We never tire of seeing the play kitchens submitted by our readers, they seem to bring out the best in creativity and ingenuity. This one, however, may take the cake as far as burners are concerned. Sure, they light up. Yeah, they are a cool flame color. Wait, the flames are adjustable? Game on!
Dave was not interested in the plastic play kitchens available commercially and found the wooden ones either too boring or expensive. So using his woodworking skills and electrical knowledge he created this great play kitchen with the best burners ever, controlled by two dimmer switches..
To focus only on the burners does Dave an injustice since there are a number of great details in this kitchen, including a storage shelf on the bottom, beadboard accents and a cheery red and white color scheme. He estimates it took him 30-40 hours to build and cost about $100. Nicely done, Dave!
(Images: Dave Springle)
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Comments (14)
This is really cool and i'm not usually one to leave safety comments but still. Doesn't this seem scary to teach your kids that it's okay to touch the red area of the burner because it's not hot on their play kitchen??? I'd be hesitant to have my little kids play with this-maybe an older child where I could explain the difference but by then, are they playing with kitchens anymore instead of helping you in the real one?
So cool!
i think it is GREAT! As far as teaching kids it's okay to touch burners, that is silly! That is like saying little boys learn it is ok to touch a moving saw blade or drill bit because they can on their toy tools.
Wow, nice job!
except that this looks JUST like the real one so I don't think it really compares to the plastic toy saws that the kid can tell the difference between a real burner and a fake one. imho.
I suppose it could be dangerous, but my two year old holds her hand above it and says "hot dada, no touch hot" so I think it's a better teaching tool than a danger. Sure you can drown in a kiddie pool, but you have to get wet to learn to swim. Either way, she loves playing with it and makes "porridge" every day. (I'm the one who built it by the way)
LOVE this!
@CHARLIE_003, I had the same thought. It sets a scary precedent of a dangerous object being not only safe, but also a toy. I know there are other toys that imitate dangerous household objects (like tools as BCT mentions), but I think that glow holds an extra allure and gets a little too close to reality.
Well I'm going to say that educating your kids about what is real and what isn't, what's for play and what is not, is good parenting and sometimes they learn from experience. My parents told me repeatedly not to touch the stove, but I couldn't resist, I knew those orange hot coils were hot, but I wanted to touch them, boy was that a bad idea! Kids will learn one way or another, I think its awesome and it sounds like his kid know that burners are hot
Game on! indeed.
This is so cool! And I appreciate the safety police, but I think @Dave the Land Pirate and @BCT are right, it would function as a great teaching tool - by being able to learn not to touch a burner with a fake burner, it's lesson you might not have to learn with a real one!
Incredible! Thanks so much for sharing!
It is super cool, but I have to agree that it scares me a bit to see something so realistic for a little one. I'm not sure that it's actually unsafe.
It's my own neurosis, I've been trained to react when a little one gets too close to something hot. I think I'd be the one flinching every time this got played with!
Dave - We are working on a similar project with dimmable burners, but are in the early stages of design and planning....could you DM me with more information about how you did the burners? Thanks so much!