Creating a Kid-Friendly Kitchen

by Natalie | Jul 10, 2018 | Home Renovation

If you are renovating a kitchen or building a new home you have the perfect opportunity to build a kid-friendly kitchen. The good news, you can design it in a way that will grow with your family and look nice at the same time.

For me this meant a place where my children could have responsibilities. A place where they could help safely and still let me cook and a place where I could host adult events. If we were going to re-do the kitchen I wanted every square inch to be useful and beautiful. Today I will discuss the storage you can get out of your kitchen island, whether it’s a desk turned island or built by a carpenter. I will also discuss appliances and kitchen faucets, who knew they could make such a difference for kids. I map out kitchen designs that help with the flow of a busy and useful space and discuss types of flooring and paint sheen that can add to the comfort of the most used room in the house. Sometimes just knowing your options helps you map out the best kitchen for you.  We are going to go over it all. So sit back and relax and let your list of must haves and dream additions come together.

First on my list, an awesome fridge, namely the Whirlpool five drawer French door fridge. Why is it so awesome? It has a middle drawer on the outside and a water and ice machine that kids can reach. This allows children to get themselves a drink of water and the drawer is accessible at child height. I like to keep bread, meat and cheese, apples, carrots or any other snack item I want them to grab first, right here in the middle drawer.

I was in awe of the french door fridge for a few years and asked a good friend how she liked hers.  She told me she liked everything about it, but wished that the long drawer inside the fridge was on the outside. We searched and found this one. It also is quite awesome for the adults in the house because you can put so many things inside and it doesn’t seem crowded. I can fit a whole thanksgiving dinner and still have room. If you want your life to become a little bit easier–this will do it.

Having access to water is only half way to independence, they also need to get a cup on their own.  Cue the awesome deep drawer! This drawer, at child height, not only allows them to get their own drink, but also lets them have access to plates and bowls to help set the table.  And social media is saying kids don’t have enough responsibility. Maybe they just need easy access to kid possible chores. I placed this drawer between the kitchen table and dishwasher so my children could easily put dishes away too. I know, awesome! Yes, my children have and still do (depending on age) complain about these chores. My go to response is, “I love you so much I want to teach you how to take care of yourself.” It works really well, while the grumbling does still happen, it happens less and less and our children understand the purpose behind us giving them chores.

A faucet can make a big difference in the convenience of your kitchen, look great and be kid friendly at the same time. Pfister F5297TMY Hanover High-Arc Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet. The cool features: it’s high enough to easily fit big pots underneath, the head pulls down so you can spray food off your dishes without it spraying everywhere. You can install the handle so it is over the sink instead of over the counter.  This allows water to drip into the sink instead of on your counter AND allows short people (children) to wash their own hands! It is truly a lifesaver. Not only that, but it looks like a piece of art sitting elegantly on your counter top. Love it!

I had wanted to build one of those cute islands made out of a desk.  Honestly I went overboard and collected like five desks (my poor husband is a very patient man).  I kept finding desks that I thought would work better and everyone seemed to be giving them away. I finally settled on this one. The magic began when I set it in the kitchen just to get a feel for walking around it etc. In the meantime we discovered that a short island was perfect for cooking with kids.  They could all reach and help and there weren’t any chairs clogging up the walking area. Click here to see how to make the island and after pictures.

If you don’t want a short island there is also this idea from Burlap and Denim. A pull out step drawer.

which I also considered doing. But I wondered if I would always trip on the pull out steps.  The plan is to let all the kids gain some height and then lift the island up on decorative feet.

This island made our kitchen so useful. We were able to use the long island for large gatherings and put all the food here. This is our annual pie night, which is a blast.  We invite our neighbors, everyone brings pie and we are able to talk and build friendships that don’t always happen waving from the doorstep…so yes, I’m trying to get you to start a pie night of your own. Post and let me know– he he and I hope you get a great kitchen too.

It was great for food prep where kids could help and sweep all leftovers into the trash. In fact, our kids love helping out in the kitchen because there is a place just their height.

It also had room under the desk portion for the recyclables and a small toy bin to keep my baby busy while I cook.

On the oven side of the island I had a cookie sheet and cutting board storage area.

I placed the garbage on the end where the table was so the kids could easily scrape off dishes and place them in the dishwasher. In this chart you can see how easy it was for kids to help out and if you notice that untouched corner to the right of the sink? That is where all the baking and cooking ingredients were, so the kids could be helping get things ready and I could be cooking without kids tripping under my feet. If they wanted to help cook I could easily give them a job at the island where they could reach. And of course they could make their own lunches since all the lunch stuff was kept in the middle drawer and the child height island was right there to make a sandwich on.

The flow was amazing and the island held so much storage on top of that.

We chose luxury, grout-able, vinyl tiles for three reasons, I wanted the grouted tile look for resale, and at the time, we had a toddler that was constantly falling. I wanted something that wouldn’t leave a bruise every time he took a tumble. We also lived in a very cold place and these vinyl tiles were warmer to the touch than ceramic. There are several options, looking back I would have chosen something lighter and used rectangles instead of squares to create a wider look on the floor. But look at all these choices, beautiful and highly functional.

Paint durability is important when considering little hands that will be touching it everyday for 10 years. Seriously, how often are we washing hand prints off the walls? Washable sheens are ideal for high traffic areas, i.e. kitchen, family room, hallways and stairways. Washable paints are in eggshell, satin, semi-gloss or gloss.Higher quality paints have more pigment and resin that help them wash up and stay looking nice. Even a high quality (which usually means more expensive) flat paint will wash up much better than the cheapest flat paint. Look to use flat finishes where children won’t be touching the walls that often and you want to reduce glare for example, theater rooms and rooms used primarily by adults like the master bedroom etc. Below I used an eggshell finish for the walls. Satin finish for the lighter gray on the stenciling to help it pop a bit and satin on the trim and door.

We had also built a walk-in pantry over the stairs.  Who needs all that wasted space when you could have awesome storage. Because I was building the shelves myself I was able to decide how tall each shelf should be. Please excuse the panorama shot, it was the only way I could show all the storage in this pantry. I chose shelf height by first choosing the items I wanted there.  I placed the items I wanted my children to get for themselves on the lower shelves like cereal, crackers etc. I then measured how tall those were and made my shelves accordingly.

I also created a shelf up high and secure to keep cleaning supplies on. I didn’t like the idea of putting chemicals under the sink where children could find them.  It also opened up the space under the sink for a small garbage can and a place to put a small laundry basket for used washcloths and towels (see my post on How to Build a $5 kitchen pull-out Trash Can). It makes food prep and cleaning the sink so much easier.

And there you have it, a kid friendly kitchen that grows with your family.  I love it because it is so easy to teach my children responsibility when the right things are accessible. It is still a small kitchen, but each and every corner, counter and cabinet was placed to create great flow and accessible for children to help.

If you have other ideas for making a kid-friendly kitchen or if you have any questions about what I did please leave a comment in the comment section below.  And don’t forget to share this post with those who are working on their kitchens.