My friends like to poke fun at me because I only buy Florence neutral, Scandinavian inspired toys. They joke that I’m scaring her for life by not buying her fuchsia pink plastic toys, but I beg to differ. Case in point, this cute Ikea play kitchen hack that I just completed in time for Christmas. Most play kitchens are plastic and totally not my style, so after a Pinterest deep dive, I decided to take matters into my own hands.
I started with the Duktig Ikea Play Kitchen, which is $89. It’s actually not that bad by itself, but it needed a little personality.
So I made 6 simple changes that have a big impact.
- I swapped out the bottom handles for some leather pulls.
- I spray painted the microwave handle white. I would have used the leather pulls, but they came in a pack of 2 and I was too lazy to drive back to Ikea for more. So my fix was to use 4 or 5 coats of white spray paint with a clear coat on top. Fingers crossed it doesn’t chip.
- Similarly, I spray painted the faucet and sink white.
- Inspired by A Beautiful Mess, I under-mounted the faucet.
- I added stove knobs by drilling four holes under the stove top, and installing some inexpensive wood knobs.
- As a final touch, I created a faux subway backsplash. This was fairly simple. I used peel and stick tile on a piece of foam board, which I cut to size. Then I used wood glue to affix it to the back of the kitchen.
Originally, I wanted to paint the cabinets, but in the end, I decided to leave them white because our cabinets are white, so it blends in. Also, it was raining every day, so I wouldn’t have been able to paint outside anyways #seattleproblems.
I found the pots and pans and utensils at Goodwill, ordered this set of wooden play food, and added some faux greenery I also make a utensil holder out of a empty vitamin bottle because it wouldn’t be an Ekloff project if there wasn’t something random upcycled. It turned out better than expected, thanks to some leftover marble contact paper and an Anthropologie leather tag that came with some slippers I bought… random, yes… cute, also yes.
It probably should have been a 1/2 day project, but I did it over a week since I could only work on it after Florence went to bed. All that hard work (and time that I usually would have spent watching Netflix), was totally worth it when she saw the kitchen on Christmas morning. Seriously, Christmas with a toddler is amazing! They are so excited about everything. Anyways, I hope everyone had a super holiday.