Water and earth make an irresistible combination for children! The little ones can let off steam creatively in this homemade mud kitchen.
Fancy a delicious grass soup? Or would you prefer a crispy sand cake? Children love to play outside and with this simple mud kitchen made of pallets and fruit crates your personal children’s paradise will quickly come true.
materials and tools
- Euro pallet (120 x 80 x 14 cm)
- glued board
- wooden chest (48 x 36 x 28 cm)
- Fruit crate shelf (50 x 40 x 30 cm)
- small wooden shelf (34 x 23 x 19 cm)
- boards, waste wood
- screws (stainless steel)
- sandpaper
- round wood
- (Black) paint for outdoors
- Plastic tub as a sink
- hook
- jigsaw
- cordless drill
- hole saw
- orbital sander
- brush/roller
- masking tape
- Paper/foil for template
1. preparation
First, all untreated wooden parts are sanded and the edges broken so that the little ones don’t catch any splinters.
2. footrests
So that the kitchen cannot fall over later, you have to support it. You either screw them to the wall of the house, for example, or ensure a firm footing by screwing boards at right angles to one short side of the pallet. This requires two boards of the same length and one board that is slightly shorter. The two longer boards are screwed to the left and right of the short side of the pallet (preferably on the blocks), which will later be at the bottom. Fasten the shorter board flush to the front between the two outer feet so that it only protrudes backwards.
3. Make subline
Two more pieces of board are screwed flush to the outer edge of the underside of the fruit box and the wooden chest. This way everything is level and nothing wobbles later when they are connected to the front sections of the board feet and to the pallet in the next step.
Important: The opening of the chest must of course point to the front and the opening of the lid, which now becomes the door, should point in the desired direction (here to the left).
Now mark the length and width of the wooden panel as a worktop, cut to length and sand the cut edges.
For the cut-out of the sink, transfer the inner dimension of the plastic tub to the desired location. Drill a hole in one corner, place the jigsaw there and cut out the marked area.
4. Fasten upper cabinets
The small wooden box is hung on the pallet above the sink as a shelf. A small piece of wood with a few hooks becomes a practical kitchen helper.
A stove is created above the chest with two painted plates. Outline the circles or cut out a stencil that also covers the edges so you can brush or roller paint and still get a clean edge of paint. Do the same for the oven and tape the rectangle clean beforehand.
Saw the control knobs out of wood and paint them in color if necessary. Then drill through the middle and screw with a washer not quite tight, so that they can still be turned a little. Alternatively, you could use larger plastic lids or old furniture knobs. A construction made of three pieces of round wood, one long and two short spacers serves as the oven handle. Drill through this and connect it to the handle part from behind.
The lid of a (different) wooden chest serves as an optional roof that is screwed to the top of the pallet. You can also use other leftover wood here or do without it altogether.
