Weaning Table and Chair Set in Birch Plywood

The very small set, at 300mm, for a child who has just started sitting up and eating.

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: table 400mm across by 400mm high, chair seat 160mm
• Age range: 18 months to 6 years
• 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: chairs tested to 60kg, table to 40kg
• Standards: BS EN 12520 and BS EN 12521 for domestic furniture, finish to BS EN 71 part 3, and the tip test in BS 4875
• 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 45 minutes for the set
• Weight: approximately 9.6 kilograms for the set
• Table height: 400mm fixed, or 300mm on the weaning set
• Seat height: 200mm, which puts a two year old's feet flat on the floor
• Chair back angle: 5 degrees, which is enough to lean on and not enough to tip
• Chairs weigh under 2 kilograms so a child can carry their own
• Wipeable finish, tested against the common household cleaners
• Matches the height ladder across the range

In the box

• One table
• Two chairs
• Felt pads for every foot with spares
• Corner caps
• A hex key and printed instructions

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

Most families buy this for one stage and then move on, and that is fine. It holds its value better than almost anything else in a child's room because it is solid timber with no printed decoration to date it, and we run a buy back on our own pieces at up to 40 per cent, refinish them and sell them as second life stock, which is the honest version of a sustainability page.