Play Kitchen Makeover – Sierra Miller

Hey ya’ll! I’m back today with another fun makeover, this time, for my daughter’s play kitchen. I always had my heart set on the Ikea kitchen but after Ikea closed due to COVID19, I started to open my eyes to new possibilities. I started to love the idea of redoing a kitchen that not many other people had done. While searching Facebook marketplace and OfferUp, I found a play kitchen for a reasonable price. I took a chance on a blurry photo and offered below her asking price and she accepted. The project was a go and my lovely husband was a trooper when I excitedly woke him up at 1 am to tell him about my score.

Materials

These are all of the materials that we used for our kitchen remodel. I underestimated the amount of spray paint that we would use so I had to keep buying more.

Before

Step 1: Disassemble Kitchen

We used a drill to quickly take apart the kitchen and threw all of the screws and small parts in a baggie for safekeeping.

Step 2: Prep Surface

This step is probably the most tedious step of all. Since the finish on the kitchen was so smooth, we used a sander to roughen up the surface a bit. This will ensure that the paint adheres better. I also used this step to remove stickers and clean any dirt off from the previous owners. Be sure to wipe off all dust and debris before moving on to the next step. I also used this time to fill in holes from previous accessories that I was no longer using with wood filler.

Step 3: Paint Kitchen Pieces

Once your pieces are sanded and clean, layout each piece for spray painting. I usually elevate the pieces on a cardboard box when spray painting to prevent any dirt from being kicked into the wet paint. Then, lightly spray paint thin, even coats (Rust-Oleum Universal All Surface Spray Paint Satin White) on your pieces and repeat as necessary according to your paint can’s instructions. I did about 3 coats on each side and let them dry for 48 hours before flipping over to repeat the process on the other side.

Step 4: Paint Hardware

While the kitchen paint dried, I used this time to start painting the accessories and hardware. Be sure that these pieces are sanded and cleaned especially well since they’re plastic! For this step, I used the Rust-Oleum Universal All Surface Spray Paint Metallic Champagne Mist, which has a really pretty gold color that’s not too brassy.

Step 5: Handles

One of the kitchen handles was cracked so I used this as an excuse to make new handles! I love the look of natural wood so I knew I wanted to make my own. While at Home Depot, I picked up two of these Square Wooden Dowel Rods and had my husband cut them down to size. Then, we used wood glue and clamped the pieces together to create our new handles.

Once those were fully dry, we unclamped them and sanded well until smooth. Then, we rubbed one light layer of the Varathane Summer Oak Wood Stain on each handle.

Step 6: Contact Paper

I decided that I wanted to go the contact paper route for the countertop to match the wood handles. I found this Shelf Liner in Natural Oak at Lowes and it was the perfect match. Our first go at the contact paper left us with rough edges so I almost gave up. Then, I found this super helpful video from youtube of a nice little trick to ensure smooth corners. See that video below!

Roll out your contact paper and trim to size. Then, turn over and remove the backing. Be sure to smooth out any bubbles with a credit card. Since we didn’t have a heat gun, we used a blow dryer to heat the corners according to the above video and it did just the trick! Then, we trimmed out and repeated the heating process where the sink would be placed.

Trim away any excess paper and press down. Don’t worry too much about this part being perfect since it will be hidden anyways.

So Smooth!!

Step 7: Reassemble

Now comes the fun part. Reassemble your kitchen. We were able to find the manufacturer instructions online for our particular kitchen, which made it a breeze.

The Reveal

That’s it! I’m so happy and pleased with how it turned out. It ended up taking us two weeks to complete, just because we were working on it after our daughter went to bed. For more behind the scenes photos and footage, visit my Instagram where I have a Play Kitchen Highlight saved with the whole process in real-time. I tried to be as thorough as possible but please feel free to reach out with any questions. I’d be happy to help!

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