Stokke Tripp Trapp Chair

I'm a sceptic about marketing so Tripp Trapp's popularity makes me want to dislike it.

Yet I now so love this design that I have to hasten the demise of tacky high chairs and booster seats.

Last year, as an interior designer and soon to be new parent I hated the idea of putting an ugly high chair into my home.

I saw an advert for a Stokke Tripp Trapp with a crying child and the expression "its OK" and the perversity of this image instantly attracted me. I had previously been rather suspicious of the smiling babies I saw on every billboard.

Behind the marketing I found out from the web that this chair was designed years ago by an artist who, like me, hated normal high chairs, but that he had higher motives than mine; he had noticed that children are never comfortable or content in normal high chairs.

If you are not familiar with the design you should know that its not just a high chair but it converts to become an ever growing chair to fit babies until fully grown Apparently he designed the prototype for his own son, and has been staggered by its success.

I read some user reviews (some on here are useful and have more detail than mine) and I was convinced, without ever seeing one in the flesh, I used Google to find any "deals" on the Tripp Trapp, and settled on Backinaction (.co.uk) because they had such a beautiful web site (my bias is obvious where art is concerned) and a price beat promise. No doubt there are others who can supply equally well.

In fact we were lucky because they turned out to be an ergonomic company rather than baby shop, and like the Tripp Trapp's designer they seem to look beyong appearance to benefits. They provided their own detailed advice and set up instructions which were very good and have anwsered questions since.

We chose a blue chair at £115 including the high chair conversion, and bought a second one for visiting children plus a portable version for travelling. We use the second one as an adult chair most of the time and we may yet buy two more as a kitchen set.

Otherwise we will buy two of Stokkes "actulum's" which are designed by the same man and look gorgeous. They claim to make adults as comfortable but given my scepticism if anyone has used them please post a review!

Delivery took a week and assembly about 20 mins each.

We started using the chairs at just over Thomas's fifth month birthday, two week ahead of the advice we were given but as we only used it for brief sitting periods we didn;t feel guilty. Within a few days he was sitting beautifully, and never seemed to fall to one side or the other, whereas on occassions at friend houses' in ordinary chairs he would flop about and become fractious.

We bought a harness on advice, and this gives peace of mind. Now at 11 months we just love the way he sits arounds the table with us, and we're convinced of the increase in comfort and the way he can learn by seeing what we are doing. Alright, I admit I'd choose it just for looks, but its good to know he's getting benefit too.

We don't yet know if he'll be using it for years but we met someone from Germany recently who is 28 and used a TrippTrapp from being a baby till he left home. So were hoping its a good long term investment for us too.

My advice; forget the bent metal, this is beautiful and it works.

By the way; the review questions make me choose a pre-set description about storage; Forget this bit, you'll use the chair every meal time. But if space is really tight I guess I would have to conceed that some folding high chairs are less ugly than others.