Growing Table

Just the other day I was complaining that the table the kids use for arts and crafts is too small. Something like this Growing Table would be more appropriate in our house. But who wants to invest in another piece of furniture that will only have short-term utility?

That's the beauty of the Growing Table - it grows with your child. The legs on the table and stool are extendable so it can take them at least through to pre-teen years. We also really like the desk accessories. They are fastened on the desk using a simple peg system so you don't have to worry about things constantly being knocked over by little ones.

Via SwissMiss

Comments (10)

When I was a child, my father made a table nearly identical to this concept by getting a 2' by 3' piece of finished laminate countertop and screwing different length legs to the bottom - short ones for when we sat on the floor, longer ones when we sat in chairs. That thing took a lot of abuse and lasted my brother and me through high school - at the end, we took the legs off altogether and would rest it across the arms of a La-Z-Boy recliner to do our homework. I bet the whole thing would cost less than $40 if you found a piece of scrap countertop at a kitchen outlet.

Seems like your post contradicts itself - how short is "short term"? It's called a "growing table" Looks like this would last up to 18 years of age.

thefink:

If you reread the post, you'll see that that is my point. It's not short term furniture. It's a great table isn't it?

Janie

That's cool, but is anyone importing that to the US? I'm not paying shipping from Austria.

The Land of Nod has a similar idea I've been thinking of buying for my daughter: http://www.landofnod.com/family.aspx?c=1529&f=666

You can buy it at any of three heights, or you can buy it along with the legs to change the height. It goes from train & table height, to activity table for older kids, to a desk for teens. You can get a paper roller that attaches, which I think is a great idea, and rolling bins to fit underneath, which I think are a bit spendy.

I bought a $4 tabletop and adjustable legs at Ikea. ($60 for the legs). My 20 month old and 5-year old both use it just fine at the lowest setting. Works just fine.

I've been in love with this table for a while and ended up contacting the designer, who was just lovely. Unfortunately, there is no U.S. distributor yet so we're out of luck unless you want to pay the freight. Yikes.

We created a great kids table last year by putting two craigslisted mid-century end tables together. They are odd sized and have laminate tops - perfect for us! Everyone who comes into our house comments on them.

You can do this at Ikea. Pick a coffee table top (ours is pink egg-shaped) and low legs in whatever style you want. Pick up some taller legs later on. A no-brainer. And to attach a paper roll all you need to do is mount a curtain rod to the underside and pop on the paper. There is a hack on ikeahackers.com that takes it a bit further with a magnet bar to hold the paper down and chalkboard paint. I imagine putting holes in it an pegs on accessories would not be that hard, either, if you really wanted to do that.

The table in this post is attractive, though it might kill me to see it ruined/colored on, chipped...kids are tough on furniture.

I just bought my kids a table top from IKEA for art projects and homework with these adjustable legs so I can make the table a bit shorter and adjust the height later on.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60105301

The legs are $15 each and there are tons of different table tops @ IKEA to chose from. I went with stainless steel so I could easily clean off crayon and marker and my kids love sticking magnets to it as well.