ikea kitchen diy

for indy’s second birthday i decided i wanted to get her a play kitchen for her gift from us. i did some looking around online but couldn’t find a kitchen that i loved that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. and then i started to come across a few ikea kitchen hacks and i loved the simplicity and ways that you could customize and make the kitchen your own for less than $100.

i was inspired by this kitchen from almost makes perfect as well as this one from thimble and cloth.

here are the instructions and supplies that we used for our kitchen. along with some things i would have done differently.
links provided at the end.

supplies:
ikea kitchen
square wood dowel
round wood dowel
wooden knobs
paint (we used leftover from our kitchen island but this is the color)
white spray paint
gold spray paint
poster board/tile print (i found a stock image of tile that i liked and had it printed at costco. you could also use marble contact paper or stick tiles here for a different look)

instructions:
1. take kitchen out of package and separate the parts you want to paint (the base pieces)
2. lightly sand the pieces you will paint (this step is important so the paint doesn’t chip easily)
3. i did two coats of paint on the fronts/backs/sides of all the base pieces
4. spray paint the faucet and sink
5. assemble the bottom part of the kitchen (skipping the handles for now)
6. assemble the top part of the kitchen, replacing the metal rod supplied with the round dowel cut to the same size
7. when placing the sink, we used the tiny screws provided and mounted it under the countertop for a cleaner look. be careful to go slowly as to not screw through the top of the counter
8. measure and drill the knobs
9. use small screws to screw the dowels into the handles position
10. cut your poster board to size and hot glue it to the edges to create your “backsplash”