A mum was left shocked after a £1 item she bought from Ikea caused her kitchen to fill with black smoke.
Tiana Lowe thought she'd bought a bargain baking tray from the Warrington store but last week her impulse buy backfired after she didn't read the label and just popped it in the oven.
The 24-year-old smelt burning shortly after filling the tray with eight potato cakes, and when she opened the oven door she was met with a cloud of smoke and a pool of dripping plastic.
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A snap before the mum-of-one removed her 'ruined' food shows silver plastic she thought to be metal oozing down from under her non-stick paper to form puddles on the oven floor.
Her second image shows the underside of the tray reduced to just eight potato cake-shaped plastic imprints, leaving her with a mess and a stinking kitchen that took two hours to clean.
Tiana took to Ikea's Facebook page to sarcastically thank them for "making serving trays look like baking trays", but it backfired when users mocked her and warned "don't buy a chocolate teapot".
However, the Swedish company's site shows other customers have been fooled into melting the serving trays, with the two disgruntled buyers giving it a one-star review after their mistake.
Tiana admits she should have read the label, but thinks Ikea should switch the tray's colour from metallic silver or redesign it so it doesn't look oven-suitable.
Tiana, from Westhoughton, said: "We could smell burning, so we opened the oven to find a big puddle of melted plastic and lots of black smoke coming out.
"It was all dripping from the tray, then I checked and realised it wasn't an oven tray, it was clearly plastic and it'd melted all over the entire oven.
"The entire house stunk of burning plastic, so we had to spray the whole kitchen top to bottom and open all the windows. I stayed up for two hours cleaning everything.
"A few days before I'd spent a good hour rubbing the oven completely clean, so a couple of days later I'd had to throw the oven racks away and scrub it all again.
"I had to clean everything in the kitchen as well because of the fumes from the plastic that would have gone on everything.
"I was wondering what I'd actually bought, so I got the receipt and got my friends to Google it and they saw that it was the plastic tray.
"I must admit, I didn't read the sticker on it. It didn't feel plastic or look plastic. It felt a lot lighter . But I thought that was because it was smaller and it was only £1.
"It was called TILLGANG and who knows what a TILLGANG is, but I thought it was a bargain so I went for it. I've checked the reviews and it turns out I'm not the only person who's done it.
"Ikea need to make them actually look plastic and maybe change the colour, or put a giant warning sign on them. But it's my error not theirs."
Tiana had to spend £18 on replacement oven trays but says she hasn't been in touch with Ikea aside from the 'humorous' Facebook post because she knows it's her fault.
She claims she hasn't minded the online mockery because she "expected it" and her fiancé was more bothered by his meal being ruined than the state of the oven.
Tiana said: "Some of the comments were a little bit harsh, but when I posted it I fully expected a roasting and I do well with banter so I was just laughing them all off. I appreciated the sympathy as well.
"I've learned my lesson. I'll be reading the description in future. Don't judge a book by its cover as they say."
A one-star review on Ikea's website written by another fooled customer said: "My partner thought this was a baking tray. It isn't. Our oven is covered with melted plastic now."
A second simply said: "This tin melted in my oven, very disappointing."
An IKEA spokesperson said: "The TILLGANG tray is not a baking tray, but a serving tray made of plastic.
"Whilst this is communicated on the IKEA website and in store we appreciate that its look can be misleading and will take this feedback with us for future development.
"We're sorry for the inconvenience caused."
