Best deals on play kitchen?

[designermama]

Looking for a play kitchen for my 2 y.o. DD's birthday. Any online deals or sites you'd recommend other than Amazon and the Step 2 site (I checked their sale)? I'm a compulsive gotta-check-all-the-options kind of shopper.

[azzeps]

We really like our play kitchen from IKEA. I think it was a pretty good deal, as is most stuff from IKEA! Hope you find something you like at a good price!

[designermama]

Oh wow, thanks for mentioning IKEA! I should not have looked at this site: http://www.ikeafans.com/home/ikea-play-kitchens/ It includes lots of ideas for play kitchens that you can build with IKEA parts. So cool.

Realistically, I'm trying to decide between the Melissa & Doug basic kitchen and the Kidcraft Uptown Espresso. Jacob's Room seems to have the best price right now (by far!) but of course Diapers.com has free and super-fast shipping. And the IKEA idea is oh so tempting....

[lhafer]

I made my girl's play kitchen for them this past Christmas and they love it - it gets used all the time. It took me a couple of weeks working on it during naptime and weekends. It's actually not very hard at all - I had no (seriously ZERO) wood working skills before this (now I love making little projects!). I didn't have the tools either, and got good used tools from CL. You can get the store (like Home Depot or Lowes) to make the cuts for you if you don't want to do that. Then all you have to do is glue/nail/screw the pieces together.

I ended up making their kitchen for about $150-$200 I think (and that's because I had to buy the wood - I now have extra wood pieces in my garage to make projects with). I have a 6 yr old and 2.5 yr old, and all they play kitchens I saw were all too small/short for the 6 yr old to play with.

Here are the "blueprints" I used: http://ana-white.com/2009/11/plan-graces-playhouse-kitchen-stove.html

Here's the actual kitchen I made: http://ana-white.com/2011/12/christmas-play-kitchen-my-first-project

I got my wood and pulls and stove knobs from Lowes, the burners from Hobby Lobby, the sink is a dog bowl from Walmart, the faucet from Amazon, and the keypad is flexible calculator from Amazon. I already had the paint.

My backup alternative kitchen was the Ikea kitchen if this project of mine didn't work out. We've had plastic kitchens in the past, and it was okay - just didn't get a lot of love. My girls have played with the Melissa and Doug kitchen in a toystore before - and I found it way to small for my older daughter, do I had to cut that one from the list of potentials.

[AshUVA]

We have the Uptown Espresso and love it! Its in our living area and it looks great and we get tons of compliments on it.

[NJ_Mom2011]

Walmart is selling this kitchen, apparently it is a pain to put together, but it is selling at a cheap price:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/American-Plastics-Homestyle-Kitchen-Play-Set/5913442

[ExcitedMamma]

I've been thinking of getting the Uptown Kitchen too but I hadn't found a good deal on it. Can I ask how you find Jacobs room? Clearly my google searching is not the best way to find a deal! And is it a good reputable site? Thanks!

[katydid1971]

Walmart is selling this kitchen, apparently it is a pain to put together, but it is selling at a cheap price:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/American-Plastics-Homestyle-Kitchen-Play-Set/5913442
I've seen it at the store and its very thin cheap plastic. I don't think it would hold up for very long. DD has been playing with her kitchen daily for 2 1/2 years and is still in great shape, its a Kid Kraft.

OP if you can wait Costco will have a kitchen or two in their holiday toys that start coming out in late summer/early fall. They usually have a Kid Kraft or a Step 2 or both, usually with a nice selection of accessories.

[designermama]

Thanks, everybody! I'm still kind of on the fence but leaning towards the Melissa & Doug kitchen because of the price. Thinking of maybe building a fridge/microwave addition for it for Christmas. Hmmm.


I've been thinking of getting the Uptown Kitchen too but I hadn't found a good deal on it. Can I ask how you find Jacobs room? Clearly my google searching is not the best way to find a deal! And is it a good reputable site? Thanks!

I honestly don't remember how I found them, but Jacob's Room seems to be a brick & mortar store based in Nebraska. Not sure about reputation, but they have 741 likes on Facebook. That should count for something, no?

[designermama]

For those following, I ended up buying My First Toddler Play Kitchen (http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=537929&cmSource=Search) from One Step Ahead. It was $40 in their one-day sale but is still on sale for $56. This looks to be the same as the HaPe/Educo My Creative Cookery Club sold elsewhere (for about $95) but the One Step Ahead kitchen does not include the accessory sets. I got good deals on those at Diapers.com. :thumbsup: Thanks for all the input!

[Claki]

I just saw this or I would have posted earlier. Both Kohls and Zulily had the Melissa and Doug play kitchen for $85 this past weekend. The Kohls sale might still be going on. We went through Zulily and added personalization.

[ssand23]

Oh wow, thanks for mentioning IKEA! I should not have looked at this site: http://www.ikeafans.com/home/ikea-play-kitchens/ It includes lots of ideas for play kitchens that you can build with IKEA parts. So cool.

Realistically, I'm trying to decide between the Melissa & Doug basic kitchen and the Kidcraft Uptown Espresso. Jacob's Room seems to have the best price right now (by far!) but of course Diapers.com has free and super-fast shipping. And the IKEA idea is oh so tempting....

I've seen the IKEA one in person & it's great. We went with the Step 2 (the super big one, someone was selling that plus a Learning Tower with all the accessories for $150) last minute after finding a scream of a deal on Craigslist but was planning to buy the IKEA otherwise. IKEA also sells a bunch of kitchen accessories & food that are great products and excellent prices.

I would not recommend anything from Melissa & Doug, esp something like the kitchen that isn't cheap to just pitch when it breaks in a few months. I have had so many of their items break apart after short periods of owning them with reasonable use. I swore off buying their stuff after having so many things break with my older girls but DH talked me into buying a few things for our son this past Christmas. All of it has since broken to the point of being unsafe & unusuable, since Christmas 2011. The paint chipped off the food, the wooden mail box broke, the wooden treasure chest broke & the wooden blocks splintered, giving ds a splinter. Their stuff is crap & I'm upset since that was the bulk of what he got for Christmas & now it's all trashed.