DIY market stand: 3 ways to build a Pretend Play Grocery Store

diy market stand play supermarket ikea hack

Encourage dramatic play in kids with an awesome DIY market stand. It’s easy to make a play market stand using an IKEA furniture piece as the starting point. The most popular one is, hands down, the DUKTIG which can be easily transformed into a store front with a few store motif adhesive decals.

Other more unusual options would be to use the TROFAST storage unit and even modifying a humble shoe rack into a grocery stand.

Let’s take a look at these cool market stand ideas.

1. DIY market stand made from shoe racks

The original idea was to purchase a play kitchen/ market stand for my daughter’s birthday for a bit of dramatic play. We looked around in stores, but everything we saw, was either too small, too expensive or too plasticky. So we went the DIY route to create a unique pretend play market stand for our kid.

Materials:

BABORD Shoe Racks (discontinued, found a similar one on Amazon)
IKEA fabric

For our DIY project, we purchased 3 IKEA BABORD Shoe Racks, $9.99, a couple of 2x4s, some IKEA fabric and various toy accessories such as baskets, plastic fruits, miniature cans and bottles.

DIY market stand – step by step instructions

1. For the front of the market stand we attached 2x4s at the front corners of the shoe rack. Then attached a 2×4 horizontally a t the end of the vertical 2x4s with screws.

DIY market stand IKEA hack using BABORD shoe racks

2. For the back of the stall, we did the same, just that we added another shoe rack on top of the first one to give the illusion of grocery store shelves.

3. We then stapled the IKEA fabric to the two horizontal beams.

DIY farmer's market stand

4. Cut out a square wood piece for the sign of the market and attach with string.

5. Last thing was to add in accessories like baskets and food. We may get a toy cash register later.

Total cost came under $50.

DIY farmer's market stand

~ by Sibylle, Canada


2. Kids grocery counter IKEA hack

We made a supermarket counter from the TROFAST storage frame and KNAGGLIG crates. Ka-ching! It can work stand alone or as part of a larger kids grocery store setup or combined with the IKEA DUKTIG play kitchen.

kids play supermarket counter with IKEA TROFAST storage

Materials:

TROFAST Storage Frame
TROFAST Storage Bins
KNAGGLIG Boxes

How to make a market stand?

1. Assemble TROFAST Storage Frame.

2. Add wood trim to front bottom of the TROFAST frame as a stopper to stop KNAGGLIG boxes from sliding out.

3. Cut plywood to make three shelves which will support the top of KNAGGLIG crates. Slide the shelves into the lowest grooves in the TROFAST frame.

kids play supermarket counter with IKEA TROFAST storage

4. Next, we added a primed plywood piece to front and painted it with black chalkboard paint.

4. Added trim to top and bottom of the chalkboard piece.

5. We also added a long drawer handle to the side of the frame to hold a towel and hang hooks from.

We may eventually add 1×2’s with dowels to make a canopy. For now, we’re leaving it as is.

The final touch was to write the store name and we’re open.

~ by Tim Krieger


3. IKEA DUKTIG pop-up grocery stall

IKEA DUKTIG play kitchen converted to a pop up DIY market stand
gaensebluemchensonnenschein.com

A pop-up farmer’s market stand that your kids can bring out to play on the weekends. Anja attached two SUNNERSTA rails to the sides of the DUKTIG play kitchen. On the other end, a round dowel to hold up the fabric canopy. The canopy can be folded away. The RIMFORSA produce baskets are detachable. Add a few vinyl decals at the front and the store is all ready. See the tutorial.