this is a great idea
good work

I just had to leave a comment for a fellow "haus-er." Stopping by your blog now....

I love how the wine rack wasn't kid friendly, but they opted for white paint in the After. There's no way I'm giving up a perfectly good wine rack for a plastic oven, so who am I to comment, I guess.

It's easy to wipe fingerprints off a cabinet. Less easy to keep a baby or toddler from pulling out wine bottles from a rack that is right at their level.

Lovely!

I love this. We have our son's kitchen in our kitchen too, but not tucked away nicely like this.

@jhagemann just to let you know, it's not a plastic kitchen. It's a nice little wooden play kitchen. We have it here too. ;-)

Super cool!! As a bonus, the play kitchen itself is cute.

To keep my daughter occupied when she was a toddler, I filled an easy-to-reach cabinet with tupperware, spatulas, and wooden spoons. Not as cool as the play kitchen, but it gave me a break. ;)

Makes sense to me to pull the wine rack as part of toddler proofing and put something useful to somebody in its place. It looks simple enough to switch it back later when the kids have grown up. Very cute!

Great idea! If I were lucky enough to have a kitchen with extra cabinet space (which I am not, sigh...), I would totally do something like this!

Because a real wine collector would not house bottles like that anyway, JHAGEMANN.

Using the kitchen this way is a great use of space.

So jealous, even without kids! Really adorable idea!

This is so charming! What a great idea!

Won't the child want to "cook" while you are cooking? Having a little one on the floor as I use my kitchen sounds annoying, they would hinder access to counter space and cupboards. Also it seems like a serious DANGER to the child, as most households drop knives and spill hot fluids now and then... I see the knives are just above this baby-kitchen, for instance.

Certainly looks cute, though. Maybe if this is a ginormous kitchen the knives can be used and the compromised-work-space issues won't come up.

PS wait, the range is also just above the play-kitchen... whoah!

I see the knives and the stove top on the other side of the island...what's the worry? I'd like to give credit to the parents for taking all the safety issues into consideration.

What a great idea. I wish I had the room to tuck my son's play kitchen in a little nook like that....
@joannaelizabeth, I can see where you're coming from, but it looks like the play kitchen is actually on the other side of the main food prep area....and if her kids are anything like mine, something to keep them occupied is essential. My son either sits between my legs, or hugs my leg with both arms while I'm cooking, unless I have something in the kitchen for him to do....

Instead of playing, let your kids get more of doing. I feel children are far more capable that they are given credit for being. This depends on how young they are, but I was a pro at washing dishes and setting the table before age five. I was baking and cooking full meals before age 10. My parents weren't the best parents by any means, but their expectations of me being able to do everything they could straight out of the womb has paid off for me as an adult.

From a practicality perspective, I'm sure this is fun for kids. From a design perspective, I would probably look for a different solution.

Thanks Janie for posting about our play kitchen! And thanks everyone for your comments!

The island is large with the cook top and all cooking taking place on the far side, keeping the play space with the play kitchen, safe and toddler friendly.