, 2009. 9:39 PMilldoyourdrugs says:
Nice instructable. I'm actually going to make this. I think this finally might be the first instructable i will ever do hahaha. I have over 300 fav's, have been a member for forever and have yet to complete one.
Jul 10, 2009. 10:10 AMtrevyboy says:
ok you have way to much time on your hands!!
Jul 11, 2009. 2:05 PMtrevyboy says:
wow...
Jul 9, 2009. 10:04 PMNick_12 says:
really cool u have a lot of patience
Jul 7, 2009. 5:20 PMl8nite says:
I went to see the whole house.. pretty awesome and a LOT of work. The instruc would be a lot more helpful if you showed or told us how or where you came up with the various room and furniture pictures
Jul 7, 2009. 5:35 PMgoodgnus says:
Another idea would be to search for whatever item you're looking for on http://images.google.com
Jul 7, 2009. 5:34 PMgoodgnus says:
You can probably get the pictures of stuff in the room from various home magazines. Magazines like Dwell for modern furniture or more traditional home magazines for ordinary furniture. IKEA catalogs would work good for an IKEA home. Visit a 2nd hand book store that sells magazines to get them on the cheap.
Jul 8, 2009. 12:58 PMgoodgnus says:
Apply for a provisional patent, with a little research it can be done without the help of a patent lawyer and only costs $110 to file.
Jul 8, 2009. 1:36 AMKitty Lamour says:
That is really lovely. Will be making one straight away .mmm Could make a whole house.
Jul 7, 2009. 11:21 PMalex-sharetskiy says:
awesome!
Jul 7, 2009. 3:06 PMstephenniall says:
awesome im going to tru ,aking one of my room !
1-40 of 46next »

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Author:belsey
I am trying to work on an overly ambitious tome, MAKE ANYTHING, a handbook for saving money, living green and having fun with trash. Trouble is, I keep getting distracted by pop-ups -- the cards, not ...
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