When you live in a small NYC apartment, you are always just one toy away from someone mistaking your home for an indoor playground.
Note: Forgive me if you feel like I have talked about this before (here and here) but it is an ongoing battle that consumes me at all times.
My living room floor is currently littered with a Fisher Price piano, a Graco mini-stroller, a large ladybug on wheels and an inflatable donkey. There's also a rather large block set that came AMAZINGLY without a box or bag to put them in and a chair piled high with books and stuffed animals.
You would think that we had reached TOY CAPACITY but after a happier than happy experience with a mini-kitchen at a friend's house, I knew Mazzy needed one of her own. (It wasn't just the happiness that did it, it was the extended period of time she stood in one place.)
Unfortunately, there are few toys out there with a bigger footprint or a larger potential for ugliness than THE KITCHEN PLAYSET.
Do a quick google search of "kitchen playset" and you will find an attack on your eyes that is so vicious, you'll wonder if Google's real goal is to control the world through an onslaught of "Toy Image Search Terrorism" (TIST).
Too scared to click? I'll bring TIST to you:
Imagine that monstrosity in a two bedroom apartment. Besides the fact that it is hideous, it has nearly double the cabinet space of my ACTUAL kitchen.
Not sufficiently terrified? How 'bout this one:
Are you beginning to understand the danger that lurks behind a carefully planned TIST attack? What if I told you the girl pictured above is 7ft. tall?
In order to effectively combat TIST, I attempted to find the most tasteful, compact kitchen playset in existence. "Fun" and "usability" were also considerations but they fell much lower on the benefit ladder. More importantly, I wanted something that would keep my living room under control and my eyes from BLEEDING.
It was a tough battle but when it was over, I was standing next to the Educo Gourmet Chef Kitchen
I bought a set of Educo Gourmet Chef Cookware
Isn't it cute?
Even better, Mazzy loves it. (TAKE THAT, GOOGLE!)
Oh crap. I feel another TIST attack coming.
MY EYES!!!!!!!!
——————-
What's the biggest toy monstrosity in your house?
From what little I can see in the picture of your living room, hey, you guys have a gorgeous apartment!!!
Okay, that first set? Is better than my real kitchen. The pink one? Makes me stabby.
The one you bought? Stinkin’ cute. I’m feeling a little resentful these things weren’t available when I was a kid. I’m seriously considering one for the Monkey for our new place, but I can’t convince my husband it’s “not a girly toy”. Sigh.
We so lovingly call some of the images above “plastic fantastic”. I refuse to allow our living space become a combination of shabby chic french country meets RED, BLUE AND GREEN. Agghh I hate 99% of all babytoys. I feel as if our family’s are getting a catalogue in the mail named “Plastic Fantastic” and everything in it is 90% off.
Love the kitchen set, I asked my brother in law to make my son a cool workbench made out of REAL wood and my mother in law thought that was a bizarre idea and then gave us a big plastic vacuum that rivals Nascar with an overload of primary colors.
In 1st place is the treadmill that my husband refuses to give away because he uses it…two times a year.
In 2nd place is the huge set of Rescue Heroes (men, equipment, helicopter landing pads, etc) that I got from my SIL for my son. I was so excited at the idea of a FREE Christmas gift that I underestimated how much frigging space it would take up in the house. It’s like having a neighborhood of Barbie dream houses on your floor. I’m afraid that one day they may “disappear” during mommy’s trip to Goodwill.
Here’s a tip: with every new toy that you buy…. THROW ONE OUT.
It’s a purging of sorts. Plus you teach your kid how to become unattached to things.
Because it is such a monstrosity, I’m e-mailing you a photo of my daughter’s doll house. It sits in her room and doesn’t get used, and yet, she refuses to let me sell it. I would have loved to attach the picture here, but, sadly, I couldn’t figure out how! Here’s a link to it from TRU: (But Trust me, interwebs, the photo I sent is better, because on the bottom floor my fully grown cat is walking around in it!) http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3179506
love that kitchen and your apt does look v. stylish for being inhabited by a mini and her stuff.
when we had a nyc apt, my bil/sil got my kids a giant princess tent – it took up the entire living room and when the kids (of course) wouldn’t let us take it down my husband and i were forced to duck and walk through it everytime we wanted to cross the living room.
i also got my kids a small toy kitchen – i ordered it from a european toy company. in general, if u get euro stuff they tend to be smaller and on a nyc apt scale. also able to get a small-ish dollhouse and puppet stage from the euros.
