IKEA play kitchen hack + favorite pretend kitchen accessories

Hi friends! I’ve been meaning to share this post for awhile, but finally doing it….one year later! My parents hacked together the IKEA play kitchen for Lucy’s birthday and I wanted to share more about Lucy’s kitchen and our favorite pretend kitchen accessories. This is *not* a DIY/how-to post on how to hack the IKEA kitchen. There are tons of those online and here’s a great roundup of IKEA kitchen hacks, too!

To start, my parents bought the IKEA play kitchen which is just under $90. It’s pretty simple and minimal as is, making it a perfect blank space for creativity and making the kitchen your own. There are some CRAZY and amazing updates you can do to hack the kitchen, but my parents kept it fairly simple while adding a little pop of color. Heer’s what they did to update the kitchen:

painted the bottom of the kitchen and the inside shelves the same color as our statement wall (Valspar’s Planet Earth)
swapped the handles on the oven/cabinet and painted gold
added a geometric wallpaper ‘backsplash’
painted microwave handle to match sink
added a whimsical light switch
added hooks to the outside (for hanging aprons!)

The play kitchen used to be in our front room that acted as a sitting area/play area (pictured here) but this summer, we moved it into our family room. It fits perfectly in the corner by the window, which is right outside of our ‘regular’ kitchen. I love looking at this sweet corner every day and Lucy seriously plays with her kitchen every single day!

It’s been SUPER fun to find tiny pretend kitchen accessories, too! I have all of our pretend kitchen accessories linked here, but I’ll share about them quickly too. We have this cute coffee maker with white mugs, this toaster set and this cute wooden tea set (which we use DAILY for our bunny tea parties!). We initially had this stainless steel pots and pants set and this stainless steel kitchen utensils set, but Lucy’s grandparents ordered her this adorable wooden ‘cook and serve’ set for Christmas, which includes little wooden plates, a pot, a pan, salt and pepper shakers and some cute utensils. I love that it matches the natural wood on the kitchen and the tea set! When it comes to pretend food, we have this wooden food set, felt fruit and veggies sets, matching eggs, and my favorite – this cookie set!