I make a habit of stopping by our local Goodwill about once a week because I find SO many good things for great prices. When I stumbled onto this kitchen for only $18, I almost couldn’t believe my eyes! It sells for $79 brand new in store, and while I think it’s adorable I couldn’t justify spending that much on a kid’s toy. I can totally swing $18, and I was definitely the crazy lady running through the store making sure I was the first to buy it!
This kitchen is pretty simple, a mix of white cabinets, natural wood countertops, and gray hardware. It’s totally cute the way it is, but my inner crafty girl was dying to revamp this into something really cute. I sat on it for two weeks (it was a birthday present for Reagan) not knowing what I wanted to do, so when we gave it to her it looked exactly the same as when I bought it.
She literally couldn’t have cared less about what it looked like, she was SO excited to have her own little kitchen! I sat on it for a couple more weeks, scrolled through endless Pinterest tutorials and finally decided I was just going to go for it one day.
I went out to the garage and looked at what I had in my paint collection. I had some navy blue paint leftover from my $7 dresser makeover (another Goodwill find, read more here!) and I immediately thought of Janene Crossley’s real life kitchen (her IG is a dream) and decided I wanted to incorporate that. I had some gold spray paint, and some white paint, and the wheels started turning!
Originally I wanted to stain the countertops, but I didn’t have any stain so I ruled that out. I actually made my own DIY stain from some vinegar and iron wool (tutorial on that coming soon) but I ended up not using it.
I started by spray painting the hardware gold, and painting the natural wood on the top and front edges white. On a whim, I painted the side panels navy blue and loved it so much I decided to bring that onto the countertops too. I am totally obsessed with the navy blue and gold combo mixed with the crisp white!
For the backsplash, I cut a piece of white poster board to size and applied some of our leftover wallpaper from Rocky Mountain Decals (you can see it in our playroom here). Another option would be to find some contact paper on Amazon for cheap! They have some really cute brick options and classic subway tile or shiplap styles. I hot glued the poster board in a few spots to the back of the kitchen, but not all the way around in case I want to change things up in the future.
I wish I had recorded Reagan’s reaction when I showed her the updated kitchen. She was full on hands covering her mouth, gasping in excitement, giggling, screaming, “it’s so pretty, it’s so cute!” I about died! My husband was definitely questioning who this kitchen was actually for (not going to lie, it was 50/50 me and her lol) but she was out of her mind excited to see the new result!
I probably sat and stared at this beauty for a few hours over the next couple days because I’m so happy with how it turned out! Now if I could only figure out how to make my real life kitchen look this good, that would be great!
Navy blue paint: Starless Night by Behr
Gold Spray Paint: Rust-oleum Metallic
Mini Utensils: IKEA
