I’m so excited to share this little labor of love — our DIY play kitchen. We recently purchased the IKEA Duktig play kitchen and I couldn’t wait to give it a very small but beautiful renovation. I definitely wasn’t ambitious enough to take on an entire paint just, but just by spray painting all of the grey pieces white, it become a completely modern and beautiful kitchen to go with our modern white farmhouse vibes.

Links to everything featured:

I want to start by sharing links to everything included here so that you can recreate this look! As far as children’s kitchen renovations go, these are some of the simplest accents you can find. I tried to keep everything as cheap and cost effective as possible because I really didn’t want to overspend.

Kitchen transformation

Here’s everything I used to spruce up the look of the kitchen itself. It cost about $100 total to do the makeover of the kitchen itself. Which is quite reasonable considering most other play kitchens cost $150 or more.

Ikea DUKTIG Kitchen - $79
Handles - $14.99
Knobs - $10.79
Sand paper sponges - $8.99
White Spray Paint — Luckily I already had spray paint and primer on hand!
Wood & white acrylic stove Use code GOODNIGHTFOXFRIEND to save

Get the Stove

STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS for the cutest DIY IKEA DUKTIG Modern Play Kitchen renovation

I wanted to go super light weight on this transformation so I kept the steps as simple as possible.

Step 1: Open up the IKEA Duktig Kitchen — I opened it up and laid out the pieces. There’s actually way more pieces than I thought and it took me about 2 hours total over the course of 3 days to put it all together. Mostly because I was quite literally waiting on the paint to dry.
Step 2: Pull out the grey pieces and use the sand paper sponges to sand them down. I sanded them until I saw consistent scratches across the surface area. You can definitely see and feel the dust of the plastic so make sure to wipe down or wash and dry the pieces before you paint them.
Step 3: Lay the pieces out in a card board box to paint. Shake your spray paint bottles vigorously. Make sure to go slow and do very light coats of paint. It’s a terrible long and patience-trying process. I probably did 20 coats of paint over the course of 3 days. I did 10min drying time between each coat. If you spray too much, the paint will pool and drip. Then you have to wait for it to dry, sound out the drips and reapply. It’s more painful to sand and repaint so just GO SLOW and WAIT.
Step 4: Flip over the pieces to coat the other sides. If you don’t wait for a full dry before you do this the pieces will stick to the cardboard.
Step 5: If you see any cracks or drips you can sand them out. For this final finish, I sanded with a nail buffer because the small grain.
Step 5: Completely the assembly of the kitchen!

The most adorable play food

Once you have your kitchen assembled, you’re of course going to want to go grocery shopping! So I’ve assembled the perfect list of where to find the best play food sets. They’re both comprehensive and so adorable.

White & Wood play kitchen utensils & Appliances

And of course you’re also going to want the most adorable pots, pans, and utensils to match.

Printable play food

Stocking the play kitchen with thE cutest wood play food

Stocking Sofia’s play kitchen with the most adorable play food was so much fun. I really wanted beautiful pastel colors and I was able to find a variety of options for very reasonable prices on Temu and a few on Amazon. Better yet, we were able to store about 10 different sets of play food all within the kitchen and our tier stacking shelves. I was surprised that everything fit! Sofie also got an adorable little kitchen appliances set for the holidays and everything matched perfectly together.

Pretend Salad Play Food

Sofia had a blast mixing up this adorable salad play food set. It sparked so many ideas for her about what flavor combinations would work well together, what the dressings would taste like and should she be adding salt and pepper? It was so much fun to watch her eyes light up and she mixed it together. I love this play food set because it has such soft and beautiful pastel colors and the food pieces all lay nice and flat in the bowl.

Time for a tea party

We absolutely loved this cute little tea party set by NunuKids. It comes on this adorable little tray — and while everything doesn’t quite fit on the tray (my only gripe), it’s such a cute little set with the little lemon slices and teaspoons and tea pots. I can’t wait to do an entire dramatic play setup for a tea party. It’ll be so much to have this set handy.

Let’s make breakfast!

Okay breakfast is totally one of my favorite meals so I’m definitely a sucker for the breakfast play food. I got these two adorable sets of play food and they just look so cute together. They include eggs, cheese, butter, jam, bread, orange juice, milk, and of course the cutest little toaster. Sofie got an absolute kick out of the toaster because she can use the handle to pop up the bread and it goes flying around the play room.

Making a fruit salad

I couldn’t resist this cute fruit salad kit either! It comes with two dressings, fruit, salad utensils and the cutest little pink mixing bowl. This was the first one Sofie go to play with and her eyes lit up when she saw the bright colors. And of course the grapes are a fun sensory texture to enjoy. The salad gave us a great opportunity to talk about healthy fruits and how different types of carbohydrates effect our bodies differently — I’m always one to throw a little education into the fun.

Pantry Items

I’ve been obsessed with these pantry items from Tender Leaf for a really long time now. So when I decided the take the plunge and buy the play kitchen, these were top of my list. I love the different textures of the bag of peas, the lemons, and of course the high quality of the play food itself. I knew these items would be a great addition to my Ikea play kitchen renovation.

Popsicles play food

You can’t have a play kitchen without a few sweet treats! And I just loved the look of these pastel popsicles. They’re so perfect for summer play activities and Sofia loves giving them out.

Burger Time PLAY FOOD

I’m so obsessed with this little cheese burger set. It’s so perfect for a fun fast food night.

Charcuterie board play food

This little cheese board was too adorable to pass up! I just loved the little cheese plate and since we often have a cheese plate for our fancy dinner nights at home this was the perfect way for Sofia to make believe.

Cutest lemonade stand wooden play food

I couldn’t resist this adorable set. It’s such a cute way to make a sweet lemonade stand! And I want to repurpose this kit for my lemonade stand dramatic play setup.

The Cutest Wood Stove for IKEA DUKTIG

I had this stove custom designed by @WonderYearsPlay because I knew I needed to complete the white & wood look. Debbie did such an amazing job and I couldn’t wait to share it with all of you play kitchen lovers. You can purchase the Wood & white acrylic stove here and don’t forget to use code GOODNIGHTFOXFRIEND to save!