Whether your child dreams of being a chef or simply loves playing house, adding a wooden play kitchen to his or her room can be a great way to encourage pretend play. Accessorizing the kitchen area can bring even more fun to playtime. Here are just a few ideas to enhance your child's play kitchen area.

Build A Grocery Store

Your child will want to stock the fridge with plenty of ingredients for pretend meals, so why not add a grocery store area next to the kitchen? For this project, invest in a small bookshelf, which you can fill with wooden or plastic food items. Have your child help you make sale signs for the groceries, and tape the signs to each shelf. For a finishing touch, purchase a toy shopping cart. The cart can be filled with the groceries and rolled over to the kitchen. You can also add a pretend cash register to the bookshelf so your child can "check out" at the grocery store.

Create A Dining Nook

Once your child is done preparing a pretend meal, he or she might want to serve it to a hungry hoard of stuffed animals. Consider creating a dining nook next to the kitchen for this purpose. You can use a wooden table and chair set for the dining area. Have your little one decorate it by using a scarf as a tablecloth, and add a plastic cup to the center of the table for use as a vase. Have your child make a bouquet of flowers with tissue paper and pipe cleaners, and arrange the flowers in the cup to create a centerpiece for the table. You may also want to invest in plastic or wooden tableware to complete this idea.

Get Creative With Costumes

Pretend play can be more fun with costumes. Consider making a few cooking-related costumes for your little one, or purchase them at a Halloween costume shop. You may be able to purchase costumes on clearance in the days after Halloween, so be sure to look for deals in early November. Some costume ideas to consider might include a chef's hat and jacket, a barista apron, or a household cooking apron. You can also have your child add to the costumes by making name tags out of cardboard, which can be used with each costume. Invest in self-adhesive hook-and-loop closures at your local craft store. These can be used to attach the name tags to the costumes without the need for safety pins or sewing.

There are lots of ways to transform your child's wooden play kitchen into an exciting pretend play area. Use these ideas as inspiration, and work with your little ones to come up with more fun ways to use the kitchen play set.