by Kate Petersen
Age Range of Child: 1-10 yrs
I recently heard about the idea to create a mini-kitchen from a friend of mine, and ever since have been gathering things from around the house for our own pretend food play station. After no longer needing an old t.v. stand, I decided it was the perfect height, and provided the perfect amount of storage to become a kitchenette cart!
We house this in our play room and have already had lots of fun pretending to cook, set the table, and eat. I love that the total cost for everything was under $20! For the top shelf, I already had some cardboard pieces covered in felt, so I just placed them side by side for our fake stove top. For the burners, I simply traced some plastic lids with a permanent marker on felt and repeated with additional circles inside. IKEA carries this cool DUKTIG 5-piece cookware set for $9.99 that can also be used for actual food! We also picked up the matching 5-piece DUKTIF utensil set along with some KALAS flatware for a whopping $1.99.
For the second shelf, we found a set of fake food at Smiths Marketplace (they also sell a variety of cloth sets at IKEA) that we just placed in a basket along with some extra plastic bowls and a set of 6 colorful cups from the Dollar Tree. For the last shelf, I got the idea to use some our “real” empty cartons and food containers. So, there you have it, a super simple and inexpensive way to teach your children practical food preparations skills and polite table manners, all while having fun!
