Kidkraft Suite Elite Kitchen

A Guaranteed Hit!

Don't wait until Christmas Eve to assemble
I bought this for my nieces for Christmas. It's very cute and sturdy. Since I haven't given it to them yet, I can't tell you what they think of it, but after spending 3 1/2 hours putting it together last night, I can give you a few hints on assembly.

First, it's definitely harder than Ikea. Ikea optimizes the assembly so that everything can be put together with one or two types of hardware. This is not the case here. If there is a board, it probably has it's own hardware. There are seven types of bolts and four types of screws. They organize the hardware nicely in a divided packet, but be very careful not to mix them up. Open only the ones you need from the pack by the perforated cardboard on the back. Don't mix up the matching bolts and nuts. They come attached to each other. I mixed them up at some point and they didn't attach easily, even though they were the same type of hardware.

I was able to manage with the mini wrench and Allen wrenches supplied, but you...
Great fun and cute kitchen
The Suite Elite Kitchen assembly took approximately 2 hours -- put it together without assistance, although assistance is also available at a 800 number. The resulting play kitchen is really cute -- and the little girls in our family love it (a 3 year old and a 1-1/2 year old) I bought them a few real bowls, a small frying pan and wooden spoons to get into the use of the kitchen. (nothing like that is supplied)

The girls love that the dials click when you turn them. They love to open and close the cupboards, talk about what they are going to make, and pretend to talk on the phone. The play kitchen is a great traditional toy in that their imaginations are engaged and the children provide a lot of the action. I am glad of that as I get frustrated with most toys on the market that simply have a button for a child to press and then the toy lights up or says something ... (in those cases, what is there for the child to do?)

The few ideas I have are to have a timer...
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