Kelake

While most of the things we purchase are locally made I do like some of what IKEA produces, including this Children’s bench cum storage box. The colour in this photo doesn’t inspire but I have seen them in some green neon inspired greens and yellows. We store all our toys in these containers without worries of mold and mildew build-up. Something which is common here with wooden pieces. Approx. $10.00US from IKEA.

The Intellicot concept has received a great deal of exposure of late, most of which was surprisingly positive. Designed by four male designers who would appear to have never had children themselves, this cold monstrosity has all the features the modern parent, who wants to distance themselves from their babies, could desire. These features include:
Video monitoring so you don’t actually have to be in the same room as your child; automatic rocking to eliminate that tiresome task of rocking your child to sleep – let the machine do it; the motorized raising system seems a useful way to alleviate back pain but I wonder if it would be better to simply exercise; and a safety window which eliminates “prison style bars” with a fish tank/science experiment approach (I’m sure babies don’t have the concept of prison bars). Perhaps they need to go start over and integrate some of these features in a warm baby-centered design. The original sketch looked much better than the end result.

I think our daughter Catriona is at the perfect age to start keeping her belongings tidy and put away. Instead of just throwing off her clothes and having daddy come around to pick them up later – teaching her now the proper place to put her stinky socks might help avoid the disaster my room was when I was kid. The Jax Hamper made with organic cotton is a stylish and sustainable way to start this basic skill. It’s available in 3 colours for $102.00US from Nest Products.

I would love to buy furniture like this. This square changing table coordinates with a whole line of items from Nurseryworks and features a “modern modular aesthetic”. Unfortunately it’s a bit difficult to buy anything nice where I live now. The house I live in so ugly, ugly beyond repair, that nice furniture or art tends to get swallowed by it’s surroundings. It’s a pretty typical for homes built in Taiwan around the time of ours to be built to such poor standards. I chose it though for it’s size, it’s a luxury to have so much interior space in Asia. Available for $900US from Design Public.

This is clever. The genius chair/easel provides a huge roll of paper for a kid to sit on while she draws and comes with a 5 year supply of paper. Imagine rolling out that roll when it is finished and seeing the growth of your child’s illustration and visualization skills over time!
“The Chair is made with drawing paper, as the paper is being “drawn upon”, the size of the front cylinder increases and thus follows the child’s growth!- age 2-7 Years. Clean paper is transferred from the back cylinder to the front simply by rolling the front cylinder backwards. The amount of paper is approx. 500 meters, which means that the paper can be changed twice a week for 5 years.”
No word of availability or price. Product Page. Found via Gizmodo.

I’ve been looking lately for something to replace the Christmas lights that we had up in my daughters room up until recently. Yes we put up Christmas lights in her room and a Christmas tree as well. She loved it. There are allot of options and I particularly like the style of these cow and elephant lamps. The more colorful and warm lights in the room the better as these according to my daughter keep away the cookie monster. The cookie monster is sometimes a benevolent guy or someone who wants to steal her friend Mr. Mouse. I like these but would feel far more comfortable if they weren’t made of paper. They are likely fine. $20.00US each from uncommon good.

We recently bought my daughter a small low rise play table that converts into a surface for playing with legos. It’s really been a great purchase as we get to have an accessible place to build all kinds of creations – usually that includes zanga blocks that she can knock down, water paints, legos, and well, just about all the activities we have tried where sitting at a table is good practice. The downside to the table and chair set we bought is that it is made from cheap and ugly plastic. Though we bought it in an upscale shop most items made and sold here tend to skimp on the design.
When I saw the Boopop table at moderntots I thought I saw a beautiful replacement – the table top is natural bamboo plywood embedded with clear polyester resin and the legs are brushed stainless steel. A good replacement until I saw the price. Moderntots are selling the Boopop for $1,995.00US. Not something to buy on a whim and perhaps only if you think it can find other uses after the children grow out of it. Though with this kind of an investment in a small table do you really want crayons and paint all over it?

From Finnish architect Alvar Aalto comes this beautiful example of modern Scandinavian design. Beautiful chairs though likely highly impractical. I know it would stand in stark contrast to all the other products that occupy our play area. Stool 616 is made in birch or natural lacquered with a back birch veneer: natural or white, red or blue lacquered. I wonder how they would look after an attack of crayons? Priced from £302.00 at Skandium. Big kudos to Swissmiss today.

I hadn’t meant to buy allot of toys for my daughter but somehow the house is overflowing with stuffed animals, sound balls, building blocks, stencils, musical instruments, balls of all shapes and sizes, and etc. Some have commented that our place might be confused with a kindergarden. With all this stuff you need an easy storage solution – I’m a pick up and throw it in a box tidier. The only draw back to open storage like this is that you have this tendency to quickly put toys in various containers without really knowing where you put them. The plastic hot dog goes to the bottom of one container while the plastic bun and plate in another. This could lead to a crying session as these parts really can’t be played with separately. Otherwise these look like a good system for non-carpeted floors. Available in a variety of colors. $19.99US at The Container Store.

The floors are hard here at our house; concrete even. Though I swear my daughters head gets harder each time she bumps into me with it we like to have as much bouncy cushions around as possible. For playing and relaxing on the floor the Fatboy Island’s look like allot of fun. If only they were cheaper than we could have many Islands. The possibilities are endless. Luckily for us it is quite easy to clean, just wipe it with a damp cloth and off comes whatever sticky peanut butter concoction my daughter had come up with.
$229US at Design Public.