Whining and Dining Review: Bloom Fresco Loft Contemporary Baby Chair

Now this is a high chair! The likes of which you have never seen before. I'm not kidding, the Fresco Loft Contemporary Baby Chair from Bloom is something else. It is the only high chair on the market that stays with your child from BIRTH until he weighs approximately 70 pounds! Marketed as a 3-in-1 resting, feeding and playing chair, this chair is incredible! It swivels, has a pneumatic assisted height adjustment up to counter top height, a multiple position reclining seat and caster wheels for easy moving. We've been using this chair with Isaac, our hardcore high chair tester, and we've only begun to experience just what this chair can do!

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I could spend a lot of time telling you all about what is important to the four dads who founded Bloom, but it can easily be summed up with this three word motto: style, safety, sustainability. You can rest assured that all of their chairs exceed the safety standards for every country that they are sold in, and you can read all about what the company is doing to maintain their "green" initiative HERE.

With that out of the way, let's get on with this truly spectacular high chair!

Functionality ***1/2 - This chair does so much, that at first I was somewhat overwhelmed by the thing. Prior to our Whining and Dining series, we had been using the same $25 Ikea high chair that Melissa uses with absolutely no complaint. Then, this chair straight out of the Jetsons showed up on our doorstep, and I didn't know what to think. Starting with the assembly, I took off just half a star. Again, I played no part in the actually assembly, I did watch, and while it was definitely not a painful process, it was a little more time-consuming than either of the other high chairs we've used at our house, but the instruction manual seemed to be very comprehensive, and we didn't have to turn to the computer to figure anything out.

As for the features of this chair, it gets a entire bonus star for going above and beyond any other chair I've ever seen! We didn't get to use this as an infant chair, and at first I was wondering about the benefits of using the same chair for an infant. Then, I thought back to mealtimes when my children were babies. With Nadia, we often propped her up on the Boppy on the table so she could sit with us. Usually, she ended up squirming herself off the pillow and onto the table. We could have had her in the Fresco Loft chair without the tray, reclined back just a little, and she would have been so much more comfortable, but still a part of our meal. With Isaac, we usually ended up putting his grumpy butt in the bouncy chair, but I always felt so guilty that he wasn't sitting with us that I would end up holding him and trying to eat with one arm, which ended up making a mess all over both of us. Again, putting him in the chair would have allowed him to enjoy meals with us, and yet, not end the meal covered in crumbs!

What we have used this chair for is dining with a 14-month old, a messy, food-throwing, 14-month old who demands to feed himself everything, including yogurt and oatmeal, and who believes that the sign for all done is to start pushing all his uneaten food off the edges of the tray. But, even Isaac has been no match for the "super-size" tray on this chair. Here's why. For starters, as Melissa mentioned in her review of the Bloom Nano last week, even in the fully upright position, Isaac is still reclined back just a little. While this may not be the most comfortable position for some toddlers, for Isaac it has been crucial in helping keep my floors cleaner! The slight recline keeps him from being able to reach to the end of his tray. He pushes the food as far as he can get it, but he can't quite get to the edges of the tray! I get more than a little satisfaction out of watching his stubborn little self try and try to get rid of the food, but he just can't. Plus, once it's out of his reach, he can no longer throw it either. My floor clean-up has gone from ten minutes to two! The only time I've ever seen Isaac actually look uncomfortable was last night when my husband tightened up the shoulder straps as tight as they would go. It kept Isaac too far back in the chair to reach forward for the food. It was actually a little disturbing to watch, and I forced my husband to loosen them up giving Isaac a little more freedom to lean forward, but still not enough to completely destroy the floors with food.

I mentioned the "super-size" tray. It really is super-sized, and is easy to take on and off. It has a big lip to contain the food and spills, too. Underneath the big tray is a smaller tray for playtime, too. Again, it removes easily and both are dishwasher safe. I LOVE being able to just throw the tray in the sink to wash it up. There is something to be said for plastic in the life of a busy mom! Using the trays is not mandatory however, and you can simply push your child up to the table if you'd prefer.

