Ikea Play Kitchen Hack

Wyatt has wanted a play kitchen for a while now, he has one at my parent’s place and now that we have our house, we have room for one in his playroom! I heavily debated splurging on a big & fancy Pottery Barn one because I just die over those, but decided to reel myself in and reach for one at a more accessible price point…it’s a toy after all!

The Ikea Duktig play kitchen has clean lines, is a nice little size & was the perfect canvas for a little DIY…not to mention, on sale for only $79!

I finished this project in one day; during nap time and then after Wyatt went to bed, including building it (which if you’ve built Ikea pieces before, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by this one because it’s small, quick & easy!) It was Wyatt’s 2nd birthday present so he couldn’t see it until his big day!

You can do any color scheme you want for this project. The original kitchen looks like this:

Super cute on it’s own, but if you want to fancy it up a bit here’s how.

Materials:

Ikea Duktig Play Kitchen
Spray Paint (at least two cans, paint & primer in one, super important if you don’t want to sand!) I chose to make my kitchen two different colors, gray and white: Krylon White Gloss (for my gray I actually used Annie Sloan’s chalk paint in French Linen because that’s what I had, along with clear wax and this brush, but you can use gray spray paint. This chalk spray paint in country gray looks similar to the French Linen color we used.)
Metallic Spray Paint and/or black spray paint (This is for the sink, edge of the stove, accessories bar, hooks & faucet)
Painter’s Tape
Peel & Stick Tiles (there should be at least 4 sheets in your pack) I did “marble” subway, but you can do white, a herringbone pattern, get creative, there are tons of options on Amazon!
Foam Board or Cardboard for the backsplash, to stick the tiles to
Hot Glue Gun & Glue
Marble Contact Paper (or color of your choice, make sure the roll is at least 17″ wide) mine was from years ago, but the one linked looks basically the same
scissors or xacto knife/box cutter
5″ pulls of your choice (3, I used these in polished nickel)
Knobs (4, I used these that were leftover from another project.)
Drill
AA Batteries for the stove to light up

Accessories I Used to Style the Kitchen:

Play Pots & Pans
Play Utensils
“Dish Towel” (these are our dining room napkins)
Mini Boxwood
Eucalyptus & Cotton Stems
Mini White Pumpkins (Trader Joe’s)
Small Candle (Homegoods, NOT staying in the playroom)
Mini Crate (also good for storing play food in)
Molton & Brown Lotion (my fave scent, NOT staying in the playroom)

Disclosure: I actually painted the whole kitchen white, assembled it and then decided it was too white (I know, I’m shocked by myself too) so I went over the bottom half with chalk paint while it was assembled.

Directions:

Get the Ikea kitchen and lay out all of the pieces. You can now order it online and shipping is only $9!
Prep your pieces for paint and tape off the plastic windows on the microwave and stove. If you don’t mind the inside and back of the kitchen being white (I didn’t because my kitchen was white and gray) then you don’t need to spray paint all the pieces, and some you will just need to paint one side. Even though I was painting the kitchen white, I still sprayed the pieces that were already white so all the whites would look the same.
The pieces that are laid out in the below pic are the ones you need to paint. Because I painted it white first and then decided to go back with gray, the ones marked with “gray” are the ones I should have painted gray in the first place. The pieces marked with the blue painters tape are the pieces I painted front and back for consistency (double check on the directions that you’re painting the right side if you only paint the one on the pieces that don’t need all sides, and don’t forget the skinny sides too!)
Paint according to the directions on the can. Apply a second layer if necessary (depends on the paint, conditions and your handiwork!) Remember, if you are doing two different colors like my final product is- your pieces should not all be the same color like this picture!
Spray paint the “hardware” pieces. I chose to do the sink and surround of the stove in a bright silver, and the utensil bar, hooks & faucet black. You can choose what you’d like to paint what colors! I left the protective plastic seal on the stovetop and sprayed the remaining surround and it worked pretty well! I did not paint the pulls that came with the kitchen because I bought my own real metal pulls, but if you choose to paint yours, this would be the time!
Cover the countertop piece in marble contact paper. Leave enough on all sides to wrap around a little of the bottom. Use a credit card to smooth bubbles as you go, then cut the sink and stove holes in an “x” with an x-acto knife, scissors or box cutters to fold back the edges. The edges here don’t need to be perfect because the stove and sink will pop in and cover that part. To finish the corners of the sink I trimmed any excess and then cut & folded each corner similar to how you’d wrap a present.
When all of your pieces are dry, assemble the kitchen according to the Ikea directions. If you bought different pulls, install those instead.
To make the backsplash, cut your foam or cardboard to the correct size of the backsplash area on your assembled kitchen. Peel & stick the tiles on the board, then hot glue the board to the back of the kitchen.
Install the oven knobs. Measure & drill 4 holes and screw in the knobs. This was incredibly difficult to drill for some reason, but it will work!
Style your new play kitchen & get your kid to help you cook dinner 😉