The Homestyle Kitchen may seem like one of the must have Christmas gifts for toddlers. It is a kitchen that they can play in. But, its flat packing and picture design don’t exactly prepare you for what is hidden in the box. If you are planning on getting this for Christmas and want to set it up as a surprise, you might want to start assembling it now.
So what does come in that box? The answer is a construction nightmare. The kitchen is composed of about a thousand pieces of plastic that have to be snapped off of about half a dozen plastic frames. Half of them aren’t even recognizable as kitchen parts. It will take you over an hour just to get the plastic pieces separated from the frames. After which, your hands will hurt from all that snapping.
After you get the pieces snapped apart, you then have to deal with the sorting and figuring out how they actually fit together. Yes, they are labeled but the pictures and directions don’t always match up. It will take another hour just to figure out how to put the kitchen base together.
You will also need at least a screwdriver, because not everything snaps together. It is also nearly impossible to line up the screws to fit into the holes. At times, the pieces don’t want to line up properly.
If you can get past the assembly nightmare of this particular kitchen, then it isn’t too bad of a kitchen. It is lightweight enough so that you can move it around the room.
It is made of easy-to-clean plastic. The sink is molded out of one piece of plastic so it will hold water.
The microwave is on the small side but the oven is a decent size.
The stove does come with lights and sound effects. It also pops out pretty easily to change the batteries when needed.
This is also one of the cheaper kitchen options available. However, the massive assembly project that this toy requires is quite daunting. Be warned before throwing this item into your cart, it can quickly turn into a nightmare. The last piece of advice is: don’t try to assemble this on Christmas Eve. It will make you crazy trying to put everything together.