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Ikea Play Kitchen Remodel
When Jack was about a year old, he found a big interest in helping in the kitchen. So much so that I thought his own play kitchen would be a great addition to our toy arsenal. At the time, we lived in a small, single-family home in San Francisco that hardly had enough space for our day-to-day furnishings; with no dedicated playroom or basement, this play kitchen was going to be on display in our main living area.
What did that mean for me? IT HAD TO LOOK GOOD! So, I poured through kitchen after kitchen after kitchen. Were there some beautiful options? Yes. Did I want to pay $600? Absolutely not.
So, I did what any vain interior decor lover would do. Signed my husband up to renovate the Ikea Duktig Play Kitchen.
After some quick research, I decided to go with a grey and white color scheme. It was minimal, neutral enough to compliment our living room, and a homage to our kitchen in our Delray Beach, FL house. Then I was off to Home Depot with my Supply List which included:
Scrap wood to create said backsplash
Now the fun could begin and Jake was PUMPED. The running joke while we lived in San Francisco was that Jake was really missing our renovation adventures and getting his hands dirty. Because we rented our place in the city, there were no opportunities for renovations projects. Until now haha.
So we began. The hardest part was divvying up the kitchen parts and labeling what went where and which color to paint it. After a dry run at assembly, I labeled each piece and if it were to be grey or white.
After a few coats of paint, the kitchen was ready to be assembled. After which, Jake measured our scrap board and created a backing for the kitchen backsplash. Once the main pieces were assembled, I spray painted the hardware and sink fixture metallic gold. If you are going fancy, you could also order completely new hardware. I didn't care so much about that aspect and the paint was good enough for me. I also had original plans of painting the countertop white, but as I got into the project, I realized the natural material was a nice contrast to the existing white and grey pieces. So, I kept it as is!
A step that I did, that I would not recommend, is spray painting the sink. I spray painted the sink white and it turned out horrible. I tried to salvage it by scrapping off the paint with very little success. Two years later and there is still remnants of tacky, scrapped and scratched paint in the sink. Another step you may consider skipping is painting the pole and hooks made for the utensils to hang from. Over time, the movement of the hooks is slowly chipping the paint off. Not an aesthetic issue for me, but more so the flakes of paint that are all over the cooktop at any given time. Going back, I'd leave these pieces as is.
All in all, this was a successful addition to our home. Jack still plays with it lots two years later and loves making us food during dinner time. Fun fact: I did research that the sink can be turned into a real working sink; maybe I'll surprise Jake with that project one day!
If you take on this DIY, comment below and share your results!
xo, Nikki