lemon ikea kitchen

I wanted to share a couple more photos of Mae's new kitchen! The original kitchen is a wooden IKEA Duktig set that I painted and decorated to be a little more fun. I gathered ideas online, since many people have shared photos of similar makeovers.

Here's a picture of the original one from the IKEA website:

And here's our upgraded version:

I started by laying out all the pieces and deciding which surfaces I wanted to paint. I roughed up the surfaces with coarse grit sandpaper and then used a mini foam roller to apply a coat of low-odor Kilz oil-based primer followed by two coats of Clark + Kensington flat paint in the color Fountain of Youth. I like the slightly retro look of the aqua paint. I finished the painted surfaces with two coats of Minwax Polycrylic for a little extra protection. I have my fingers crossed that it holds up OK! This whole process took a long time since I had to paint front and back of most pieces and wait for each coat to dry in between! I worked on it a little bit each night for a week.

In addition to paint, I also added a backing covered in lemon-print fabric. Do you recognize the print? It's the same as my lemon dress! I just love the pattern so much and thought it would be very cute on this kitchen set. I used spray adhesive to attach the fabric to a piece of 1/8" hardboard which I then nailed to the back of the kitchen hutch with tiny finishing nails.

Dan helped me with assembly which took 2 evenings. Lastly, I drilled 4 holes and added some white knobs from Lowes to act as faux stovetop controls. Mae loves her new kitchen so much. She is juuuuuuust tall enough to reach the microwave, and she also enjoys removing the sink bowl and sitting in it on the floor.

I am excited to move this set to our larger kitchen in our new home. I think Mae will love cooking alongside Dada every evening!