Your Guide to Creating the Ultimate Kid-Friendly Kitchen
One of the joys of having a young family is entertaining the littles ones whilst cooking. Kids love to help out in the kitchen, and we can all remember a Saturday afternoon when we were kids, helping mum and dad bake or prepare a delicious batch of homemade cakes and scones.
When designing a child-friendly kitchen you want a harmonious balance of three things: design, safety and nutrition. We have put together this guide for creating the perfect child-friendly kitchen, so that you and your youngsters can have fun cooking in a safe and relaxed environment.
A Design the Whole Family Can Enjoy
The wonderful thing about creating a kid-friendly kitchen is the way in which it can be accessible and versatile whilst also looking incredibly stylish. Creating a child-friendly kitchen does not mean sacrificing the style and luxury of a modern kitchen – it can even enhance it!
Add the following features to your kitchen for enhanced style/efficiency:
- Blackboard: This is a fun and elegant way to involve your kids in the cooking process. Install a sleek looking blackboard at the end of the cooking bench with your chalk easily accessible nearby. You can then write reminders, things to add to the grocery list, inspirational quotes for the day – whatever you want! The kitchen blackboard is a great way to bond with your kids and looks uber-cool when installed as part of the kitchen’s layout.
- Appreciate Impurities – The kitchen can be the room of the house that tells your family history – the great times had with your kids cooking on those lazy Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Therefore, why not install some elements to it that embrace impurities. This includes installing a wooden butcher’s block as part of your benchtop. Sure, the benchtop will get scratched, stained, smudged – everything. But these will be lasting memories of the day you and your little one were making a red velvet cake and spilled food colouring on the bench.
- Colour is Key: Kids love colour – we all know this. What better way to invite them into the kitchen to help and spend some quality time with their loving parents than by adding splashes of colour to an otherwise stale or clinical kitchen? Given you are happy with the design, you can essentially add colour wherever you want it – on the splashbacks, benches, at the ends of the benches. It’s you and your kid’s canvas!
- Folding Step Stools: Incorporating kid’s height elements to the kitchen can be achieved with slim folding steps stools that can be tucked away after use.
- such as a lower benchtop next to your benchtop can create a fun parent/child working duo. Set the benchtop up with the elements of the food preparation you want your child to undertake and you’ve got an unbeatable cooking dynamic.
- Open Plan: For ultimate interaction for the whole family, consider an open plan. Having a kitchen/dining room or kitchen/living room space is great for if your child gets distracted and wants to do something else during the cooking process. You can continue bonding with them whilst keeping them under your watchful eye.
Of Course, Safety and Food Nutrition are Important
Whilst the above design elements create the ultimate kitchen for parent/child bonding in the kitchen, it is important to remember that safety is important for kids in the kitchen. Not only this, but you do not want them to be able to get their hands on any goodies they want at any time they want. There are a few safety/food elements you can add to your kid-friendly kitchen to ensure your child is safe and only grabbing the snacks you want them to be grabbing.
Features include:
- Keep Appliances Out of Reach: Kids are impressionable and often try and mimic what their parents do. This can include reaching for appliances they may not know to use but are fascinated by. Ensure you keep potentially dangerous items out of reach and teach them how to use them once they are old/tall enough to use them.
- Kiddie Drawer: Parents swear by the kiddie drawer. Fill a kid’s height drawer with all the goodies your kids use for eating and drinking. Disney plates, Sippy cups and child-friendly cutlery can all go in this drawer, and it makes it easy for the kids to access without risks of falls. Not only this, you can place a napkin holder with napkins into the drawer so that your child can always be clean when eating as well as help set the table!
- Keep Naughty Snacks Out of the Way: Make sure you keep the naughty goodies up high in the cupboard or fridge, and keep a bowl of healthy snacks (fruit, granola bars etc.) at the ready for when your child wants something yummy that isn’t full of sugar. If your child packs their own lunches – keep all the components at a good height for them.
We Can Help
If you need some assistance in renovating your kitchen to make it the perfect place for you and your little one to bond, get in contact with the professionals at Apollo Kitchens. We know exactly what to do when it comes to creating a kitchen you and your kid can enjoy together and create cooking perfection!
Give us a call on 1300 90 80 90 or fill out an enquiry form on our contact page and we will get back to you with all the information you require.
