Styling a room for your child is fun, but it can get expensive, which is why Kmart is such a popular shopping spot. If, like many parents, you’re sleep-deprived and short on ideas, fear not! We’ve searched high and low to get you inspired with the best-ever Kmart hacks for kids.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money — all you need is imagination and elbow grease to create a gorgeous, personalised piece for your nursery, playroom or kid’s bedroom.
Related article: 20 of the coolest Kmart hacks EVER!
Related article: Top 20 Kmart hacks of 2018
1. Glam doll mansion
Check out this mega doll mansion Renee created for her two-year old. She joined two Kmart dollhouses together and jazzed up the included furniture, plus added some extra bits and pieces. Add some Kmart contact paper to act as wall paper and tiles, and voila! A doll mansion fit for a queen. The best part? It cost her about $150 all up.
And don’t think the doll house is just for girls — with a bit of creativity, it can be turned into just about anything! Take a look at this cool Dinosaur world Hayley created for dino-obsessed god son.
2. Personalised instrument set
What young child doesn’t love making as much noise on musical instruments as possible? While we may not be able to do much for their musical talents, we can certainly improve the look of the instruments without spending a fortune! Shan stripped brightly coloured instruments back and painted them to give them a totally new look — and yes, she hand painted the fauna and flora herself! For those of us who aren’t quite so artsy, using decals or mod podge to adhere cut out images is another idea.
3. Cloud hanger as personalised wall hanging
There’s nothing more special than a personalised gift for a bub, and we love Michelle’s gorgeous cloud and raindrop wall hanging created for a friend’s baby. You really can’t go past a cute pom pom or two!
4. Kitchen made over to grey and gold
There are a few Kmart kitchen hacks floating around at the moment but this dreamy grey and gold version created by Alicia is just divine. Not to mention her gorgeous styling!
Just as the doll house can be given a more boyish makeover, so too can the kitchen. Taay recently transformed the Kmart kitchen into a construction station, featuring pressed metal door insert, tool hanging bar, LED lights and construction tape accents. What young boy wouldn’t love this?!
5. Peg board turned play wall
We’re all for space saving, and Sarah has come up with a brilliant way to turn the Kmart peg board into a vertical play board! With all those gorgeous natural, tactile elements, this one not only keeps clutter off the floor, it looks beautiful too.
6. Hula hoop as dreamy bedroom canopy
Bedroom canopies are trending in nurseries, but the price tag can be off-putting! Clever Jemma picked up a super cheap hula hoop and some artificial flowers from her local Kmart, and combined the two, along with some netting to create this designer-look canopy for her daughter’s bedroom at a bargain price.
7. Round shelf as on-trend moon shelf
You may remember this one from our coolest Kmart hacks article, and we loved it so much we thought we’d include it again. Such a simple way to create beautiful shelves for your little one.
8. Funky stamped floor rug
Jess made this unique rug by taking a faux cowhide, flipping it over and hand stamping it with acrylic paint, using potatoes and cardboard. This zigzag and dot print is a little bit tribal, a little eclectic and a lot cool!
9. Circular photo frame as figurine display
Is there anything more painful than stepping on teeny tiny figurines? Ouch! Kathleen came up with a funky solution, repurposing a circular photo frame to host more than 70 teeny characters. The best part is she literally thought outside the box, by using lego tape around the edges! Genius.
10. T-Rex lamp
Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best. We love how Jessica and her partner improvised when they couldn’t find the perfect lamp for their son. They turned a bland white lamp into a super cute T-Rex lamp, using a black texta and a dinosaur design from his favourite t-shirt.
11. Toned down pastel rainbow
It’s no secret that kid’s toys can be jarringly bright. By repainting this wooden rainbow in gorgeous soft pastels, Brooke created a soft, sweet rainbow just perfect for a nursery.
Or if pastels aren’t your thing, we also love this tonal rainbow by Chloe. She repainted the bright rainbow in dreamy tones of pink and peach.
12. Custom cubby house
We couldn’t possibly leave out the most popular kid’s hack of all — customised cubby houses! Kmart outdid themselves when they released this cubby house and although there have been a few design iterations (the latest is a bit more ‘barn’ like with a half door), they’re all totally magical and an opportunity for parents to get a bit creative.
Gina created a Kmart hack cubby for her son Patrick in a fresh pastel blue, grey and white colour scheme and included a kitchen inside. For those of us who have kids obsessed with firefighters, we love how Prue turned the cubby into a fire station — so cool! Another super stylish idea is the garden house cubby hack Chantel created for her two boys or that impressive horse stable Amanda hacked for her daughter.
13. Sand or water play table
Using the timber storage bench and underbed storage container, Tegan had this great idea to make a sand or water play table for her little person.
The perfect height for kids, this one is a terrific hack for loads of outdoor fun!
14. Bedside table with booksling
Repurposing the Kmart step stool into a bedside table with book sling, we think this hack is just awesome! Angela, the creative behind this hack, even used Kmart tea towels for the book sling! Such a clever idea.
15. Personalised name signs
This idea from Jessica saw her use everything Kmart to create a name sign for her son’s bedroom. A wooden placemat, wooden alphabet letters and a hot glue gun were all she needed and we think it looks great.
Or, this one from Bec, who used the wooden collage frame and added fun, colourful contact to add extra personalisation to her kids’ name signs. So creative!
16. Star lamp transformation
Adding some paint and taking the very clever idea of an un-used truck pillow case, Kristin used fabric spray glue to add this decoration to her son’s new bedside lamp. We love the waste-not-want-not attitude!
17. Rattan magazine rack turned wall pocket
If you’re loving the rattan trend right now, take a look at how Sezen used the rattan-look magazine holders as wall pockets in her daughter’s playroom! This is a great idea for kid’s bedrooms too, especially for creating a stylish craft station or desk space.
18. School bag station
Back to school is in full swing, so this Kmart hack really got our attention. Maricar took the 8-cube storage shelf and made a few adjustments to create this brilliant school bag station.
Paired next to the Kmart book shelf to store all the other school bits and pieces, this makes a great storage system for keeping everything neat and tidy. Ahh, organised bliss and an absolute winner in our best-ever Kmart hacks for kids list!
19. Mud kitchen
Nicole absolutely nailed her hack, showing yet another use for the timber storage bench. Using a roasting tray (from Kmart) kids kitchen sink (also Kmart) and lots of other fun accessories (you guessed it, all Kmart!) she created this fabulous outdoor mud kitchen.
She’s also included helpful step-by-step build instructions here.
20. Lego storage table
Kids and Lego go hand-in-hand. It’s something super fun to play with, encourages creativity and can be hours (or perhaps just minutes!) of entertainment. But it gets EVERYWHERE!
So, when we saw this clever hack by Laura who took 2 Kmart entertainment units and added Lego bases to the top — including baskets for storage underneath, because storage is life — we were super impressed.
The perfect way to round out our best-ever Kmart hacks for kids, don’t you think?!
Have you spotted any other creative Kmart hacks for kids? Share a link to them in the comments below so we can take a look and add even MORE ideas to our best-ever Kmart hacks for kids!
Check out more Kmart hacks here
This article was first published in February 2018 and continues to be updated with the latest and best Kmart hacks for kids.
All such great ideas!!! Love the creativity!
What a great collection of diy projects, I can’t wait to try out that lamp!!