His Place at the Table
A seat at the family table for a new son
The ask
My sister and her husband are adopting a little boy. He is two, and he comes home in three weeks. They eat dinner together at the kitchen table every night, and I want him to have his own seat there from the first one. Around $1,000.
The gift
A Tripp Trapp chair in solid oak from Stokke, with its Baby Set and a cushion. Peter Opsvik designed it in 1972, it has been made ever since, and museums in New York and London hold it in their design collections. As he grows, its seat and footplate move lower until an adult can sit in it, rated by the maker to 300 pounds. We have it assembled at their table before he comes home.
Why it's extraordinary
Its designer drew it after his young son outgrew a high chair but was too small for the chairs at the family table. It brings a small child up to the tabletop, level with the adults, from his first meal.
The moment
On his first night home he eats dinner at the kitchen table, level with his parents, in a chair that will keep fitting him for years.
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