An Ikea Hack: Play Kitchen for O

When it comes to crafting, I never shy away from a challenge.  I have tried pretty much every craft out there.  Ok, not stained glass, I haven’t tried that. (It’s sharp and scary!) But, Ukranian egg decorating using melted wax? Yep. Heat embossing? Sure!  DIY lip gloss. No big deal!  So when I noticed that at our friends’ houses, O always headed straight for the play kitchens, I decided I should make him one. And the internet is full of great play kitchens. I briefly thought I should maybe just buy him one but that wouldn’t be any fun, would it?  (Plus we had some old Ikea nightstands in our bedroom that I secretly hated and this was a PERFECT excuse to exchange them for something else! Shhh, don’t tell AA!) Overall it took about a month with an hour here and an hour there, mostly on the weekends, and was probably one of the most fun projects I’ve done in a long time.

Here’s what I started with:

I think it was part of the Aneboda family (don’t you just love Ikea names?!).  This was “birch” veneer and although pretty sturdy it was tall and thin instead of short and wide. Unfortunately I did this last fall so I don’t have picture of the process but basically, first I turned it sideways, then took off the legs and screwed them to the side.  Then I removed the drawer and its tracks, moved the shelf and screwed it into place so that it was now vertical.  Then I added a “backsplash”, installed the sink, added a piece across the front where the knobs go, and finally, used a wooden panel from the oil painting department of Michaels with a hole cut in the middle as the oven door.  And then I, patched, sanded, and primed and primed and primed (that “birch”  is tough to cover!) and painted and added knobs etc.  Here’s the result!

I got the letter hooks at Michaels in the dollar section and painted them to match so O has a place to hang his pots and pans.

The “burners” are round wooden plaques from the craft store that I painted and then attached to the top from underneath.

The oven door opens out and has a handle that keeps it from crashing into the floor and the stovetop knobs were just cheap wooden knobs from Home Depot that I painted and put through the front.

Inside the oven I used the rack from an old toaster oven and put in two small pieces of wood on either side so it actually pulls in and out just like a real oven! (Cleaning that old toaster oven rack was a project in itself! Let me tell you, a lot of those Pinterest tips on cleaning your oven with things like cream of tartar? They don’t work.  Trust me.)

I don’t have an accurate tally but I think with coupons and sales, the cost came in somewhere around $30 (I already had primer and paint).  Not bad, right?

We put it out Christmas morning and it has been a big hit ever since!

I still have one more of these horrible nightstands taking up space in my spare room.  Should it just be more counter space? A fridge? Microwave? What do you think?

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Cassie May

Craft and Knitwear Designer at Little Red Window Design

Welcome to Little Red Window! I’m Cassie, a professional craft and knitwear designer working in the field for more than 10 years. I have a degree in Art History from Northwestern University and a Master's Degree in Architecture and Design from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I've designed more than 300 separate knitting patterns, hundreds of craft projects, and I love to bring joy to your crafts and knitting with well-designed, easy to understand tutorials and patterns.

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