Ava's Duktig Makover.

I was struggling and wracking my brains for inspiration for my soon to be 2 year old’s Christmas present when I stumbled across the marvel that is IKEA-hacking after a friend shared her ‘hacked’ Duktig mini kitchen. So after some poking around looking at other people’s on the likes of Pinterest I dived in and bought the kitchen.

 The kitchen comes as it is in the picture, all plain wood and white. Before I jumped into the actual makeover I looked into the colours of spray paint available to me, and drew out a plan of how I wanted the kitchen to look after it was finished. I would recommend everyone to do the same because mistakes are so easily made and could be hard to fix!

I decided on a theme first, the room its going into (baby’s bedroom) has a very definite style and I wanted the kitchen to fit in as best it could. I’ve seen a lot of the kitchens made to look like miniature versions of mums kitchen and I love the idea but I wanted this one to be only Ava’s.

Ava's Nursery.

So I had a colour scheme and style in mind and it was time to start buying all the bits to start the makeover. Again, I had a good Google of everything before I jumped into it, because I’m far from a dab hand at anything DIY related and if anyone would make a mistake, it would be me.
I decided on a pale blue worktop, pale pink surround and dark pink polka-dotted cupboard, oven and microwave. From looking round before getting started I knew the worktop would take the most work so that was where I started. I used a very fine grit sandpaper to graze the existing finish, then used Rustoleum Plastic Primer. I've seen a few alternative primers while looking at other people’s online, so I think the key for every step of this is to have a look round before committing to anything. I left the primer for 24 hours (which I think is the recommended time) and then I sprayed it with Plastikote Craft Enamel in Sky Blue (it was a few weeks back now so I could have forgotten and got that wrong, but it was definitely Plastikote and definitely pale blue)

This only needed one solid coat and a few little touch ups so two small cans did it just fine. After this dried I used a Rustoleum top coat to (hopefully) keep the paint looking good as little one is using it. This took a few days from start to finish with the drying time included but it was super easy.

Next I moved on to spraying the pink surround. I used the super fine grit sand paper, just to help the paint bond easier, and I didn't use the primer on these sections as the paint was meant to be used on wood. I used Rustoleum Painters Touch in the palest pink.

This bit did take a tad longer as it took a few more coats to get a solid colour and I had a little incident with a small patch cracking which needed sanding and re-doing.

In the few days it took for all the bits and pieces to be solidly dry, I started on covering the doors in the pink polka dot. For this bit I ordered a roll of sticky back vinyl online and it couldn't have been easier.

The plastic had a measurement grid on the back so cutting it down to size to fit each door was really easy and following the instructions meant the finish was flawless.

Then it came to putting it together. Never again. I did this over two days, bottom half first then the top. Considering I’m not much of a DIY-er this was the least fun part!

With the bottom half together it looked like this. I briefly changed my mind about the polka dots and took them off before taking this picture, and then re-did them (easily done using the sticky back plastic).

Then with the top half, and those polka dots on their way back.

I then made the brave decision to make myself a pair of curtains to give it a more homely look. I measured the middle space and used some spare pink gingham fabric I had leftover from decorating. These only took 5 minutes with a sewing machine, and I used pale pink ribbon as curtain ties. While I was there I made a little dish towel with a cut off of the gingham.

My last finishing touches were a set of three flower knobs which I glued above the oven door as oven knobs, a matching flower hook which I attatched to the side to hang her pink polka dot apron (Tesco). They were all bought from B&Q for next to nothing and matched so well. I picked up a pack of four battery powered stick on push lights for the oven, microwave and under the shelf, which I've seen a lot of others do. I also bought Duktig plastic cups, pan set and a set of plates and bowls to decorate the shelves, I stocked the cupboard with two small boxes of plastic play food, and I bought an Early Learning Centre baking set to finish it off.

The finished thing!

Oven knobs.

I could have gone on forever with this, changing all the handles, spraying the sink and tap, changing the oven shelf to a metal one like the real thing, adding fancy details to the painted surfaces – the list goes on. But looking at my finished kitchen I love it, and I hope Ava loves it just as much. This was so much fun and so easy to do that I expect this to be the first in a long line of IKEA hacking for me! I’ve got a 2nd Birthday to organise for January and Ava can be expecting something just as fabulous for that!