Affordable Wooden Play Kitchens Make Eco-friendly Holiday Gifts
Posted by rebecca16 Dec
Wooden play kitchens have gone mainstream! Just a few years ago, I couldn’t find a wood child’s play kitchen for under $250. (I’ll admit I didn’t look too hard after my initial search proved so disappointing.) So what did I do? I picked up something similar to this Alex Toys In My Kitchen Set at a consignment shop for $12, tricked it out with some IKEA pots and pans, and voila! I had an inexpensive little play kitchen for my child. (Here’s the original post I wrote about this slap-dash effort at creating an affordable wooden play kitchen.)
This year I looked around and found several darling wooden kitchens, many of which were under or around $100!
Alex Toys in My Kitchen Set $53.85
Melissa and Doug Cook’s Corner Wooden Kitchen $74.99
Maxim Wooden Kitchen Center $98.98
Kidkraft Vintage Kitchen in Pink $99
Classic Wood Kitchen – Stove/Sink Combo $99.99
Educo My Creative Cookery Club $104.64
Kidkraft Suite Elite Kitchen $109.99
Wonderworld Eco-Friendly Cooking Center $147.75
KidKraft Silver Retro Kitchen $169.99
Melissa and Doug Classic Deluxe Kitchen $198
Kids All In One Play Kitchen in Multi Finish $299.99
A Simple Hearth (Childs Wood Kitchen) $344.95
Does your child play with any of these wooden kitchens? How do they hold up in real life?
Looking for more wooden gift ideas? Check out last year’s post: wooden toys for babies and youngsters.
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4 Responses for "Affordable Wooden Play Kitchens Make Eco-friendly Holiday Gifts"
We found an Alex Kitchen set at Ross for $25 and we love it! It’s compact, functional, and very fun. Our kids spend hours at that tiny kitchen and we’re so grateful not to have a giant plastic object in our small house. Right next to it is their box of Doug and Melissa wooden fruit and bread and they do quite a bit of “cooking” every day!
It’s great that the price has come down. These look great, but, I’m wondering about how well made they are, will they last, where they were made, are the painted ones painted with no-VOC paint, are they mass produced etc.
To me, as a grandma, while price is important, if I’m to try to model “green,” I have to consider these other points as well. Do you have any information on this for any of these?
Personally, I absolutely love the ones that people make by converting other pieces of furniture. Those can cost next to nothing.
Lynn, good question! In our book, the Eco-nomical Baby Guide, we discuss the idea that buying heirloom-quality toys is a greener choice than buying cheap plastic stuff that will wind up in the landfill. So, while many of these wooden kitchens don’t claim to be green, they are made of wood (a renewable resource) and should last longer and provide more enjoyment to more children over the years than their plastic counterparts.
We don’t have personal experience with all of the brands listed in this post. However, I have seen the Maxim kitchen in person (a friend owns it), and it is very sturdy and cute. It uses lead-free, non-toxic paint.
The Wonderworld Eco-friendly cooking center does have some green features: it’s made of rubberwood (an eco-friendly hardwood); non-toxic paints, dyes, and lacquers; formaldehyde-free glue; and 70% recycled paper packaging.
The Simple Hearth child’s wood kitchen is made in the USA from cherry wood and has a natural beeswax finish.
And finally, the Melissa and Doug wood toys are all made with non-toxic coatings. I’ve been really happy with everything I’ve had from them–their products are really sturdy.
I hope that helps!
We have the Educo kitchen and I’m a bit disappointed in its flimsiness. That said it fits perfectly in our tiny apartment. Ikea also has a wooden play kitchen that looks great.
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