The kitchen is considered the heart of the home. It is where the family cooks, gathers for meals, have discussions, and even play together. In fact, the kitchen table is often a favorite place to play board games and work on large LEGO models. Kitchens also have lots of interesting appliances and accessories that aren’t found anywhere else. All of these characteristics make kitchens great candidates for LEGO projects. 🙂
Designing and building kitchens allows LEGO fans to display their building skills (appliances, cabinets, utensils, etc.), decor skills (choosing coordinating colors and interesting shapes), and their collection of interesting LEGO accessories. Below, I will show you some of my favorite LEGO kitchens. But, before we begin, let’s explore a little bit of LEGO history to get a better understanding why stocking a LEGO kitchen takes so much diligence and devotion.
LEGO has been quite minimalist when it comes to providing a variety of tools and accessories. This is especially true for kitchen utensils. The LEGO fork wasn’t introduced until 2012, and the LEGO spoon until 2017 – both in the LEGO Friends line. (An earlier spoon appeared in a few LEGO Belville sets). LEGO did a little better with dishes and cups. The iconic LEGO cup was released in 1979, the goblet in 1986, and the basic dish in 1995. We also got a frying pan, a saucepan, and a large cauldron in the early 1980s. However, we didn’t get a teapot until 2016, a tea cup and saucer until 2018, and a soup bowl until 2017. All in all, LEGO has been getting better with kitchen utensils, but they are still fairly rare items that LEGO fans treasure. The LEGO Friends line is still the best source of kitchen utensils, although sometimes they are available in other themes as well.
When it comes to LEGO food items, the variety has been much better than with utensils. The LEGO bread was introduced in 1982, the ice cream in 1995 (ice cream cone in 2013), the turkey, apple, and an elaborate cake in 1997, the cherry, popsicle, hot dog, banana, and croissant in 1998 (hot dog bun in 2016), the carrot in 1999, the pie in 2011, the pretzel and steak in 2012, and a very pretty knotted bread loaf in 2018.
Monica’s kitchen (see image above and first image) was inspired by the Friends television sitcom and was designed by LEGO fan aukbricks. It is fully stocked with everything imaginable, including all those coveted kitchen accessories and utensils we talked about above. Check out all the clever designs, like the kitchen knife block, toaster, coffee maker, fridge, stove, chairs, etc. I really like the colors too! See full-size flickr gallery image here.
This elegant modern kitchen was built by LEGO fan Littlehaulic. The chrome fixtures nicely accent the white cabinets and lime-green tiles and decor. They go well with the brown hardwood floor. See full-size flickr gallery image here.
Interestingly, LEGO fan bruce n h also choose lime-green to tile his kitchen. You can also see one of those fancy and rare LEGO cakes I mentioned above. See full-size flickr gallery image here. (UPDATE: this user deleted their flickr account.)
Johan Alexanderson serves a full breakfast in his kitchen with juice, milk, egg, sandwich with butter, Kalles Kaviar (a Swedish specialty), and Kellogg’s Sugar Smack cereals with strawberries. Also check the rest of the kitchen behind them. There are some nice design elements like using a couple of LEGO vehicle doors for the roll of paper towel. See full-size flickr gallery image here.
Here is another nicely designed modern kitchen by LEGO fan Tim Schwalfenberg. The elegant black, white and chrome color-scheme comes together nicely. See full-size flickr gallery image here.
This kitchen is also by Littlehaulic. It is part of a fully built doll-house (see below). I really like the use of LEGO’s more unusual pastel colors. See full-size flickr gallery image here.
As you can see, there are many ways to build and decorate a LEGO kitchen. You can make them minifig-scale, or use another scale if you really want to build up the details. You can also make the kitchens fully stocked and cozy, or more like a show kitchen for entertaining esteemed guests. And, if you have been collecting LEGO kitchen utensils and food items, building a kitchen is a perfect way to highlight them. If you need more, check the LEGO Friends section of the Online LEGO Shop.
What do you think? How do you like these LEGO kitchens? Do you collect LEGO kitchen utensils and food items? Have you ever built a kitchen before? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below! 😉
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I’m going to have to spend time improving my kitchen decor skills. I usually just put in the standard stove and cabinets. Ha-ha! But you are right, it’s an area where you can add a lot of creativity and color.
Amazing!!! How can I learn to build something like these? They are so beautiful! I can’t even choose which one I like the best. I feel like I’m in a showroom. LOL.
You can look at existing LEGO kitchens, and just start adding a bit of extra decorations and accessories, changing out a few things, etc. Once you do that a few times, you will be well equipped to start designing your own kitchens. Looking at pictures like this from other LEGO fans also helps with ideas. 🙂
The Chinese New Year Dinner is also great for getting kitchen accessories, if you can get it, that is. Seriously though, these are great. I would point out that most of them are larger than minifig scale, which means more details can be added. It’s interesting that the utensils work both for minifig scale and larger scale.
Yes, all of these kitchens are larger than minifig scale, which does help with adding extra details. 🙂
That dollhouse at the bottom is beautiful! I really like the colors and open design. Heck, I want to move in! 😀
LOL! You just need to make a mini version of yourself so you can fit in! 😀
Hmmm, I tend to like most of those Friends kitchen utensils, but they tend to have such garish colors. There’s never been any official release in more neutral, natural colors, such as white, black, gray or chrome…
And I managed to snag two Belville spoons from a thrift store bin full of minifigs and accessories a while back. Their size are actually quite minifig-compatible.
And, somewhat skimmed over, there were a couple of Fabuland kitchen parts released in the 80’s, such as the black cauldron, a red frying pan, a blue teapot and a red jug.
I like the Belville spoons too. Their handle is a little longer, but still works fine with minifigs. 🙂
The blue ones and the yellow ones are actually not that bad. But I agree some white and maybe pearl-silver and pearl-gold would be nice. I doubt they will ever bring back chrome as that was a difficult and expensive color to produce.
Maybe not Chrome specifically, but Flat Silver or some other neutral Metallic color…
Yes, flat-silver would be nice. And white. 🙂