DIY Ikea Hack : For Kids

One of my favorite things to do is crafts. You know that one in a million person that enjoys shopping at Ikea just because they love to build the product? Yup, that’s me. How many times I’ve bought a car full of stuff from there only to build it then sell it on Kijiji a week later – I’m embarrassed to say. With all these builds came a lot of trial and error and I’ve definitely learned my share of tips and tricks. One of my favorite things to do now is customize their products to make them exactly the way I want.

When we decided it was time to turn one of our guest rooms into a play room for Joshua, I searched high and low for furniture and make-believe play sets that would match our aesthetics (minimalistic and colorless). It was nearly impossible to find anything we loved and when we did it was high end which I didn’t feel comfortable putting into a play room. I decided the best thing to do was customize what I wanted using the already beautiful pieces from Ikea’s children section. The three pieces I chose were the DUKTIG kitchen set, LATT table and chairs, and MULA Walker. With just a bit of spray paint, I was able to make these pieces not only unique but perfect for our home.

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THE KITCHEN SET:

I first built the product without the top shelf and microwave. I kept out the sink, stove, handles, and faucet and put them into floral foam so that I could get a 360 degree angle while spray painting. I did these items gloss black and a couple hours later gave them another coat. Afterwards I spray painted the whole kitchen set gloss white. The reason I painted after the build was because I wanted to make sure all the screws and inserts would fit perfectly. Sometimes when you’re adding quite a bit of spray paint and there’s a lot of small pieces involved it can get a bit tough to re-screw everything after the fact so I didn’t feel the need to take any chances. This was so extremely easy and spray painting took less than 15 mins. If you’d like to customize this item more I suggest doing it before it’s built. For example, if you want to do more than one color, or if you want to add a wooden or marble vinyl wrap, it should be done before the product is built to insure that the pieces are separated properly.

 

 

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THE TABLE & CHAIRS: 

For this I painted before I built it. I ended up taking out the bottom of the chairs and table and spray painting these pieces with black chalk paint. I thought this would be perfect for when he starts to draw and it ended up looking so cute and similar to the high end products we originally found.

 

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THE WALKER:

Lastly for this adorable walker. I didn’t think of buying this product at first- to be honest I couldn’t look past the bright green but I took a chance and I’m so glad I did. I spray painted this matte black before I put anything together. I lined the inside of the walker with tape and paper towel and before I put the wheels or handle on I painted the green sides black (if there are any mistakes you can always use a q-tip with nail polish remover) It ended up looking so nice that I sold his other two walkers the same day.

If you’re looking for ways to make your kids furniture more unique or just want it to match with the rest of your home these hacks are the easiest (and chicest) thing you can do. It added less than 30 minutes total to my build time and ended up being exactly what I wanted. You can use different spray paints or even hand paints. You can grab stencils, sponges for texture, or even stickers and jewels. When you customize pieces you have endless possibilities which is why I love it!

Happy crafting! If you have any specific questions feel free to comment below!

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