What is a mud kitchen? A mud kitchen is an outdoor play cooking area, complete with everything your child needs to concoct culinary creations from outdoor ingredients. It can be as simple, or as fancy, as you would like. For me, this mud kitchen is one of those pre-children Pinterest pins, that I saw while I was in college and had pinned on one of my “someday” boards. Years ago, when I saw it, I thought…that would be fun to make one day..not really knowing if I would ever get around to it. But YA’LL. . . Grant made my Pinterest dream come true this past spring! I showed him the inspiration picture (below) and then he ran and grabbed some wood, and threw it together in a mere couple of days.
Where to start:
Search for a sink. I searched HIGH and low for a metal sink. I knew I always wanted a specific, metal sink and I knew I didn’t want to pay above $10 for it. I looked on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, and I always made sure to scope out my local Goodwill. I even found a used sink, on the side of the road, in someone’s trash, but I held out for one that I was looking for.. and then I finally scored one on Facebook Marketplace!
Buy supplies. What Do I need?
- One hefty box of 2.5 inch screws.
- 15 2×4’s and 1 2×6. Note: We used non pressured treated lumber so that the wood would fade and weather. Used some left over ply wood from other project to cut out and point for oven top and front. I used three cans of Rustoleum white spray paint, to paint the stove top and the front of the oven.
- I used a little bit of black spray paint to paint the stove top pieces.
- I used black Craftsmart acrylic paint to paint the circles on the stove top.
- I purchased 1 package of Tread wheel 3/8″ pieces at Hobby Lobby for $4.99 (see pictures below).
- Recycled Jars
- Label Maker
- Pots, pans, colanders, kitchen utensils
Measurements:
There are all different sizes of mud kitchens. The sink I found and loved happened to be a big double sink, so we based most of dimensions to fit the sink and a stove top that we also wanted to include. The table ended up being 7 feet long.
We found that making the table a little over 2 feet tall was the perfect height to allow little kids and big kids to play. The back wall of the mud kitchen extends up another 22 inches. We wanted the boards, on the back wall, to have some space but not too much, so we space them an inch apart using one inch spacers.
Finally, we used a 2×6 to make a top shelf and just screwed to the top.
Those tree stumps? Someone had them listed on Facebook MArketplace for free and I knew they would serve as the perfect step stools for this space!
All of the kitchen utensils, pots, pans, and colanders were at Goodwill for $1 each.
My amazing mother-in-law saved all of these honey jars and after a goo-gone scrub-down, they were good to go!
Here is what I labeled all of the jars:
- Pinecones
- Stones
- Sticks
- Dirt
- Grass
- Dandelions
- Water
- Flowers
- Walnuts
- Pine needles
- Leaves
- Can you think of any others?
I use this Dymo label maker for EVERYTHING. I love labeling things.
Click here to check out the super affordable label maker that I purchased on Amazon! It also comes with three extra rolls of tape, which is a great deal.
So far, my nieces and neighbors have played at the mud kitchen and they absolutely love making a mess of mud soup, and yummy concoctions for all of the adults to “try.” The kids loved using it even through the winter! One thing I love about this space is that it doesn’t have to be cleaned. Kids can play, they can imagine, and they can create in this space…and momma doesn’t have to worry about cleaning it up (other than an occasional hose-down). We love how this DIY turned out and we cannot wait to see all of the memories that this mud kitchen will hold. Happy Building!
