IKEA Play Kitchen Hack 2021

Hello Hero’s.

Hope you are well. How is it already February. Jeez!

I am sure many of you have seen these insane IKEA hacks flooding Pinterest, they are incredible. Whoever thought to take a cheap IKEA piece and create something that looks like super high-end furniture, is a genius. Thanks, whoever you are!

See, you inspired us, to take a whack at the hacking the IKEA Play Kitchen or DUKTIG as IKEA calls it into something HGTV worthy for Skye’s first birthday. On a random note did you know DUKTIG means “good” in English, huh, you learn something new everyday.

Preperation

So let’s get started! We began by coming up with an idea, a plan, basically a direction. We knew the look and feel we were going for but didn’t know how this would turn out. As you know all of IKEA’s product come flat packed, this made preparation super easy. A quick sand with an orbital sander on both sides of basically everything made painting a dream.

Paint

We painted the main body of the kitchen with Sherwin Williams Natural Tan. It instantly made it look and feel warmer, we loved the colour. After two coats, we let it dry and moved onto the countertop. On the countertop, we used an oil-based stain (colour: Early American). Wipe on, wipe off!

Accessories

Now onto the accessories. We loved the gold look, so we opted to use a spray paint by Rust-Oleum (Vintage Gold). Spray painting on plastic is sometimes challenging, so go slow and even. It is super easy to get drips so watch out. Multiple coats definitely can hide mistakes, I think we did like 4-5 coats.

We also used some burlap for the two openings in the microwave and oven door spots. We wanted to use caining, however a roll was going to cost us more than the kitchen itself! We carefully broke the clear plastic windows, then stapled the burlap to the back side of the doors. We added some mod podge as a stiffener around the edges. It work out great.

Assembly

Once everything was dry and we were happy with the look we started assembly. All you have to do is follow IKEA’s horrible directions lol, who reads those anyway.

Backsplash

Although IKEA doesn’t include a backsplash, we thought this was necessary. I mean what kitchen is complete without one. We bought a thin piece of hardboard big enough to cover the back portion of the kitchen and enough to create the panelled look. We started by cutting down the panel to size and then created small strips 1.5 inches thick. You need roughly 22 strips. Since this board is so thin, I couldn’t use my nail gun and had to use glue. Spacing the pieces evenly using a spacer, we got the final look we wanted. After letting that dry, quick sand, and then paint. We used Sherwin Williams Copper Pot. I think it looked rather fab!

Final Look

After it was all done, we immediately fell in love. Filipa said this was her dream kitchen. I am super happy with how it turned out and Skye was over the moon. Our boho vibes had come true. We bought her some pots/pans and utensils from IKEA and some wooden food items in baskets from Amazon. Super cute!

I think it’s always super fun to take on a challenge, even if it’s out of your comfort zone.

If you guys get to any IKEA hacks, be sure to tag us, we love to see what you get into!

As also, if you have any questions or comments, leave them below or DM us at @filipajackson or @playingwithapparelmen.

Ciao!