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This mud kitchen makeover is my favorite DIY project yet. I learned and practiced a ton of new skills, realized that painting is harder than it looks, and made my five-year-old jump with joy upon revealing it to her. It’s our most-used outdoor toy, that’s for sure!

Finding all the materials was incredibly simple thanks to the Shop app, which is this wonderfully tailored and personalized shopping experience; nearly every brand I know and love is on it, and I’ve discovered tons of new-to-me similar ones while using it. I swear the search function is better than any other search engine, too.

I’ll share everything I found on the Shop app in a bit, but let’s get started with the tutorial:

DIY Mud Kitchen Makeover

Assembling the mud kitchen

I’m embarrassed to admit this, but this mud kitchen sat outside in the Chicago elements for over a year, unassembled. My parents had given it to Lucy for her birthday, and then life got busy, and suddenly it was cold, and—well, there you have it. 😂 And while I was certainly intimidated by the thought of putting it together, it wasn’t that bad. We brought the pieces down to my in-laws’ lake house for the weekend, and—hoping we weren’t missing any—assembled it while my very handy father-in-law supervised and dropped hints/tips.

Our exact mud kitchen is still on the Shop app, but it does look like it now only ships from the UK. You can find nearly the same one here, though! (This is a great alternative.)

Buying materials + accessories

Okay, guys. This is where the Shop app really shines. One of its best features is its combined retailer shopping carts, which means you don’t have a zillion tabs open while shopping online. Everything combines into one cart, even when you’re shopping multiple retailers. And yes, it means that you no longer “lose” shopping carts if you don’t check out right away. The Shop app saves your cart—every time.

Another great feature is the ability to “favorite” products. Simply click the little heart icon, and it’s added to your favorites collection. This is seriously good for saving gift ideas, as well as making sure I have everything I need for a big DIY like my recent mud kitchen project. The Shop app saves all my information, tracks every order for me, keeps me informed about new arrivals and sales, and makes very good recommendations based on my style.

Here’s what I found via the Shop app:

Again, finding everything was so quick and easy. One cart, one checkout.

Attaching the scalloped trim

Our mud kitchen was begging for a little character, said no one but me. 😉 But I had some leftover scalloped trim from a previous project, and attaching it to the kitchen seemed like a no-brainer. This was a bit trickier than I thought it would be; we needed to build a base so that the trim would be flush with the rest of the piece. But in the end, it worked, and I learned how to use a nail gun. (Just as scary as I thought it would be. Jk, it was fine. 😂)

Attaching the bobbin trim

This was delightfully easy! I simply used wood glue and some very affordable wooden half spheres that I found on the Shop app to create a bobbin trim look. It was so easy that I’ve been contemplating doing it elsewhere in our home. Doesn’t it add so much character to the kitchen?

Wood filler

I did one round of pink wood filler (turns brown when dry!) to cover the nail and screw holes, but then I realized that there were tons of seams that I could likely use the leftover wood filler for. My brother Patrick—who’s a self-trained carpenter—joked “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, Kelly?!” But once I sanded everything down (which took roughly five minutes), the piece was looking good… and ready for painting!

Painting

I’ll say it: I’m not a good painter. I want to be. But my tape jobs aren’t great—even when I think they are, haha—and I don’t catch drips. So this was the most challenging part of the project for me! But I got through it and dare I say it looks acceptable?!

(I used leftover Benjamin Moore White Dove from our real kitchen.)

Adding little touches

This is when I shine, though. ;) I found wooden stars and this gold paint pen for the stove knobs, brass ball knobs and brass pulls.I bought the duck faucet a long time ago for this very project, but said project took me years to complete and I don’t think the duck is in stock anymore. But there are so many great brass wall faucets that would work! (You can hook the faucet up to a hose so the faucet actually works!) I used brass hooks left over from our mudroom project, but low-key regretting not using these adorable bunny hooks, haha.

The unveiling

I’ve never seen Lucy so excited! As I mentioned before, the mud kitchen is our most-used outdoor toy—and one that’s enjoyed by very young kids and older ones, too. (Above you can see one of Emma’s friends, who’s actually nine years old!) Outdoor imaginative play has never been so easy.

We obviously owe it all to the Shop app, and a big thank you goes out to their team for sponsoring and inspiring this project. I earned 1 percent Shop Cash every time I checked out with Shop Pay, which I then turned around and used on other Shop app purchases. (And I can also double, triple or even 10x my Shop Cash when redeem it on offers from top brands!)

The Shop app is undeniably the most rewarding way to shop online, and you can download it here. Trust me: Do it!