Convertible Learning Tower and Table in Birch Plywood

Folds down flat into a small table and chair, which is two pieces of furniture in the footprint of one.

The Montessori idea behind this is simple enough to say in a sentence: a child who can reach a thing can choose it, and a child who can choose it will use it. That is why the bed is on the floor, the shelf is at knee height and the tower exists at all. It is not a style. Almost everything sold as Montessori furniture is a normal piece of furniture made smaller, and the test of whether it is the real thing is whether a two year old can use it without an adult, which is a question you can answer by watching rather than by reading a product page.

Specification

• Dimensions: 480mm wide by 480mm deep by 900mm high
• Age range: 18 months to 5 years, with an adult in the room
• Material: 18 layer Baltic birch plywood with the edge exposed and rounded to a 3mm radius, which is the detail that stops a plywood edge catching a shin
• Finish: water based lacquer or paint, certified to BS EN 71 part 3
• Load rating: 80kg static, tested to 150kg and 30,000 climb cycles
• Standards: BS EN 14749 for the structure and BS EN 71 part 3 for the finish, plus our own 150kg static test and a 30,000 cycle climb test
• Edges and fixings: every exposed edge rounded to a 3mm radius, every fixing recessed and capped, and no pinch point anywhere a hand goes
• Assembly: flat packed, about 40 minutes
• Weight: approximately 11.6 kilograms
• Platform height: 450mm, which suits a standard 900mm worktop
• Rail: on all four sides, with a 90mm gap at the step which is under the head entrapment limit
• Footprint: 480mm by 480mm, and it does need that much
• Anti slip feet, which is what stops it walking across a tiled floor
• Does not fold
• An adult should be in the room, which is on the printed card too

In the box

• The tower, flat packed
• Anti slip feet, fitted
• Spare corner caps
• A hex key and printed instructions
• A printed safety card with the supervision guidance

Assembly and safety

Flat packed with a hex key and printed instructions. Fittings are threaded steel inserts rather than screws into board, so it can be taken apart and rebuilt as the child moves rooms, which most of them will do twice. Every fixing is recessed and capped, and the caps are supplied in a small bag with spares, because one of them will be prised off and posted somewhere.

How long it lasts

This adjusts as the child grows rather than being outgrown. The heights are on the same ladder as the rest of the range, so a table set for a two year old today lines up with a chair bought for a five year old in three years, and the adjustment takes one adult about five minutes with the hex key that came in the box.