Hello again! It has been a while since I have been around the blog. In October, Mr. Lion and I got a wild hair and decided we were ready to bite the bullet and sell our cozy little home so that we can build a house a little further out in the country! We found some land, sold our house, moved to an apartment, and are beginning the custom home building process! It has been fun but SO busy!
Now that we are the happy owners of 2+ acres of woods, we are excited to find new ways for our little people to enjoy the great outdoors! The thing I am most excited about building for them (other than, you know, the new house) is a mud kitchen!
In case you have no idea what I am talking about, a mud kitchen is just an area outside set up for kids where they can use dirt and other nature-y ingredients to cook up their own interesting concoctions. Neither of my kids have been particularly impressed with our play kitchen inside, but I have a feeling once they can get their hands messy they might change their tune. Plus, it gives them something fun to do while Mr. Lion and I scope out the progress on the build. 
Our mud kitchen is still in progress, but I thought I would share some inspiration photos (and links!) to mud kitchens from around the web. They can be super elaborate or simple. Ours is probably going to be somewhere in between. All you really need are some old pots and pans, a water source, and a work surface. This could be a tree stump, an old plastic play kitchen, or an actual “kitchen” built from old reclaimed wood.
2. I love the re-purposing of the kitchen sink here! We considered trying to find one at a local Habitat for Humanity ReStore, but decided a plastic basin would have to do for now.
3. I love that this one is built right into their sand pit. And the dish rack is a nice touch.
4. I love the flowers built into the top of this one! Might be a nice place to grow herbs too, for the little hands to use real ingredients in their “recipes”.
5. The great thing about plastic kitchens is that they can so easily be hosed off! And all of the kitchen features are already built in, of course!
6. I LOVE this painted food. Baby Lion and I collected some rocks, and this is the next project on our list!
7. Other things we are collecting for our mud kitchen: colanders, wooden and plastic utensils, spice jars, egg cartons, plastic eggs, old pots and pans, muffin tins, ice trays, cheese graters, and a mortar and pestle.
Do you have a mud kitchen? What kinds of things do you think your kiddos would enjoy having in the
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22276 posts
We love our mud kitchen! It’s not as fancy as some of these, but the girls get a lot of use out of it in the warmer months. I also made the painted rock food above, I just used Sharpie’s though since that’s what I had on hand.
apricot / 400 posts
I had no idea there was an official name for this. They have one at my daughter’s preschool and it was one of the things that made me fall in love with the place when we first visited. It encourages so much creativity and the kids love it! They have some old stuff plastic spigot water bottles that the kids use to make more mud or just use in their “recipes.” Sometimes they add some food coloring to change it up.
pomelo / 5220 posts
They have one at my son’s daycare/school and he loves it! It isn’t really mud usually, mostly just sticks and leaves – currently snow – but he loves it!
grapefruit / 4584 posts
For me, personally, it’s my worst nightmare – I don’t handle mess well! But I am majorly impressed by you being willing to have one of these in the yard! I am sure your kids will have a blast!
We had an old plastic kitchen in our backyard at one point – I was super naive in putting it out and didn’t realize my kids would turn it into a mud kitchen every time we went in the backyard. I wouldn’t have minded it as a planned activity – old clothes, towels and a hose ready to clean off before we went inside, etc. The girls LOVED it though, as did all their friends.
@psw27: With snow, I would love it!!! similar effect, but zero mess!
blogger / grapefruit / 4836 posts
@Bao: Ours won’t be this fancy either haha
but a girl can dream! I love the idea of using sharpies. Did you have to use clear coat over it or is it staying pretty well?
@poppygirl15: @psw27: I totally didn’t know this was a thing until I saw it at my kids’ daycare, but the kids there all totally love it! Ooh food coloring haha
@PinkElephant: I hear you! You could probably eliminate some of that by restricting the water access? But with rain and puddles that is unavoidable haha. The new house will have a sink in the garage, so I am hoping to keep the mess outside as much as possible! I love that your kids turned it into a mud kitchen without any effort on your part
those are the best projects haha
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22276 posts
@Mrs. Lion: so far so good! But it’s winter here now so we haven’t used them in a while. But I figure I can always make more:)
grape / 85 posts
Building a mud kitchen was so much fun! The single best feature I included was a raised space for a small orange water cooler/dispenser above a plastic-tub sink. It is so much fun for kids to have a working spigot, and it’s easy to refill from the hose (while keeping some control over amount of water used!).
blogger / apricot / 275 posts
super cute!