Other features of the chair include the pneumatic lift, reclining seat, 360 degree swivel, rolling casters and a 5-point harness. As I mentioned before, you can adjust this chair all the way up to counter top height! We have our chair set to make Isaac level with the rest of us at dinner and don't really adjust the height, but the option is there. There is also the multiple-position reclining seat which, again, would have been great when Isaac was a baby and wanted to be with us at the table, and would also make it the perfect chair for those first feedings. The seat also swivels a full 360 degrees which at first sort of seemed unnecessary, but I've found to come in handy to help me get Isaac in and out. I no longer have to slide the whole chair away from the table, or uncomfortably lean out across the table to get him unbuckled and out of the chair. My husband has also used to turn grumpy Isaac around when we don't want to see him throwing a tantrum because we won't let him feed himself! The casters are nice to help move this not-so-light chair when you need to clean under it and are pretty straight-forward in their operation. Finally, there's the 5-point harness. I'm not personally a huge fan of the 5-point harness because it's really just two more straps for me to clean, BUT I will concede that my little Houdini cannot get himself out of this chair with all the straps buckled. There are shoulder pads for young ones, but I wouldn't caution against them for toddlers. They get pretty dirty. We've also taken to putting Isaac's bib on him after he's buckled in to help keep at least the shoulder straps a little cleaner.

This leads me to my only complaint about the functionality of this chair, and that is that the cleaning up after a meal takes a little effort. The time that I save not having to clean up the floor has been replaced with time spent cleaning up the seat. The micro suede look is way cool, don't get me wrong, but if you've ever experienced micro suede before, you'll know that while yes, it does wipe pretty thoroughly clean, my rag sort of catches on the fabric when I'm wiping. There's just a lot of friction which means I can't sort of round up all the random bits of food in just one swipe like I can off smooth plastic. I have to make several trips back and forth from the chair to the trash to get it all wiped off. Plus, little crumbs get caught between the chair pad and the tray support. You can remove the pad and throw it in the sink with some dish soap which is nice, but you have to first unthread all the seat belts which is a pain and definitely not something you want to mess around with on a daily basis. The nice part is that even blackberries don't really stain the seat all that much, but I've had to put aside my hatred of all the little crumbs that collect in random places. Also, because the base of the chair is round, it's a little more difficult to clean up the floor than other chairs I've used.

Even with the little bit of extra effort required to clean it, I seriously challenge you to find a high chair that can do more than the Bloom Fresco Loft Contemporary Baby Chair. The more we use the chair, the more and more my husband and I like it.


Style **** - While this chair is definitely on the more contemporary end of the spectrum, I totally dig its space age look. The base of the chair comes in white or black. We have white and while it looks perfectly classy, I've been kicking myself for not choosing the more edgy black. As for the chair pads, they are available in 9 colors including red, pink, orange, brown, green, blue, white, black and gray. You can also glam your chair up with either gold or silver leatherette if you desire!

Price - I'm not even going to go there with this category. You are either in the market for a $400 high chair or you're not. What I can say is that there is no single piece of the chair that feels cheap. It's made of top-notch materials and it shows. From the straps on the 5-point harness to the plastic on the trays, you can tell that Bloom didn't cut any corners in securing quality materials for the construction of this chair.

Overall Rating ***3/4 - Keeping in mind that I didn't factor in any stars on the price, this chair is out of this world! My husband and I both appreciate the functionality of a product, and this chair is strong on function while also having a super cool contemporary look, too. It's not a chair for those who are short on floor space as it's a pretty sizeable piece of furniture, but if you have the room and just as importantly the means, then I don't think you'll ever be disappointed in what the Bloom Fresco Loft Contemporary Baby Chair has to offer!

If you're interested in where you can buy one of a Fresco Loft, use this LINK to see online retailers or to locate a store near you.