Short answer
A small mud kitchen for a UK garden is one with a worktop of around 120 cm: wide enough for two children and a proper sink, narrow enough for a patio, a courtyard or the strip beside a shed. Our 120 cm models start at £499, in solid spruce with two lift-out steel sinks, hand-painted in eleven colours, and arrive fully assembled with free delivery anywhere on the UK mainland.
What “small” should and should not mean
Search for a small mud kitchen and you will find two very different things. One is a genuinely compact, well-built kitchen that fits a small space. The other is a small, cheap kitchen: thin ply, a moulded dip for a sink, a worktop at the wrong height, gone by the second summer. The first is worth buying. The second is a false economy that ends up in the garden waste.
Our 120 cm kitchen is the first kind. It is our most popular model because most British gardens are small, and because 120 cm turns out to be the width at which two children can cook side by side without elbowing each other, and one child has room to run a proper process: mix here, wash there.
| Footprint question | 120 cm model | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Worktop width | 120 cm | Fits between a shed and a fence, or along a patio edge |
| Children at once | 1 to 3 | Two comfortably, three at a push |
| Sinks | Two lift-out steel bowls | Same sinks as the 150 cm, nothing scaled down |
| Storage | Open shelf, or cabinet on the storage model | Kit stays with the kitchen, not scattered |
| Price | From £499 | £549 with the storage cabinet |
Where a 120 cm kitchen goes
- A patio or terrace. Stand it against a wall so that the splash goes one way. Hose the patio down at the end of the week.
- A courtyard or town garden. Into a corner, on gravel or slabs, with a planter of herbs beside it for ingredients.
- Beside the shed or fence. The classic spot. Shaded in the afternoon, close to the tap, out of the main lawn.
- A balcony. Only if it is a deep one, and check the weight limit and the fire escape rules first. Our guide to mud kitchens in small gardens and on balconies covers what works and what does not.
Where you put it matters more than the size, because a mud kitchen you cannot see from the house gets used less. We wrote a whole page on where to put a mud kitchen.
Our 120 cm kitchens
Small space, full-size build
Nothing on the 120 cm kitchen is scaled down apart from the worktop width. It has the same solid spruce boards, the same two stainless steel sinks, the same four hand-painted burners with wooden knobs and the same utensil rail as the 150 cm. The paint is the same exterior acrylic. It arrives the same way: fully assembled, on a pallet, 7 to 14 days after you order.
That matters because a small kitchen lives closer to the house, where you see it every day, and often on a hard surface, where it takes more knocks. It needs to be built well, not just built small.
If space is really tight
Two suggestions from families with very small gardens. First, choose the 120 cm with Storage Cabinet, because when the kitchen is the only thing in the garden, being able to put every pot away makes the space feel bigger. Second, pick a colour that sits back. Sage, grey and the darker greens disappear against a fence; the pinks and raspberry stand out, which is lovely in a big garden and a lot in a small one. All eleven are shown on our colours page.
Frequently asked questions
What is the smallest mud kitchen you make?
The 120 cm model is our smallest. We do not make anything narrower because below about 110 cm a second child cannot join in and the sinks have to shrink, which is where cheap mud kitchens go wrong.
Will a 120 cm mud kitchen fit on a patio?
Yes. It stands against a wall or fence on slabs, decking or gravel. Put it where the splash can go one way and where you can reach it with a hose.
Is the 120 cm big enough for two children?
Yes, comfortably. It has two sinks, one for each child, and a full-width shelf. For three or more children who play together regularly, the 150 cm is the better choice.
Can I move it around the garden?
Two adults can lift it. It is solid timber, so it is not something a child can push over, but it is not fixed to the ground either.