Here’s the kitty looking like Godzilla! http://www.kodakgallery.com/imaging-site/services/doc/5014:370079418603/jpeg/BG
What a cute set! Now all she needs is a toy husband and toy children who will make her cook all the meals, wash all the dishes, and eat her out of house and home…how fun is that?!? Hmmm, let’s survey some moms with this real life scenario and see!=D
I recently bought the same kitchen for my son (the white one). I feel so chic now knowing our taste is somewhat aligned.
Tom Colicchio? Anthony Bourdain? Jamie Oliver??? Anything but GIRLY!
As if vacuums weren’t ugly enough. In my kitchen set research, every nice one I found was homemade.
I love “plastic fantastic”. If you don’t mind, I may borrow it.
Oh, why don’t I let you decide. Is it the balance beam? The blue vinyl chair? The play kitchen used exclusively as a ladder to reach the iPod?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx5xdynel-Y
The little kitchen IS super adorable and I envy your natural light.
That cat in the doll house is fantastic.
What I would have done for a neighborhood of Barbie dreamhouses when I was little. I actually had the apartment dreamhouse with the elevator. Freakin’ fantastic.
Maybe you can replace the rescue heros with some sort of army in camouflage. OMG. I just came up with the best business ever. Customized army toys to blend in with your couch and your carpet. It’s like they’re not even there!
The Fisher Price piano is halfway out the door. Thank you for giving it the final push!
WOW. Kitty is really necessary for scale. It changes everything.
Question: Is your daughter ok? It looks like the dolls are all involved in some sort of suicide pact.
Agreed about the Euro stuff. I need a picture of the princess tent please!
Mike has set Mazzy up with a wonderful example of a husband who does all the cooking. Lucky me!
It really is the best one. And I LOOKED.
But be sure to do it while the kid’s asleep.
The climbing is impressive. But the seamless combo of top 40 and classical ballet moves really shows the girl’s got talent.
Toys are like a plague of locusts – out of no where you find your self invaded by plastic madness. The worst is, so often, your kid plays with it for a few days and never again. It got so bad, I now put on birthday invites “no gifts please, your presence is my present!”. Cheesy I know, but I can’t take an influx of 20 gifts, and then the drama of the “thank you notes” that follow. My kids get so much already, more then I ever had. They don’t need one more thing. Seriously. If only my parents and in-laws were reading this…
Black & neon orange-ish Black & Decker Tool Bench. It’s cute…just not in my living room. He played with it for a while and then when he wasn’t home, I dismantled it. I hate all the plastic toys too.
OK, aside from the 80’s-style wallpaper applique at the top, that first one doesn’t bother me so much. But we also have a large finished rec room in our house that I have grand plans (on Pinterest) of decorating as a full-fledged playroom, so I’m picturing it there. In my actual family room? It would be horrid.
And that pink one gave my eyes a seizure, as do all play items pink and princess-y.
I love the one you chose and think it blends seamlessly in your [very cute] apartment.
I don’t have a toy monstrosity in my house since, as I just posted today, I haven’t swapped out any of Lil’ Bit’s baby toys – which are all tucked away in chic storage baskets – for more age-appropriate crap. I fail at toddler toys.
We have a large dollhouse in the living room, and a train table AND little pink kitchen (not as little & cute as yours but not as large and offensively pink as the princess one!) in our dining room. By the end of the summer, two of the three WILL be in a basement playroom. And by playroom, I mean “toys in my basement”.
I still not speaking to Santa for going AGAINST my wishes and bringing the Barbie Dream House this year.
It looks like a really drunk architect threw Pepto Bismol up all over Anna’s room.
(and yes, I do all the Xmas shopping).
When we had one of those large white monstrosities (not a chic one, well done!) in our kitchen, we prolonged the magic novelty factor by keeping a big box of actual food containers – empty spice bottles, pasta boxes, ketchup bottles, etc – hidden away, only to make a magical appearance when mommy really, really needed to get something done.
