Lyanne Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 The home corner furniture was bought a few years ago from one of the big catalogues (TTS, maybe? can't remember), and is now knackered. The ideal replacement would be from Community Playthings, and I'd settle ;-) for the playworks Cornwall kit http://www.communityplaythings.co.uk/products/role-play/play-furniture/C435 were it not for the price tag... £710 before VAT is just too much at the moment :-( So, looking around for a cheaper solution. Has anyone tried the Ikea kitchen in a preschool? http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/S49874533/ £60, plus I'd like to go for http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/S49871290/ some storage with it, for a total cost of £123.50. My thinking is that the storage would be more flexible so we could use it elsewhere when we do magically have the money for the CP ktichen, and the duktig kitchen would be small and light enough to take outside when we have the CP one. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Our children range from dinky 2 year olds to hefty 4 year olds (including hefty 2 year olds and dinky 4 year olds!), and we have up to 28 in a session. So I'm loath to look at car boot sales for plastic kitchens, as I know from my own sons that they don't stand up that well to being climbed on! Plus, not many of us drive so can't get to car boot sales anyway. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 well i don't know abput the kitchen but the storage is great!...we have 8 units similar to this and they are used/climbed on etc and we have had no problems with them (i am also a dab hand a putting them together if you get stuck! ) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helenee Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Yes - we've got the ikea cooker unit ( not the top section! - it's fab. At least a year on its in perfect condition. We made a few tweaks to it when we built it - the doors are held on now by brackets that allow doors to swing right back. Bt it's great and we love it. X 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyanne Posted December 12, 2012 Author Share Posted December 12, 2012 well i don't know abput the kitchen but the storage is great!...we have 8 units similar to this and they are used/climbed on etc and we have had no problems with them (i am also a dab hand a putting them together if you get stuck! ) Brilliant,and thank you We want something the kids can climb on easily so they can get up the window and look out - the builders gave us a full length window to the garden, and glazed doors to the garden, but the windows at the front of the building where the home corner is (at the moment) are adult height for looking out of These together would go under the window so the children can get up and look out by them selves when they want too (wondering if I could convince the committee it's better to get 2 while we're at it for the other window ) Yes - we've got the ikea cooker unit ( not the top section! - it's fab. At least a year on its in perfect condition. We made a few tweaks to it when we built it - the doors are held on now by brackets that allow doors to swing right back. Bt it's great and we love it. X Oh, what a good idea! We'll get the brackets too. Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 no chance of seeing out of our windows they're above my head height!....the children would need a 6 foot ladder!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narnia Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Don't forget that you can buy each piece of the CP kitchen separately, so can build it up over time. It's what I do. They have no minimum spend and postage is included.If you can, why not buy the cooker first, then add on as and when money allows?Then you can use your old stuff for outside. Fingers crossed for a lottery win xx ( ps please don't buy plastic............it has no soul.....) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stargrower Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 We've had the IKEA kitchen for about three years now and its doing fine in the Pre-school Room. Having said that, our 2-year-olds in the Toddler Room have just last week pulled the cooker door off theirs so the brackets sound a good idea. Its a very good buy though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyday Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Don't forget that you can buy each piece of the CP kitchen separately, so can build it up over time. It's what I do. They have no minimum spend and postage is included.If you can, why not buy the cooker first, then add on as and when money allows?Then you can use your old stuff for outside. Fingers crossed for a lottery win xx ( ps please don't buy plastic............it has no soul.....) This would be my thinking too! Not sure what sort of setting you are in - do you do any fund raising - if you do - to have a clear purpose in mind it is often a much better received idea with parents.......something along the lines of "we have managed to buy the cooker......we would like to raise some money to buy......." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyanne Posted December 12, 2012 Author Share Posted December 12, 2012 Don't forget that you can buy each piece of the CP kitchen separately, so can build it up over time. It's what I do. They have no minimum spend and postage is included.If you can, why not buy the cooker first, then add on as and when money allows?Then you can use your old stuff for outside. Fingers crossed for a lottery win xx ( ps please don't buy plastic............it has no soul.....) I do love CP stuff, that is a good idea too. I hate plastic, we were given a pink sparkly dressing table earlier in the year, & I said, 'Oh thank you, how kind, just what we need for outside play!' And (much to the disgust of 1 of my colleagues) after a few months of play, it went in the bin. I would accept plastic if given, because it's good to encourage giving, but it's not what we want. (Apart from misguided colleague! ;-) ) This would be my thinking too! Not sure what sort of setting you are in - do you do any fund raising - if you do - to have a clear purpose in mind it is often a much better received idea with parents.......something along the lines of "we have managed to buy the cooker......we would like to raise some money to buy......." The parents are very lovely, and give what they can, but we're in a poor area, & a bag of apples for snack is a good donation. & it is a good donation! Just not enough for many CP resources... Money is very tight at the moment, but the financial director was in earlier, & we have agreement to get the ikea stuff over xmas. We're more selling calendars, so will tell parents that's what paid for the updated stuff, & do serious fundraising next term for more! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 another alternative .....! http://www.myriadonline.co.uk/role-play-kitchen.php 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyanne Posted December 12, 2012 Author Share Posted December 12, 2012 another alternative .....! http://www.myriadonl...lay-kitchen.php Oh, my gosh, that food is so cute! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narnia Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 (edited) btw..............always look on ebay first, you can get some amazing bargains on Ikea stuff ( just checked; there is at least one cooker on there at £9.99 at the moment........even if you had to pay a courier to deliver it to you, its a good buy?) Edited December 13, 2012 by narnia 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyanne Posted December 13, 2012 Author Share Posted December 13, 2012 btw..............always look on ebay first, you can get some amazing bargains on Ikea stuff ( just checked; there is at least one cooker on there at £9.99 at the moment........even if you had to pay a courier to deliver it to you, its a good buy?) Ooh yes! And we would need a courier from Dorset, but as you say still a good buy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 Oh, my gosh, that food is so cute! I especially like the teabags Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SueFinanceManager Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 As a really cheap alternative and obviously only temporary measure make your own kitchen things out of big cardboard boxes.....bound to be loads around after Christmas if you ask parents to save them for you. We got fed up with our stuff once and cleared out the space and left it empty to see what direction the children would take the space in and before long they wanted kitchen stuff but we said the other stuff was away for repair or some such story but we had some boxes we could use. Of course the children wanted to draw circles for hotplates etc so we ended up taking the box into the activity area and created a cooker and then we had to find another box to make a sink etc etc. It was a great problem solving exercise, good way of using junk modelling stuff and they looked after the stuff incredibly well....lasted nearly a term i seem to remember You said you wanted cheap....don't get much cheaper than junk modelling kitchen 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyanne Posted December 13, 2012 Author Share Posted December 13, 2012 As a really cheap alternative and obviously only temporary measure make your own kitchen things out of big cardboard boxes.....bound to be loads around after Christmas if you ask parents to save them for you. We got fed up with our stuff once and cleared out the space and left it empty to see what direction the children would take the space in and before long they wanted kitchen stuff but we said the other stuff was away for repair or some such story but we had some boxes we could use. Of course the children wanted to draw circles for hotplates etc so we ended up taking the box into the activity area and created a cooker and then we had to find another box to make a sink etc etc. It was a great problem solving exercise, good way of using junk modelling stuff and they looked after the stuff incredibly well....lasted nearly a term i seem to remember You said you wanted cheap....don't get much cheaper than junk modelling kitchen Ooh yes! Great idea, and we'll use the children's ideas about what is needed in the kitchen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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