Awesome Dad Upgrades IKEA Play Kitchen for His Daughter

IKEA hacks are very popular, and that’s probably because their furniture is stylish, affordable, and its modular design lends itself easily to modification. Most IKEA hacks, however, are for the grownups. You can, for instance, use an IKEA side table to build an enclosure for your 3D printer. But Brian Lough went in a different direction and upgraded an IKEA DUKTIG Play Kitchen set for his daughter.

The IKEA DUKTIG Play Kitchen retails for $79, and has everything a kid needs to pretend they’re cooking just like their parents do. It has a stove, sink, cupboard, oven, and microwave all integrated into a single play set. But those are, of course, non-functional. Kids can still have fun playing with them by using their imagination, but a little interactivity goes along way. So that’s what Lough added with the help of some common off-the-shelf electronics components.

Lough added two new features to the IKEA DUKTIG Play Kitchen: color-changing lights in the oven, and twirling lights in the microwave, along with a timer, to make it look like it’s actually running. All of those lights are Adafruit 16 LED NeoPixels Rings, which are driven by Wemos D1 Mini ESP8266 development boards. Four arcade buttons on the oven change the color of the interior lights, while a rotary encoder adjusts the brightness. On the microwave, a rotary encoder and 4 digit 7-segment LED display are housed within a 3D-printed enclosure. Just twist the knob to set the time, and the microwave looks like it’s running!