Once upon a time, I wanted to make a play kitchen for Laelia from an old night stand or entertainment center. After at least 9 months of keeping my eye out at thrift stores, flea markets and curbside, I decided to just buy the IKEA play kitchen, with the intent of hacking it. Not really a hack, more of makeover, I would say. Here’s what it looked like before
To help me figure out what I wanted to do with it, I did what I always do; mock it up in illustrator.
We made this a surprise Christmas present. I would like to forewarn anyone who has the idea of making this sort of present a “surprise”. It was really, really intense trying to get it all done close enough to Christmas day without the pieces lying around begging to be questioned, but in time for a reveal on Christmas morning. Oh yeah, and during the rain. I don’t know, we don’t have a garage or a work/storage space for projects like this, so it would probably be easier to do with a garage. Anyway, we did get it done, and only a few tears were shed. And we did get to sleep by 3 am!
I basically made her my dream kitchen; gray cabinets w/ white uppers, brass hardware, marble countertop… The bright pops of color and prints help to make the otherwise very sophisticated look more whimsical! Below is a breakdown of materials.
Items Needed:
IKEA DUKTIG mini kitchen + top section for mini kitchen
IKEA LANSA Handle 9 5/8″
IKEA VINNA Handle 6″
4 decorative knobs (I got these from World Market for $2.99, but the anthro ones look of a higher quality, and I had to spray paint mine gold)
1 small decorative hook
1 Tension rod
1 Can White Primer
2 Cans Gray Primer
Assorted Fabrics for window skirt (tutorial here, adjust measurements accordingly).
Rustoleum’s Bright Coat Metallic Gold Spray Paint (This is my favorite gold spray paint; it definitely leaves it looking shiny and metallic, whereas many others have a dull finish)
2 Cans Rustoleum Painter’s Touch Granite Spray Paint
Pop Color Spray paint
Marble Faux-Finish Tutorial & Supplies
Firstly, everything needs to be primed. I let the primer set for 24 hours on all the plastic. All the metal and plastic was primed with white primer, as well as the countertop (which later got the faux-marble finish). All of the gray got gray primer. We just painted the blue boxes directly. It’s best to let the paint set for at least 24 hours (preferably 48, especially on the plastics) before regular usage. For example, I could easily scratch the gold off the plastic even 6 hours after spraying. We let everything set for the recommended time, and the paint has held up excellently, with minor scratches on the plastics, and no scratches on anything else.
I just followed the tutorial to do the faux marble finish; I had all of the materials on hand (including the “stiff drink”) and stayed up late after Laelia went to bed to complete it! I also gave it a few gold veins for good measure. I finished it off with a high gloss sealer to make it easy to clean, and try to give it that sheen that real marble has.
I sewed the curtain on Christmas Eve (and two months later added all the ruffles I was originally intending to add, which is why I’m finally getting around to posting this), while Tyler assembled all the pieces, and added the hook on the side for the apron. The little apron is the mini-version of my apron, from anthropologie. <3. It all came together exactly as I planned, and I’m very grateful for that. Nothing worse than doing a ton of planning and hard work, just to have something go wrong in the last hour!
Christmas Eve!
Sorry some of the photos are dark and/or kinda blurry! All of the in progress shots were taken on my iPhone, and a few at night. We didn’t buy my Nikon until after Christmas. Did I even mention that on my blog yet?! I don’t remember… I think I did, but just in case, I bought a Nikon D5100 with two lenses, and I LOVE it. My Canon 20D was stolen last year and it took 8 months to replace it. =/ Anyway, if anyone has any questions, I’d love to help!
I love what you did with the kitchen. Where do you get your fabrics for the curtains?
I think I purchased most of the fabrics from fabric.com. They are designed by Anna Maria Horner, and Amy Butler.
So cute! I just recently did a boys Duktig makeover!
If you’d like to check it out: http://sandpaperandsillyputty.blogspot.com/2013/04/kiddo-kitchen-remodel.html
Great blog you’ve got!
I am about to paint our Duktig kitchen :) and have a couple of questions for you.
Has the paint held up well without sanding before priming? The guys at the hardware store swear I need to sand…and ugh I just don’t want to!
Did you drill new holes for the handles? Or did you measure and buy ones that fit the existing holes?
Thanks a ton in advance!
Hi! I did not sand, but we did prime. It is holding up very well! The sink has a few chips and that’s it.
I drilled holes for the lower half, but I used the existing holes for the microwave.
:D
I may have missed this but what did you use for the gray paint?
I think I linked to it under materials, but I used rustoleum’s “granite” color!
I can’t believe I haven’t come across this until now. I’ve been following your blog for a long time (you hooked me with that amazing baby quilt a while back). I just bought this kitchen today and searched for hacks and you came up. So glad you did this and shared it. Thank you!
I love that! You’re talking about Laelia’s baby quilt, right?! Well, stay tuned, cause as soon as I unveil my new blog (ugh, totally in the trenches of the design and content right now), I’m going to share her twin quilt. So happy I could inspire you with this kitchen!
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I love, love, love this! I was just wondering about all the painting you did on it. Are the products you used for the painting and marble countertop toxic or are they safe for kids? Thanks so much!
Did you ever find out whether the painting was safe? I’m torn whether to do this for my daughter for the same reason.
Once the paint is dry, it’s perfectly safe.
