Now I know the IKEA Dukting play kitchen has been hacked, rehacked, and hacked again! I also know there’s thousands upon thousands of incredibly beautiful kitchen hacks all over the net (boy have I had fun falling down the virtual rabbit hole of Ikea kitchen makeovers these past couple of months!). There’s just so much incredible inspo. out there, and I hope that my 2n1 hack becomes one of the many beautiful sources of inspo for your own kitchen makeover.
When first buying the IKEA kitchen for Matilda, the stylist in me knew I wanted to make it over (how could I resist such a fun project?!), I just didn’t know exactly how I wanted to do it. Once it was in our home and play space, and the more Matilda (and let’s face it, I) played with it, the more I thought about how I could hack it to ensure it was used in the best possible way – a multifunctional way! And that’s when I started visualising a kitchen makeover on the main side AS WELL as a makeover on the flip side to create Matilda her very own cafe or shop set-up. Part of the inspiration for this was seeing how much Matilda enjoyed playing ‘shops’. Once I started Googling & Pinteresting for inspo, I came across a few similar hacks, which I added to my bank of inspo. ideas, and started me on my obsessive kitchen/cafe makeover warpath (hehe).
I knew I wanted to create a beautiful, stylish, modern, fun, functional (and a lil girly) 2n1 kitchen/cafe (something I hadn’t seen out there on the net). It was a must for me to incorporate some beautiful wallpaper in my hack, and I visualised covering the back of the kitchen (the soon-to-be cafe side) in a stunning wallpaper mural design. Enter the lovely Kristy from Minnie and Me Interiors! Having worked with Kristy when creating Archie’s nursery, I knew firsthand the quality of Minnie and Me Interiors removable and reusable wallpaper. Their wallpaper is easily the standout feature in Archie’s nursery and I quickly envisaged how incredible their “I Dream of Genie” mural would look on the back panels of the kitchen. I love that nothing is too hard for Kristy and her team, and when asking if this would be a possibility, she immediately said “of course!”. And to add a cherry on top of my already amazing ‘kitchen hack wallpaper cake’, Kristy then let me know that she had been designing and planning to release a specific IKEA Dukting kitchen decal set which I used for the front of the kitchen.
What I love most about the kitchen set decals are:
- They come pre-measured & cut to exact size so all you have to do is PEEL, STICK and SMOOTH! “Simples”
- They are completely removable & reuseable, so if you’re like me and feel the need to redecorate more often than not, then you’re sorted. Simply peel off without any damage and restyle – as simple as that!
- No need for fiddly prepping (i.e. sanding), painting, and sealing.
- They’re available in a MASSIVE 19 colourways (see below). There’s something for everyone and what’s more, you can mix & match colours (e.g. “One rust oven door, a sage microwave and two mustard box shelves coming right up!”).
If you’re like me, and like doing things a little differently, you can also separately choose from any of their wallpaper designs and murals from their hacks and dollhouses options (e.g. I chose the gorgeous “I Dream of Genie” mural for the front cupboard door & large back mural piece). Amazing!
I initially planned to paint a lot of the kitchen, however once Kristy told me about the pre-measured decal sets, it was a no-brainer. I got to (fun) work choosing the wallpaper designs I’d like, and found taking screenshots of the different wallpaper designs I thought would work together was a helpful way to initially see the different designs next to each other. As with most of my more detailed styling projects, I then created a mock-design using Adobe Spark of what my final design would look like (see below).
I completed my entire makeover with the kitchen already assembled. The decals I simply stuck to the relevant kitchen part, with the back wallpaper mural being the only piece of wallpaper I need to cut to size (this only required one simple horizontal cut to cut the large mural piece in two). When applying the wallpaper decals, I find it useful to start in the lefthand corner and use a wallpaper smoothing tool (or your hand) to slowly smooth the wallpaper in a left-to-right motion. If you create any creases or air bubbles which can’t be smoothed out, simply lift the wallpaper off to the desired point and resmooth. The wallpaper is so easy to work with and extremely hard-waring, it won’t rip or pull upon removal and reapplication.
For a fun video tutorial of how I accomplished every part of this look, head to my instagram account – @styledbyjemma & watch my IGTV video saved in my ‘Hacks’ story highlight reel!
I’ve summarised the main parts of my hack and the materials I used below:
FRONT KITCHEN SIDE:
- Left side oven door, long strip above oven and cupboard, splashback front, microwave door – ‘Faux Wooden Panel Ultra Light Grey’ (Minnie and Me Interiors). Achieve the same look with Minnie and Me’s kitchen decal set in ‘Soft grey’.
- Right side cupboard door – ‘I Dream of Genie Mural’ (Minnie and Me Interiors)
- Inside back of microwave and back of 2x box shelves – ‘Audrey’s Garden’ (Minnie and Me Interiors). If you want to achieve the same look, order 2x A4 size sheets of the ‘Audrey’s Garden’ hack wallpaper.
- Splashback – white wooden/melamine MDF sheet cut to size (from Bunnings) and superglued to the wooden kitchen frame. I only wanted to create a half splash back so there was an open window for “Chef Matilda” or “Shop Assistant Matilda” to poke her cute head through when serving her cafe/shop customers. The exact measurements I used were 17cm x 17cm.
- Tan and Mint leather handles used on oven, cupboard, microwave door, and side of kitchen to hang tea towel (Hunter and Nomad). Holes were drilled into the kitchen and handles screwed into the holes using the accompanying gold hardware (included with handles).
- Oven knobs – knobs I’d bought years ago and used on a chest of drawers. Three holes were drilled into the kitchen and knobs screwed into these.
BACK CAFE SIDE:
- Main 2x panels – ‘I Dream of Genie mural’ (Minnie and Me Interiors)
- Back of splashback – spray painted with ‘Dulux Dura Max Magnetic Chalkboard Paint’ (3x coats). I wanted to use magnetic chalkboard paint as opposed to just straight chalkboard paint, so that Matilda could stick her magnetic counters as food menu items to her ‘menu board’, as well as her magnetic alphabet letters and numbers.
- Round chalkboard counters – these are plain chalkboard counters that come in a set of 20x bought from Playdreamers. I superglued tiny magnets to the back of the discs so that Matilda could have fun sticking them to her ‘menu board’ and have the ability to draw new cafe menu items on them with chalk. My hubby and I had fun drawing cute food items on them with a fine tip chalkboard markers (and NO, we will not be letting Matilda loose with these!).
- Removable food storage baskets (one on back & one on side of kitchen) – bought from Red Dot and can be taken on/off. I screwed in 2x small brass hooks to be able to place the baskets on when in use. I wanted the baskets to be removable so that the kitchen could be stored flat up against the wall when not being used.
ADDITIONAL STYLING ACCESSORIES:
- Wooden food, wooden crates, wooden blender, pink utensil pot, pink face pot plant pot, food canisters – Kmart
- Felt food – IKEA
- Detachable plastic crates (on back & side of kitchen) – Red Dot
- Small white storage carrier and calculator (used as Eftpos machine), magnets for back of chalkboard counters, and chalkboard marker – Officeworks
I hope you’ve thoroughly enjoyed looking at the before, during and after photos of my 2n1 kitchen/cafe makeover and find my tips useful and the finished product a source of inspo for your own kitchen/cafe/shop makeover. Matilda is absolutely LOVING playing with the finished product (as is mama!) and by putting in a bit of time to create the 2n1 kitchen/cafe design I’d envisaged, has helped to spark her imagination and I think will increase the creative play lifespan of this fun piece!
Until next time…
Happy Faffing!
Jem xx
Styled By Jemma 