I’ll never forget Andrie’s face when she walked into the living room on Christmas morning and saw her kitchen. It was an almost hesitant smile - a mix of “wait, what is that?!” and “WOW!” She would have been just as excited to receive the kitchen as-is from the store, but it was so fun for us to put our thought and time into this little makeover to make it extra special for her!

I’ve included source links throughout the post, and they are also all listed at the end!

Like most items from IKEA, the kitchen needs to be fully assembled. This is a great thing when doing a makeover, because there’s nothing to take apart! We laid out all of the pieces (as shown below) to be 100% sure of what was to be painted.

We cut pieces of cardboard to cover the majority of the windows (which are plastic) on the door pieces, and then used painters tape to line the edges. If some paint does get on the windows, it’s no biggie, because it easily scrapes off with your fingernail without leaving any scratches.

We then primed everything that needed painting with Rust-Oleum flat white primer. This primer bonds to plastic, which is important because the sink takes quite a beating by little people.

After priming, we painted everything but the sink (which we spray painted white) Bear Claw by Valspar. We chose an eggshell finish - even though satin typically cleans up a little better - because we wanted a nice flat look. At the end of the project, we decided to to a topcoat and chose a satin finish for that, but it still looks as flat as we hoped it would.

We first tried using a roller to paint, but it wasn’t turning out as smoothly as we wanted - and we didn’t want to go out to buy another one - so we used a brush we had on hand and it turned out great! We did three total coats of paint and sanded with fine sandpaper between coats to ensure a smooth finish.

I love the look of undermount sinks, and definitely appreciate how much easier they make wiping off counters. This sink is “supposed” to just set in the opening, but we simply screwed it in from the bottom. Just make sure your screws aren’t too long! Some of the paint did chip inside the sink once the screw came through, but I was able to easily touch it up using a bit of the spray paint on a watercolor brush.

Next up was the backsplash! Part of my vision for this kitchen was to make it blend with the rest of our house. Our kitchen has white square tile, so I was super excited to find these peel-and-stick square sheets to keep the consistency between our “two kitchens.” ;) This product also comes in variations of subway, hexagon, decorative and more so you can do the same for yours!

To create the backsplash, we cut a piece of plywood to fit the opening (which we measured after assembling the rest of the kitchen) and then carefully applied the backsplash sheets. For the remaining edges, we attached a sheet and then cut along the edge using a utility knife. We nailed the finished product on and voila, our kitchen was complete!

The DUKTIG kitchen does not come with a fridge, but this is another area where IKEA’s assemble-it-yourself model comes in handy! You can buy the BILLY bookcase + OXBERG door to create a DIY refrigerator. The door does come with a knob, but we chose to replace all knobs/pulls (linked below).

I also love that you don’t have to worry about matching wood because it’s all the same - the kitchen, “fridge” and LÄTT table & chairs all match!

I found these adorable white leather pulls on Etsy and love the contrast they bring to the terra cotta color, and how they tie in the sink, shelves and backsplash. And yes, they are easy to clean! You’ll need 5-inch pulls for the kitchen, or 128mm when ordering from this shop. For the fridge door, you’ll need to drill your own holes.

All in all, we absolutely LOVE how Andrie’s kitchen turned out. It blends so well with the rest of our house and keeps her so entertained. I also love that this is a “base” gift, so in the future we can add/swap items out to keep things fresh for her!