When our Engineer Gav, started looking for a learning tower for his 18month old, he went through all the regular stores to find one that to fit his families needs. With a very active little dude in the home, and a small kitchen, the only place for the learning tower would have been the dining side of the island bench. Giving a child unsupervised access to the kitchen bench wasn't an option, so he had to come up with something different.
Whilst the Moppet Kids learning tower wasn't the first, every inch of it was designed to be the best. If you're going to invest in a piece of furniture for your home, you want to be sure it's going to be used by every family member, for years to come. Every dimension, every material choice, every joint was deliberate. Our Folding Learning Tower is the result of that obsession. Here is what we found out along the way, and why we believe it is the right choice for your family.
01 · Birch all the way through, not just on the surface
Most learning towers on the market are built with a poplar (or similar soft wood) plywood core. Poplar is lighter and cheaper, which makes it attractive to manufacturers trying to hit a price point. we went through the process of sampling and getting quotes with a number of cheaper suppliers, and every single one came back with poplar at the centre which we could not stand behind.
We use European exterior-grade birch plywood, all the way through. Not a birch veneer covering a cheaper core. Actual birch. It is denser, harder, and significantly more durable over the life of the product. This is the kind of thing that is invisible in a product photo but completely obvious the moment you put weight on it and hear nothing flex, nothing creak.
02 · Smarter use of wood, not just more of it
Our Folding Learning Tower uses three different thicknesses of ply: 12mm, 18mm, and 24mm, placed where each is actually needed. Most others use 18mm throughout. Our approach means the structural elements are as strong as they need to be, and the parts that carry less load are lighter. The result is a tower that feels solid without being heavy to move around the kitchen.
We might be biased, but we also think the end result is a lot better looking 😉
03 · 14cm wide when folded. The slimmest on the market
The bottom step of a Folding Learning Tower sounds like a small detail until you try to store the thing. Look closely at how other towers fold and you will see the bottom step protrudes dramatically, making the folded profile far wider and awkward to tuck away.
We redesigned that step specifically so that the folded tower sits at 14cm across. Perfect to slip beside the fridge if you're lucky enough to have that extra gap. If not, make sure to chech out our bespoke Wall Hook.
04 · Designed to the right safety standard
A lot of learning towers are designed along high chair safety standards. That sounds reasonable on the surface, but it leads to some strange design decisions: locking knobs on the safety bars, legs that flare outward awkwardly, proportions that do not quite make sense for a child who is standing and moving independently.
We designed ours along step ladder safety standards instead. The safety bar does what it needs to do without mechanical fussiness. The legs do not flare unnecessarily. The whole thing is designed around how a child actually uses it, which is actively and with confidence, not sitting up high the way a high chair assumes.
05 · Rated to 120kg. Built for adults too
We rate the Moppet Kids tower to 120kg and we mean it. You will see real adults using it in our ads and on our website, not because it makes for an interesting photo, but because it is a genuine use case. Parents use it to reach high shelves. Grandparents use it when the grandkids aren't around. The kids grow out of needing it by age seven or eight, and it still has years of life left as a household step stool.
This is why quality was the most important thing to us, and we wont skimp out on cheaper materials. You are not buying a a kids toy that becomes redundant when your youngest turns six. You are buying household furniture that will still be in your kitchen when they are teenagers.
06 · No adjustable steps, and here is why that is fine
The one thing we hear occasionally as a drawback is that the tower is not height-adjustable. It is a fair observation. Here is our honest answer to it.
We set the step height so that the youngest users, around 18 months, can see over the bench and feel included without being able to fully reach across it. They can see what you are doing. They can participate. But they are not in a position to grab a sharp knife or tip over the bowl of flour without you noticing. As kids get older, around four to six, they often choose to use it without the safety bar to get that extra bench reach while cutting and stirring. The design accommodates both stages without any fiddling.
Adjustability sounds like a feature. In practice, for most families, it is a mechanism that adds fragility, adds cost, and adds something else to snap or wear out over time. This design choice also means our Folding Learning Tower arrives to you fully assembled! That's right, no need to get out the allen key.
We are not trying to be the cheapest learning tower, and we know it's not going to be within everyone's budget. But, we have built the Folding Learning Tower you never have to replace. The one that is still in your kitchen years after your youngest has grown out of needing it, being used by whoever is has to change the light globes, reach that top cupboard, or clean the rangehood that day.
If you have questions, or want to talk through whether it is right for your family, send us a message us anytime.
