How-to make an "on the fly" play kitchen that's big on imagination and easy on the bank account
Submitted by wendy on November 12, 2008 - 8:40am.
Sleepycat of Learning My Way Through has generously provided a pretty genius way to transform a few household items into a quick and easy play kitchen. She's provided a very clear DIY play kitchen tutorial complete with instructions and nice pictures.
"Normally I’m not inclined to do drawing/painting sorts of projects but to save some money and some space in our fairly small house I had a plan to make ChaosGirl a play kitchen. I bought a small tablecloth and then never did anything with it. I’m taking a mental health/cleaning/cooking day today and while I was cleaning the craft room I found the table cloth. Taking that as a sign I proceeded to muck around with it for about an hour..."
And what she came up with is pretty great for those of us who are getting close to shelling out the hundreds of dollars for a play kitchen yet aren't quite there yet, have no carpentry skills or extra space to house a huge fake food area. Plus when your kiddie culinary genius is done whipping up fake lunch you can pull the darn "kitchen" off the table and serve up the real stuff. I also think this project is full of recycling opportunities and even if you don't have an old stained up table cloth you might own a worn out sheet that's been taking up precious space in your linen closet. Not to mention it has the potential of being rather portable provided the destination houses a similar size table. And let's not forget it's easy to tuck away when not in use meaning you don't have to look at a huge play thing taking up space in your home, becoming a tripping hazard and wishing it would melt away into oblivion. Plus it's simplicity lends itself to some major imaginary play opportunities for your mini chef to cook up which to me is the best reason of all.