Love this kitchen and planning to do something very similar for my daughter. Question on the curtain, do you just need a tension rod to hang it from? The tutorial talks about attaching it to another piece of fabric and I am a bit confused. My mom is sewing this with leftover fabric from my daughter’s crib skirt – a 4 tiered ruffle. This kitchen will look so great in her toddler room and I’m so excited! :)
Hi! Yes, I use a tension rod to hang the curtian! :)
Amaaaaazing!
Where did you get the hook and knobs to hang the apron on the side of the kitchen in your last picture?
I’m surprised I didn’t mention it in the post! I got them from World Market!
http://www.worldmarket.com/product/turquoise-ceramic-and-metal-knobs-set-of-2.do?&from=fn
http://www.worldmarket.com/product/whitewash+bubble+glass+double+hook.do?page=2&from=fn
Where did you get the food accessories??
Hi! The food accessories are from Target and IKEA.
I’m wanting to redo my own daughter’s ikea kitchen and I’m wondering about the handles you got for the front. Were they the right size for fitting into the two holes that are already pre-drilled? I want to order them but I’m worried they won’t be the right fit. Yours look great!
Hi! I filled the existing holes with putty and drilled new holes to fit the new handles before I painted. :)
Wow! It’s beautiful. Where did you get the three tiered dessert stand on the top shelf, far right?
Beautiful! But looks a bit complicated for me to accomplish. We bought the play kitchen for a birthday gift in August. Am wondering where you got the tension rod and hooks for the utensils? Thank you!
Hi! I don’t remember where I bought the tension rod, either Target or Amazon I’m sure. You can find them pretty much anywhere. The hooks come with the kitchen. :)
Ok I need to know where that three tiered cake stand is from? Is it plastic? You did an amazing job, this is the best redo I’ve seen yet!
It’s a tiered jewelry stand! It was a gift, but you could use any pretty jewelry stand and it would work! Thanks!
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Your kitchen is amazing I was wondering if you made the cake stands or if they are glass?
Oh I just saw Jewelry stand great idea!
This is so beautiful! I would love to make this for my daughter. I was looking at ordering it online and it says that the entire unit is only 28 inches wide. That seems sooooo small to me. My daughter is 2.5 years old. Do you feel like the size of this kitchen is decent or does it feel small to you? I just wish I could see it in person but we don’t live close to an ikea.
I think it is a great size. As Ikea is well known for it’s compact designs, I suppose you could call it “compact” but my daughter is now 5 and still plays with it regularly. I think it compares to a normal play kitchen, although I have seen play kitchens that are much larger. If you are planning on having a play kitchen area take up an entire wall, this would be too small.
So you do agree that the entire unit is about 22 inches wide??
It is 28 3/8″ wide.
Hello? i have a question.. How did you make the holes for the knobs? i dont know much about drills
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Hi tHere! Wondering about how you did the corners on the contact paper? It looks so smooth the way you did it!
Hi! I’m sorry, I didn’t use contact paper on this project. Do you mean the marble counter top? I painted it using a faux marble technique. There are photos, and I linked to the tutorial in this post. :)
I love the apron hanging on the side! Did you make it or purchase?
Hi! The apron is from Anthropologie! :) I have the matching one in grown-up size.
Hi, I tried a similar hack and seem to have used the same primer and paint for the plastic but have found that after a couple of weeks, it just peels off. I have redone it about 5 times since Christmas. Did you treat the plastic first with anything? Clean it etc? I can’t understand how it worked so well for you and isn’t at all for me.
Hi! I’m sorry that sounds like a very frustrating situation! Perhaps the manufacturers use a different formula now; maybe you could try switching brands. Also, I’m not sure how old your kitchen is, but our kitchen was brand new before we painted it, which could have an effect on how well the plastic holds the paint (i.e. there is not years of kids fingers playing with it). It held up very well for the first two years, but it has been 3 and a half years now, and I’m planning on doing a little touching up, so I’ll be trying out new paints too!
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We just painted my sons play kitchen we didn’t prime and I’m really not happy with how it turned out. It’s not smooth and has a lot of bubbles.
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Hi – sorry to revive an old post but was wondering how you painted the gold around the stove. Did you just tape it off?
Yes, we took a bit of a brown paper bag to cover the coils and then we carefully taped the edges.
Hi! I’m hoping to paint a playhouse stove and table similar to your play kitchen. I’ve looked at your post and the faux marble/granite tutorial linked. I’m still unsure of how you did your marble counters. Did you prime them,paint them with rustoleum granite spray paint then paint on the marble whiskers? Thanks! I just want to be sure I do this right the first time!
It’s been a while, but I don’t think I primed the countertop. I just painted a base of white paint, and then used the black mixed with varying amounts of white paint for the veining. Sorry I could not be of more help!
Curious about the hob? Did you just spray it all gold and stratch off it all apart from the rim?
I taped off the main part and just let the lining show.
Any chance you still have the illustrator file? I’d love to play with textures and colors before trying my hand at your hack! :)
OH MY GOOOOOODNESSS! So awesome! Well done Mommy! I will try to do up something like this . I am so insoired by your ideas.
By the way where can i get the candy jars and cake stand as I believe they are children friendly… in singapore the Kitchenette does not come with a backdrop…
They were from a store called Homegoods, I don’t think they are available anymore… And I made the backdrop!