Melissa & Doug Classic Deluxe Kitchen

November 28, 2009 | Author: webAdmin | Filed under: Pretend Play & Dress-Up

Melissa & Doug Classic Deluxe Kitchen

Melissa & Doug Classic Deluxe Kitchen
List Price: USD 199.99
Lowest New Price: USD 149.99
Price is accurate as of the date/time indicated. Prices and product availability are subject to change. Any price displayed on the Amazon website at the time of purchase will govern the sale of this product.




Binding: Toy
Manufacturer: Melissa & Doug
Average Rating:
Product Description:
Melissa and Doug presents every little chefs dream kitchen. The Deluxe Kitchen features room to prepare, cook, clean and create. This sturdy, durable wooden kitchen includes a stove, refrigerator/freezer, oven, microwave with turntable, and sink. Bright, colorful graphics, and an exceptional price make this the most attractive kitchen! Easy to assemble, here is the one perfect place to play with your food!
Amazon.com Review:
The Melissa and Doug Deluxe Kitchen offers outstanding design features and solid-wood construction that will provide your children with years of serious kitchen fun. Although a bit pricey, this is a kitchen set that has few rivals in terms of safety features, durability, and overall design. Recommended for children three years and older, this kitchen includes a stove top, refrigerator and freezer, see-through oven, microwave, sink, and plenty of storage space.



The deluxe kitchen set is solid and has lots of activities. View larger.


Kids will love working at the kitchen, pretending to make meals. View larger.
What We Think

Fun Factor:

Durability:

(what this means)

The Good: Solid wood construction pre-painted with durable acrylic paint Rounded corners and several safety features; Fun, bold colors ideal for younger children

The Bad: Up to four-hour assembly time required; A bit pricey

In a Nutshell: Long lasting, durable,hard-wood kitchen set that children will enjoy for years.
At a Glance

Ages: 6 and up
Requires: Phillips and flat screwdriver
Set-Up Time and Design Features
Before you invest in this set, be prepared for four or more hours of set-up time. To assemble this Deluxe Kitchen Set, you'll be asked to connect over 30 separate sold-wood pieces together with more than 170 nuts, bolts, screws and hinges.

Don't panic! The good news is that the instructions couldn't be any easier to follow. If you know how to use a screwdriver and a hex key, you can do it. (A power screwdriver would speed things up quite a bit.) You'll also want a second set of hands on call due to the set's weight--the finished product weighs over 90 pounds.

To ease assembly, each wooden piece is color coded and pre-drilled, making it virtually impossible to make mistakes. Just be certain to give yourself plenty of floorspace and time before you start, and with so many easy-to-swallow pieces, you'll want the kids to be fast asleep.

The great news is that once the set is assembled, there is a very good chance that it will outlast your child's interest in make-believe kitchens by more than a few years. This kitchen is incredibly well-constructed and designed; you'll consider it as much of a piece of furniture as a child's toy. It would take an extremly determined and strong child with a heavy object to harm it. And if you treat it well, it could easily become an heirloom to pass down to the next generation of young chefs.

A nice safety feature parents will love is that there are no sharp angles that can harm stumbling children; every wood piece has been rounded at the corners, and every knob and faucet similarly features soft curves designed specially with toddlers in mind. Each wooden piece and metal hinge is pre-painted with a hard, durable acrylic. All the screws and bolts are recessed, and the see-through oven and microwave feature unbreakable plastic windows.

When completed, the set measures approximately 41x42x17 inches (HxWxD).

What the Aspiring Chef Needs
Although this set is recommended for children three years of age and older, one of our test children who was two years old loved every macaroni-and-cheese making minute of her time with it. On her tiptoes she could reach the microwave and storage cabinet (the set stands over three feet tall), and over the next several months of growing she will assuredly gain greater satisfaction with easier use of the top shelves. Our slightly taller three-year old test boy also had to reach a bit, but neither one of them minded in the least.

The stove dials and sink faucet and assemblies turn freely, which made it easy for the kids to use. Each of the doors is held shut by an adjustable plastic door latch that provides just enough tension to keep them from swinging freely but still easy for the kids to open. The stove,



With rounded corners all around, children won't have to worry about sharp edges. View larger.
microwave, and refrigerator each feature simply painted details, such as timers, temperature gauges and a ice maker. It's possible that as kids grow older, they may want more realistic details, but for toddlers, the bright and bold colors and simple designs are perfect. This is make-believe, after all.

Be forewarned that the set itself does not come with any cooking utensils or other assecories. We purchased a Melissa and Doug Kitchen Accessory Set before assembling the kitchen and were glad we did. Our children adopted the wooden pans and spoons immediately, and within minutes they were cooking blue pizza, apple sauce soup, and mango sorbet.

While the related accessories would be nice, as long as your children use appropriate objects, such as wooden or plastic utensils and pans, their creations will be just as scrumptious. (Aside from the safety factor, metal objects in the hands of an energetic child will scratch the paint over time.)