For the twins’ 3rd birthday my parents got them a Play Hut LUXURY playhouse (with accessories!) that takes up my entire living room. And a cardboard princess carriage for them to scribble on, I mean color themselves. Not only do I not have room for them when they’re all set up, I don’t have room to store them when they’re not set up! And no way can we keep them up all the time, because they take up my ENTIRE HOUSE!
So this is the first new blog I’ve read and commented on since my baby was born. I’m busy being all snobby about my own blog and sooo busy. Whatever, I’m online shopping usually. Anyway, hearts to you and your blog. Because I need a blog with someone like me with an older baby so I can buy the crap that you have already researched for me.
Thanks be to you and jesus and britney spears.
That first kitchen makes me want to barf. Not only is it a plastic nightmare… but it’s HIDEOUS. They couldn’t have made it, I don’t know, not fugly?
I have one from Educo also. Very similar to yours. I particularly like that it doesn’t have a microwave, you know?
Last month my mother-in-law gave me a gigantic CARDBOARD playhouse for the middle of our living room/dining room/only room, with markers so she could “color it in”. Clearly my MIL doesn’t like me.
I’ve spent a while looking into dollhouses. They are mostly monstrosities that I refuse have in my apartment. All I wanted was a dollhouse that’s NOT pink, or frilly – that’s not too much to ask, right? Preferably wooden, and not going to break the bank.
Well. It took quite a while to find one I liked, and I am halfway through assembling it for my daughter’s birthday tomorrow. I’m happy with the colours and appearance, but at only 50% assembled, I already fear how it’s going to dominate our 2 bedroom apartment…
In my house, it would be the tumbling pads that I thought my toddler would love but in reality ignores. But they are packed away.
The biggest in my living areas, the kitchen. It does happen to be pink, but it is wooden and in three pieces. I got it second-hand at a consignment sale so I had no choice in color. I originally thought I’d repaint it, then I realized that I’m me, and I won’t.
I’m happy with it though, especially after coercing my mom to work two volunteer shifts at the sale with me so we could get in early and snatch two of the three pieces before the woman who had the other could get to them. (At first I felt mild guilt, but I did see it first. And I thought ahead and got an indentured servant to help me in my quest. So there.) As I hoped, she decided she didn’t want the third if we had the other two.
Eventually I hope to get a piano for my children and have that be the biggest monstrosity in my place. Then I can force them to have the lessons I begged for and never got.
Borrow away! You know what is worse than brand new plastic crap, plastic crap from a yard sale! Not only do I hate when the in laws bring anything “new” over for my little guy, I despise when it is faded and has a .50 cent tag on it.
I see your new toy kitchen is missing a grill. Which is too bad, since it’s handy for grilling Polly Pockets, which are a quick step ahead to your very near future. What you do is this: Line them up in perfect horizontal fashion, then press the toy igniter. Smirk. Take great satisfaction. Pretend to melt a tiny rainboot or two. Hide all evidence.
The day I saw that the PBK kitchen playsets were better appointed than my actual NYC kitchen, I nearly wept. There was no way my kid was getting stainless appliances before I was. Just saying.
Great post — I bought this kitchen from Target for my son a few months after he turned three (http://www.target.com/AKC03-Playwonder-Kitchen-Center-Red/dp/B002UIQEIW/ref=sc_pd_gwvub_1_title). I love that it is not plastic, it is not pink, and it is not huge. It’s just over 3 feet tall and not very wide. There’s a washing maching on the side too! — shared space with the fridge whose door is a chalkboard. We bought the red metal pots and pans from the same manufacturer to go with it and use lots of different wooden foods we’ve picked up along the way. It fits beautifully in our bungalow kitchen, so we can cook together. Our monstrosity is a large, obnoxious motorcycle that my son received from his great-grandparents that he can ride. Plastic, battery-operated, annoying, ugly, and huge. It lives in the basement.
Educo Gourmet Chef Cuisine looks so cute. This would be perfect for my cousin’s collection.
I once had a cardboard “house” that was given to my son as a Christmas gift. Let’s just say it was probably the size of your whole apartment!
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