Play kitchen

[Stuart 160]

Wood or plastic. I can’t decide. Looking for toddlers.

[3 ladybugs 1,795]

Wood! Plastic always gets funky looking. I have a wood set that is in perfect condition despite being years old. I got a small one that can fit in a cabinet when not in use. It was by Habe and I got it at Target. 

[bettyandbob 17,679]

I had a nice wood one in my living room. When not in use it mostly fit in with our furniture, a plastic one would not.

[4Kiddos 321]

Oh yes- definitely wood.They are so durable and look so much nicer. We have had ours for years and it still is played with daily and looks new! I purchased ours from AToymakersDaughter on Etsy. Ours is also in our living room.

 

We had a plastic one that was a gift. After about six months it started falling apart.

Edited October 26, 2017 by 4Kiddos

[displace 3,967]

Wood. We've had ours for 3 or 4 years and it's still nice and gets used. Plus IKEA has real cooking pots/pans that can be used to play or cook with.

[mykidsrmyjoy 284]

Wood! I actually made ours out of an old end table. Pinterest has some adorable ideas.

[OrganicJen 1,247]

I tend to like wood better. 

[sangtarah 804]

We’ve had a step 2 plastic kitchen for 9 years and 3 cross-country moves. It looks just the same as when we put it together. Hopefully it will outlast the baby - I don’t want to buy another! So I think if a plastic one is a good quality and/or design, it would be okay.

[HomeAgain 15,585]

Sturdy.  That is all. :)

 

We had a nice wood tabletop one from Mama Made Them.  I bought it because it was well made, portable, and now, doesn't take up a lot of space in the storage room.

[medawyn 2,380]

We love our wooden play kitchen.  Super sturdy and durable (thank you, baby #3 who suddenly thinks it's also a jungle gym  :glare: ).

 

I even moved it upstairs into our kitchen (it fits in the space under our island counter).  It looks better than plastic and gets played with every day.  Win, win.

[happypamama 10,441]

Wood.  Ours is a little beat up but still looks pretty, and it's been through five preschoolers.

[SebastianCat 1,550]

We had a plastic one for about 5-6 years (only used by one child) that was still in great condition when my DD outgrew it, then got passed down to my nephew.   It was the Step 2 kitchen that looked like this one.   I would probably base your decision on how many children may use it, how long you intend to keep it, and where it will be in your house.   If it's something you must have out in the open, I'd get whatever kitchen you don't mind looking at for as long as you intend to keep it.

[Pintosrock 146]

We have a wooden play kitchen and a plastic work bench. Hate that plastic bench! It entertains dd, but the quality is definitely lacking. If you can afford it, wood looks so much nicer in the house and has fantastic resale value when your kids outgrow it.

[2_girls_mommy 2,149]

We have only ever had hand me down plastic ones. I had one for the older set of girls that I then passed on a few years ago. Then for the newer child, another friend passed hers down. They work fine, and I am sure are cheaper than wood ones if that is a consideration. 

[school17777 3,794]

I insisted my oldest dd have a wooden kitchen. It never got played with like the plastic kitchens that her friends/library/waiting rooms had. I would get a fun plastic one.

[PeterPan 30,411]

Whatever you can afford? My MIL made my dd an adorable one out of a very large box. She cut a door for the oven, installed a real faucet, a towel bar, made foam "burners" for a stove on top, had a door under the sink to work like a stove (the sink was a bowl laid into a cutout), etc. Cost very little using scraps, but it was wonderful because it fit dd. Dd was always tall for her age, so she outgrew premade toys like that by height before she outgrew them developmentally. 

 

We had a plastic kitchen for ds and got use out of it. It's fine. He'll still play with it if someone comes over who will play with him. If we had one of those wood ones like you see in catalogs, it would be fine too. It's really just whatever you want to pay. We have a large assortment of plastic play food, like a huge bin of it I collected, and kitchen things that really whiz and whir. ToysRUs sells them, like a mixer that you can push and make whiz, a toast that springs, etc. So to me, that's where it's nice to put your money. Obviously the wood kitchen thing would be a dream, but I'd buy the food and extras and then use the leftover money to buy the kitchen.

 

Oh, I got my kitchen on a Black Friday deal for like $20. For real. 

 

Adding, the nice thing about the plastic is then you can get matching extras, like the car, the grill, etc. So then you've got a whole play house, play system going. Like if you're doing a kitchen, you're going to want a little table. We had a fake iron that was so, so cute. Kids LOVE the fake iron and a little ironing board. I just really don't think it matters which type of kitchen you get, just more than you play and how you use the pieces.

Edited October 27, 2017 by OhElizabeth

[PeterPan 30,411]

I insisted my oldest dd have a wooden kitchen. It never got played with like the plastic kitchens that her friends/library/waiting rooms had. I would get a fun plastic one.

 

There might be something to this. My ds liked all the extras on his, like the sprayer faucet, the microwave that would beep, things that would turn on and off. At that age they're all about cause/effect, what will happen if I push this button... I've seen stoves where you turn the buttons and it click, clicks. That's just really developmentally appealing stuff! 

 

When all else fails, take 'em to ToysRUs and see what happens. :D

[Storygirl 10,980]

Wood! We have one that is close to 50 years old, from my childhood. My children used it, and now my brother's granddaughters have it, so it has lasted for three generations so far.

[PeterPan 30,411]

Wood! We have one that is close to 50 years old, from my childhood. My children used it, and now my brother's granddaughters have it, so it has lasted for three generations so far.

 

Oh that is precious!! My dh wants to THROW OUT my play kitchen and toy food. I keep telling him NO WAY, that I need to keep it!! :D

[Barb_ 21,987]

As a kid I had beautiful secondhand wood but always wanted the cheap ones like I saw at sears. I bought my kids step II plastic and that thing lasted forever. It was 16 years old and I gave it to goodwill. They were thrilled because it looked just about as good as when I bought it. My kids played and played with that thing. Parents love the timelessness of wood, but kids don't always appreciate it

[Moonhawk 7,196]

We have wood, only disadvantage is when your 3yo mysteriously disappears, to be found filling the entire sink with water to wash the dishes, and the water makes the wood counter weird. Not unusable, just...weird. Ours is from Ikea, it's held up to 3 cooks with heavy-handed imaginations of what you do in a kitchen, lol. 

[Seeking Squirrels 1,530]

Wood. I feel like they are less bulky and provide better storage for the play food/dishes. Ours is not a nice/expensive wood one, it is particle board and colorful with working knobs and dings, so just as fun for the kids as plastic and it has gotten a lot of use. 

[Hilltopmom 4,572]

I like the tabletop wood ones best. My kids are a wide age range so we’ve owned several different plastic ones plus made one too and I just donated a nice wood one to our library ( that they rarely use at home) but kept the tabletop one that gets used a lot and stores on a shelf.

Ours is Hape.

Edited October 27, 2017 by Hilltopmom