Overall Impressions
Our basic criticisms for this kitchen set are that it's pricey, it takes a long time to assemble, and it's heavy. But this kitchen set is the real deal. It doesn't include a single piece of press board that will warp or cheap plastic detailing that will break easily. Don't consider this a mere toy; think of it as a fun piece of furniture that will provide your child with years of imaginative play. In this day and age of disposable products, we can't offer a great compliment to any toy than to predict that it will likely outlast your children's make-believe years.



Features:
  • A little chef's dream kitchen. There's plenty of space for every culinary activity
  • Prepare, cook, clean and create in this gorgeous wooden kitchen. Includes a sturdy stovetop, roomy refrigerator, fancy freezer, see-through oven with knobs that turn, microwave with turntable, and spacious sink
  • Sizeable storage, beautiful detailing and bright, colorful graphics, all for an exceptional price!
  • Sturdy and durable, newly redesigned engineering for easy assembly, here is the one perfect place to play with your food!
Brand: Melissa & Doug
Color: White
Model: 2607
Customer Reviews


Made of MDF - NOT WOOD - BUYER BEWARE
We bought this item per the information on Amazon - that it is made of solid wood. We have been using it for a while and it still has a smell to it, especially when the doors are left open. I called Melissa and Doug today and was told that it is MDF, not solid wood, hence the smell (I'm very sensitive to MDF/Particle Board). Amazon WILL NOT stand by it's information and help me since it's past the return policy. It really stinks that a company as big as Amazon will not stand by the information it provides on it's products... who knows what you're really getting, especially when it's painted over and not apparent to the naked eye!


Great Product for the Price!
I bought this kitchen for my girls for Christmas, age 1 and 4 years. It was intended more for the four year old because she loves to cook and has most of the Melissa and Doug food sets already (which she loves!) but I was suprised at how much my one year old loved it also. We have had it for four months and am pleased at how it has been able to hold up against my daughters, and 3 year old nephew, opening and slamming the doors.
I read a lot of reviews about how difficult it is to put together, but if you know anything about following directions and using a screw driver it really isn't that bad. It took my husband about 2 hours total and there was no yelling involved :)

I was a little disappointed when we realized the kit was missing a piece, since we had counted all of the pieces when it first arrived. But upon further glance we had an extra of one we didn't need and were missing another. A little panic set in since Christmas was in four days. We called the Melissa and Doug company first thing Monday morning and the new piece arrived Wednesday with no arguing or hassel. Just in time to be ready for Christmas morning. It was a bummer that all the pieces were not in the kit, but the customer service was EXCELLENT and things worked out great. It is impossible to expect that there will be no mistakes in life, but it is how people fix those situations that really makes a difference!!

I have been very happy with the MANY Melissa and Doug products that my girls own and the kitchen is proving to be no different! They love it and it will most likely be an item that we keep around for the grandkids too!!


Great Product, but NOT solid wood as stated
I purchased this kitchen from a local toy store for my daughter's second birthday. She absolutely LOVES it! The design and bold colors make it attractive. The refrigerator and oven are deep enough to put plenty of accessories in, unlike some other toy kitchens I looked at. I love the safety features--rounded corners and plastic door latches that keep the refrigerator and oven doors from closing tightly and pinching little fingers. I have no complaints about this kitchen, but I would like to point out that the product description on amazon says that it is solid wood and "doesn't include a single piece of press board" but this is not true. The one I purchased was from a display in a toy store, therefore already assembled. When I got home I noticed a small hole in the top of it that apparently happened in the store. When looking in the hole, you can tell that it IS made of press board, but very thick and heavy-weight, so still very sturdy and durable.


Absolutely PERFECT!!
This kitchen is so WONDERFUL! We bought it as a Christmas present for our 1 1/2 and 3 year old. They LOVE it. In addition to their enthusiasm for it, we love it too! It is SO WELL MADE! The assembly was so easy, with EVERY part labeled and instructions that a child could follow, we had it all together in an hour and a half with no stress AT ALL!!! All the parts are made from solid wood, not particle board and the attention to detail with the design is impressive. The knobs of the stove even tilt up slightly like on a real stove. There are so many cute details. It was worth every single penny!!! It has provided hours and hours of fun for my kids :-)


So far so good...
There are a lot of positive reviews for this kitchen, but the negative ones worried me. So far we are happy with it. Set-up took 2 hours, but my husband is very good at those kind of things. There was one hole that was misaligned, but my husband said the set was so solid it wouldn't matter. He loved their system of color coding - it made set-up easier.
I love the kitchen, it's very cute, and the rounded edges were a big sell for me. My daughter has only had it 3 days, so I can't speak about durability yet.
My only beef was actually with Amazon itself (and I have been a loyal customer since the beginning). The price of this kitchen went up and down from day to day, sometimes as much as fifty dollars. We still got a good price because of the free shipping, but I felt like I was gambling because at any moment the price could go up or down.


This entry was posted on Saturday, November 28th, 2009 and is filed under Pretend Play & Dress-Up. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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