Hey, Friends! I’ve been so excited to show you this little Ikea hack for months now! Little Girlie had been raiding my kitchen pans and utensils for items to play with, so we decided to buy her the Ikea play kitchen for Christmas. I was super excited to give it to her since I loved my play kitchen as a kid! Of course, you know I just had to jazz it up a bit for her!
Little Girlie is into pink and purple, bows, jewelry, and accessories right now, so I wanted to give it a feminine touch without being too in your face pink, if you know what I mean. 😉 I have LOVED this Anthropologie wallpaper for years and wanted to use it for the backsplash on the kitchen, but it was way out of the budget. Instead, I grabbed some craft paints and got to painting!
We cut a 1/4″ sheet of plywood to fit the opening in the back of the kitchen, leaving a lip so we could nail it in. After giving it a good sand, I rolled the entire thing in a pretty blue-green.
For the flowers, I used two shades of pink for the petals and just randomly alternated the colors as I went around. If you look closely, you will see the petals are just blobs with a bit of blank space in between. Super easy! For the leaves, I painted them in one shade of green, then streaked on another shade of green. The trick here is to not have very much paint on your brush so the bottom color peeks through. Again, super easy, I promise! The centers are just yellow paint that I dotted on, followed by a few dots of darker yellow.
I left off some of the details from the original wallpaper, because, elementary painting skills, that’s why. 😉 That’s why I called it “Anthropologie Inspired” instead of “Anthroplogie Dead Ringer”. Haha!
After the backsplash was dry, we just attached it to the kitchen from the back! That’s it! I really wanted to paint the wood parts of kitchen white, but decided against it for durability sake. I knew it would be played with hard and didn’t want to worry about the paint chipping on the more trafficked areas of the kitchen.
I love how the colors tie into the playroom decor and add a feminine touch!
Now it’s the perfect place to sip some pretend tea made by the sweetest little girl I know.
I added a couple kid-safe finishing touches to the top cubbies since Little Girlie is too short to reach those spaces anyway. The tin vase is from the Dollar Spot and the frame was one my Grandma had that she picked up at the Dollar Tree. See where I get my dollar item obsession from? I like that the frame is sentimental and that it doesn’t have glass in case it falls.
Little Girlie was SO excited about her kitchen on Christmas day! She opened it up then ran over and gave me a big hug before playing with it. Love!
Linking up with Savvy Southern Style, Remodelaholic, Thrifty Decor Chick, and many other awesome blogs!
Oh my Goodness this is the cutest kitchen ever, Samantha! Ikea stuff has great potential of jazzing up, right? I love what you did with this, the colours are so happy and the flowers turned out beautifully! I want to buy one for my girls now and do this!
Oh my goodness! SO sweet!!!
Ah, I love this!!!! I thought the back splash was wall paper, you have serious talent to paint it by hand!
Wow!! That is beautiful. Thank you for sharing with us @ #HomeMattersParty. We would love to have you again next week.
OMG, this couldn't be any cuter! I'm sure your daughter will get tons of use out of it!
Oh my! This is beautiful! I am in awe of your painting skills! Already pinned and tweeted 🙂 Thanks for linking up with Merry Monday last week.
You are such a sweetie to make this for your daughter, you did a fabulous job painting it. Thanks for sharing this at Dream Create and Inspire. Stop by and visit me love meeting new people! Hugs Maria http://www.simplenaturedecorblog.com
Absolutely adorable! Pinning and sharing!
Samantha, this play kitchen is so sweet!!! I love it. We are featuring you tonight @ Dream. Create. Inspire. Link:). Have a great week and take care, Tara
Samantha, you're so talented! This is absolutely darling!
Thank you so much for your sweet comment! I'm sure your girls would love one of their own! 😉
Thanks, Kristi!!!
Thank you so much! Yes, she's been cooking up a storm! Green pepper banana stew, anyone? Ha! 😉
Aw, thanks so much! I promise, it was easy!
Thanks so much! And thanks for hosting!
You are so sweet! Thank you so much!
Thank you!!!
Thanks so much!
Aw, yay, thanks so much!!!!
Thank you so much! I promise it was super easy!
This is sooo sweet and beautiful Samantha!! I feel like getting one for my daughter….who is a bit old for it, but just for the fun of making one like yours!!!
Haha, do it! Or just paint it and frame it! 😉