Buying Guides

Every mud kitchen buying decision eventually narrows to this fork: the wooden kitchen that looks like garden furniture, or the bright plastic one from the toy aisle that costs less and hoses clean in a minute. Parents argue it with surprising passion, usually along tribal lines — wood people call plastic flimsy, plastic people call

Every spring, the same quiet event happens on local selling groups across three countries: families whose children have turned seven list their mud kitchens. A wooden kitchen that cost $150 / £120 new appears at $40 / £30, sometimes barely used, often with a crate of utensils thrown in because the seller wants the garage

If you have a toddler, a garden and a birthday approaching, someone — a grandparent, usually, standing well back from the consequences — is about to ask the question: mud kitchen, or water table? They’re the two big outdoor play purchases of the under-five years, they cost about the same, they both promise hours of

Twice a year — once before Christmas, once before our eldest’s birthday — my parents ask the same question: “What do the children actually want?” Three years ago I said “a mud kitchen” mostly to end the conversation, and it turned out to be the best gift advice I’ve ever given. That kitchen has been

Here’s something nobody tells you when you’re browsing mud kitchens at midnight: most of them are sold as outdoor toys, but a good number are built like indoor ones. They look wonderful in the photos — pale wood, little chalkboard, tiny pots lined up in a row. Then they spend a winter in a real