My love affair with IKEA has been reignited. Fourteen years ago, I first discovered it as a student (giant bags of tealights and cheap colanders were the stuff dreams were made of, back then) and seven years ago my husband and I kitted out our very first flat with IKEA bookshelves, wall art and yes, more tea lights.
And then I went off it a bit. “Why buy IKEA when you can buy from a mixture of far more upmarket places?” I asked myself, when we bought our house a few years ago. We upgraded to buying new furniture and accessories from Laura Ashley and Marks & Spencer, quietly congratulating ourselves for leaving IKEA behind.
But I’ve just seen the Swedish furniture store in a whole new light now that I’m a mum. They have a whole host of fun, bright (and cheap!) kids homeware but more impressive is their toy selection. Their hero product has to be their DUKTIG mini kitchen. I’ve struggled to find a nice looking toy kitchen that isn’t tiny-but-expensive or bright pink plastic. And this bad boy ticks all the boxes – it has an oven, cupboard and microwave for all your child’s opening-and-closing-doors-repeatedly needs. It has a sink and tap that moves from side to side, just like Mummy and Daddy’s real tap. It has a cooker, to allow your cherub to make swiss roll and Baked Beans (like on the A La Carte Kitchen advert). The only thing it’s missing is an AGA attachment and Cath Kidston tea towels. But the genius thing about this IKEA kitchen is that it’s unisex. It kind of angers me that so many toy kitchens are pink and girly – you don’t even need me to bore you with the reasons why, you know them. So for any mums of budding Delia Smiths or Jamie Olivers, this is the toy kitchen for you.
I’m also in love with this kitchen! I recently bought Elfie a brio-esque wooden train set from ikea and its fab? She loooves her choo choos.
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We bought the train set too – apparently it can work with the Brio set too so you can mix and match the sets in future if you want to. Tempted to buy one of their playmats with roads and buildings on it too. Gotta love IKEA!
Ah, yeah, it is FAB. Also love that it is gender-neutral. It is a real bug bear of mine that we have such a colour division with our toys. As a small child recently said “all colours are for everyone!”
I also saw a cool little kitchen made out of an old cabinet on Pinterest recently – that is on my to do list!
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Gender-neutral is the way forward!
I’m planning on getting this for Anya for Christmas – I also got quite excited about the selection of saucepans and utensils I could buy to match. I need to get out more! x
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Grace is getting hers for her birthday in Sept – it’s currently sitting flat packed in our spare room! I picked up a toy toaster the other day from Sainsburys for a fiver! x
We have one of these! Bought it for F for Christmas last year and she LOVES it. It sits proudly in our kitchen so she cooks on it next to me. It’s one of the few I’ve seen that I’m happy to have in our kitchen, doesn’t make it look too much like a playroom!
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Putting it in the kitchen is a good idea! Ours is in the dining room – slash – playroom and she LOVES it.