Packed with Simple Ideas: A Handmade Pretend Play Corner
Let’s handcraft a play kitchen—the kind kids dream about! You can enjoy building the stove, faucet, shelves, and more while getting creative with different ideas.
A one-of-a-kind kitchen packed with your child’s preferences and a caregiver’s personal touches will be something they can enjoy for a long time.
We’ve gathered a variety of ideas, so you can choose what suits you best—from selecting materials to the steps you want to tackle.
When you see your child happily playing with the handmade kitchen, you’ll truly feel, “I’m so glad we made it!”
[Packed with Simple Ideas] DIY Pretend-Play Corner (1–10)
play kitchen refrigerator
Once you’ve made a kitchen, the next thing you’ll want is a refrigerator! Try making a handmade fridge using craft materials like cardboard and origami paper.
Assemble the cardboard, secure it with packing tape, and line the sides and interior with construction paper.
Stand the cardboard upright and add parts like doors, shelves, and handles to complete a double-door refrigerator.
If you attach magnets to the doors or add LED lights inside, it will look even more realistic! It also works great as a place to store play food.
Play kitchen made from 100-yen store slatted racks
Slatted wood panels from 100-yen shops, well-known as DIY staples, can actually be used to make a play kitchen too! Combine the slats like a rack, secure them with adhesive, and fill the gaps with a hot glue gun.
Cover the back with more slats, then add hooks from the 100-yen shop and install items like a cardboard-made microwave door, and you’ll have an adorable kitchen that showcases the warmth of wood.
It’s sturdy as well, so your child can enjoy it for a long time.
Glowing gas stove
This is a pretty authentic handmade play kitchen where kids can cook with an IH-style stove and really feel the experience! The secret behind the glowing stove is an LED strip.
Lining the inside with aluminum foil makes the light reflect beautifully.
The base of the kitchen is a color storage cube you can buy at a home improvement store.
It’s adorable and makes you want to try making one yourself, and the lights and moving parts are sure to get kids super excited! If you’re a teacher or guardian who’s good with wiring and such, definitely give it a try.
cake
How about handmaking a cake that will be a big hit for pretend play? You can make all kinds of cakes, starting with kids’ favorite strawberry shortcake.
The materials? Puzzle mats! Cut the mat to your preferred size, and cut felt the same way.
Glue the colorful felt and mat together, stacking them alternately to complete the base.
After that, just stick on yarn balls you can get at a 100-yen shop.
Make lots of colorful, delicious-looking cakes for the kids!
Kitchen made with color (storage) boxes
If you lay a cube storage unit on its side to use as a base, you can create a play kitchen at just the right height for kids.
Cut out a section of the side panel to inset a dish as a sink, and use wood or corkboard to add a stovetop and stove knobs.
The cubbies are perfect as storage space for small toys! Even children who usually don’t like tidying up might be willing to help if you say, as part of the pretend play, “Let’s put everything away neatly under the kitchen.”
A kitchen made using a cork board and baskets
This is a play kitchen you can make using a cork board and a basket you can find at 100-yen shops.
Prepare round plates or bowls, cut the cork board to match their shapes, and fit them in—before you know it, you’ve got a kitchen sink! Then gather round and stick-shaped wooden parts, and attach them to look like a stove and stove knobs.
If you connect part of the board to the basket with zip ties, it can also be used as a toy box that opens and closes.
This way, tidying up practice will be fun, too.
Ingredients made of felt
Let’s try handcrafting play food out of felt for pretend play! You can buy colorful felt for making the ingredients at 100-yen shops.
The great things about felt play food are that it’s safe even if thrown and has a soft, fluffy feel.
Another nice point is that even if it tears, you can stitch it up a little and keep using it.
Be sure to make some cute vegetables for the kids.
If they get dirty from lots of play, wash them the same way you would a stuffed toy.
Kitchen made from reclaimed materials
A kitchen full of playful features: flames made from wool felt coming out of the stovetop grates, real water flowing from a pump that stands in for a faucet, and more.
All you need are materials like cardboard, pumps from used shampoo or hand soap bottles, trays, and toilet paper rolls.
It’s great that you can make it from household recyclables.
You can also use your favorite wrapping paper instead of a makeover sheet to cover the cardboard.
This DIY kitchen is eco-friendly and sure to delight your child—so enjoy crafting it together as a parent-child activity.
Pretend-play kitchen made with 100-yen store items
This is a pretend-play kitchen made with assembly-type storage boxes and adhesive remake sheets from the 100-yen shop.
Combine four boxes and secure them with duct tape to create the base.
Cut holes in the box lids to insert a bowl for the sink and a pump for the faucet, then cover the exterior with remake sheets to finish.
Adding a wire grid for hanging kitchen tools will make it look even more realistic! If you have the kids help apply the remake sheets, they’ll feel more attached to it and take better care of it.
A frying pan made of cardboard
This is a frying pan you can easily make out of cardboard! Prepare a round cardboard piece, a long narrow strip, and a paper towel roll cut to a suitable length, and cover each with colored paper.
Glue the long narrow strip all the way around the edge of the round piece, then cut a slit and insert the paper towel roll so it becomes the handle of the frying pan—that’s it.
Since it’s made of cardboard and not very durable, it might be a good idea to make several at once so you can quickly replace them if they break.