Advice on a Wooden Play Kitchen

I have never owned a wooden kitchen myself, but in every Kindergarten class that I have ever seen with a kitchen, it is always a wooden one. If it's in a classroom, it was made to withstand many, many kids.

We have a Kenmore kitchen that I found at a consignment shop last year. I know that to buy it new it's about $80+ per piece and ours is 4 pieces (stove, fridge, sink, stacking washer/dryer) but we paid about $130 total for ours and it came with a ton of food, pots and pans and counter appliances. I wanted one that would grow with our daughter and this one is taller than many I was looking at so she could still comfortably use it at age 5/6. I'm not sure how old it was when we bought it but I would guess 3-4 years old. It's holding up very well and has only needed a couple of minor adjustments (replacing the clear plastic on the front of the oven & washer/dryer and had to have a few screws tightened).

Kidcraft makes awesome kitchen sets. We got the corner gourmet set for my daughter last Christmas and it has held up really well. My son is almost 4 and around 40 inches tall too. He loves playing with it as much as she does! We bought our at Walmart and they put it together for free. I highly recommend their products. They are reasonably priced as well. Just google Kidcraft kitchen sets (if you haven't already) and you can see all the different models they make. I really wanted a set from Pottery Barn, but they were just too expensive. Good luck!
A.

We have the kidkraft island kitchen. Kids can play on all sides of it. We've had it for 10 years. Love it, someday my grandkids will be playing with it.

We have a kidcraft vintage wooden kitchen.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/KidKraft-Vintage-Kitchen-in-Pin...
I found it the cheapest at wal-mart, they have a variety of colors and different models. I absolutely love this kitchen. It holds up really well. The only thing that didn't last was the "sink". It's plastic and only has two teeth that keep it in. My girl likes to yank it out. Before we had it anchored in the wall she tipped it, and it didn't even phase it, luckily it didn't hurt her either.
My daughter is 36 in and 2.5 as far as comparison goes. I think one of the things I love about it is I use it for storage. It has a lot of compartments, so besides her pots, pans and plastic food, I store books in it, I put stuffed animals on it, etc.
Hope this helps. =)

He is a bit tall for the ones we usually see in stores. My grand daughter is about this height and just turned 4 and loves her kitchen, but is getting kinda tall for it. Its a little tykes or something. Id think it might be worth it to have one built, if you cant cut and screw wood together yourself. Draw out the plans and measurements you want and find some crafty person to help make it. It would be fun to paint and decorate it. Advertise on Criagslist for someone who does wood working and see what they make, the quality of work, and have them help you.

If you're a little more crafty, I've seen some great Ikea hack play kitchens that are really imaginative and fun.

Check out here:
http://www.ikeahackers.net/2010/12/childs-play-kitchen-se...
http://www.ohdeedoh.com/ohdeedoh/how-to/how-to-build-a-pl...

We had a hand built one for our grandson with a sink that could be hooked up to hoses. He loved it. Pots and pans were stored underneath. There were drawer and shelves. Eventually it became a storage cabinet for his toys as he took to cooking in the kitchen. When he was 10 I convinced him that it should be passed on to another child. He very reluctantly let go of it.

Ours is a plastic step2 from freecycle (which works fine for us, my daughter is short) but DD's friend (a 4 yr old boy) has an IKEA kitchen that's really neat. He's had it for several years and it looks great, and IKEA also sells a lot of accessories, like real metal pans and grown up looking utensils for not a lot.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S49874533

You can get it with or without the microwave hutch.