It doesn’t matter how much time, money and effort you’ve put into the interior design of your home; once baby arrives it’s a slippery slope to chaos. With baby comes a slew of gifts and necessary items seemingly designed by someone in love with primary colors, country plaid and cartoon animals. Now maybe babies aren’t born with a sense of style and really are only attracted to the extremes of the color wheel but grown-ups have to see this stuff too ya know. If you obsess over details like I do these new accessories are roughly the equivalent of finger nails on the proverbial chalkboard. Luckily we seem to be in some sort of design revolution (thanks HGTV) and new baby stuff is coming out everyday that actually appeals to the eye, instead of making you want to gouge them out.

Lets take a look at the primary offender, the high chair. Now when I say “look” I really mean imagine because I’m not about to post a picture of the horror Graco has to offer. We’ve all seen’em. So instead lets look at better options.

Nest High Chair

First up is the Nest High Chair, designed in Australia by Sally Dominguez. When I was looking for a high chair after our first child was born, this was the model that initially caught my eye. It has a classic tulip-style base with a glossy bubble chair sitting on top. It’s a fairly simple design which translates to “good” in my book and has a nice balance of metal and acrylic. Another tick for the positive is that the base can be shortened to form a toddler chair. Which is good because this chair will set you back about $500, so you’ll want to get some use out of it.

In the looks department the Nest High Chair is definitely scoring high with me but how about functionality? The most obvious feature of this chair is the base. The tulip design means two things to me, stable and compact. At some point you’re going to want to pull your food wrestler closer to the table so he or she can be in on the action. With a clunky 4-leg model that can be a challenge but the tulip design enables it to snug in without pushing everyone else away. Another point to consider is, of course, safety. This chair is nice and stable and also comes with a safety harness so it should be all good. Clean-up is another factor that can’t be ignored and the Nest high chair receives more good marks. The polyethylene seat lets you wipe away the mess and the lack of an upholstered cushion means there’s nothing to go to the wash.

Now I know I’ve had a lot of positive things to say about this chair so lets touch on some limitations. This sucker is pretty small. Now I think most of us will consider this a good thing but if you’re used to having a tray table large enough to hold a 5-course meal you’re going to be out of luck. The Nest chair includes a small tray so expect more on the floor. Once could also argue that the bucmissing cushion might make is seat uncomfortable but I think your little one will survive. Overall I think you get a lot of bang for your buck with this model.

Svan High Chair

Another modern high chair option is the Swedish Svan High Chair. On first glance it looks like a piece of plywood sculpture, possibly from the mid-century era. Though to me it also resembles a torture device of some kind. I like the look of the wooden construction but the nuts, bolts and awkward pieces required to make this chair adjustable, which it is, keep it looking a little busy and complicated for my taste. And with all those bolts and hard angles I’m guessing clean up isn’t all that fun.

Now the news isn’t all bad. The Svan High Chair does have a small footprint, it isn’t plaid and the tray table is at least larger than the Nest High Chair’s. Also the price is something worth considering. At around $260 the wallet sting will wear off quickly. Though if you want the seat padding that will cost you an extra $40. The tray itself is wooden which looks cool but isn’t quite as washable as the competition. It comes with a plastic tray “protector” which does a good job of covering the wood beneath it but I can tell you my wife would almost certainly use it without the protector attached.

So lets sum this one up. You get a neat looking chair for a decent dollar exchange. It’s small and grows with your child. And has enough eating space. On the downside it has an overly complex design that’s potentially hard to clean. If you want something unique and don’t have endless pockets this might be the model for you.

Bloom High Chair

The Bloom High Chair appears to be a spin-off of Eero Aarnio’s 1966 Ball chair, but a bit more eggy. You can see it’s a plastic modern marvel that prides itself on function. Unlike most high chairs this one rotates and reclines so you can use it as a baby sleep pod. Pretty cool. It also has tons of adjustment so it will grow with your child. Now all this design doesn’t come cheap. You’ll have to fork over $400 - $500 to bring this chair home to baby.

The Bloom High Chair has a spacious plastic feeding tray and built in padding with a synthetic micro-suede type fabric. The base of the chair is a round, desconstructed tulip-style thing. I dont’ love it but it certainly isn’t ugly. Overall this chair is nothing short of cool, though like the Svan High Chair its abundant features and adjustments do make it look a bit like a torture restraint - the kind you might expect to see in a Hollywood alien abduction sequence. You can even choose from a range of colors to fit your particular set, er, I mean home.

I’ve said before that with me it’s the simpler the better so I’m deducting points for the complexity. However adjusting this chair looks down right easy. I also like that it has padding and the material should clean somewhat easily but I’ll bet it requires scrubbing. It also has wheels in the base so it will glide around.

Bottom line is the Boom high chair combines modern styling with super-duper function but it aint cheap.

Boon High Chair

Next in our line up is the Boon High Chair. Yes that’s right, the name is very similar to the last chair but we’ve removed some features (read complexity.) The Boon high chair has a familiar tulip-style base, beefy chrome pole and a molded seat on top. Now let me say up front that I happen to own a Boon High Chair. I see them on the web going anywhere from $200 on up to $400. We paid $200 for ours at the local baby paraphernalia peddler. Initially I wasn’t considering this chair for our home. I was set on the Nest High Chair and in comparison the Boon’s base seemed chunky. I still feel that way when I see it in pictures but in person the scale seems quite nice. That chunky plastic base has a few tricks up its sleeve too. Housed inside in a set of wheels and a pneumatic height adjust system - just like you would expect to find on an office chair. There’s an orange button you step on to raise and lower the chair which is quite handy and a pedal that drops a rubberized weight to keep it from rolling around.

The seat is made of a smooth molded plastic of sort that has a nice continuous form which makes cleaning it super easy. It also has a cushion made of closed-cell foam, which reminds me of something you’d find in a boat. That too cleans very easily and can be removed with little effort. The Boon High Chair does suffer from a smallish feeding tray but it makes up for it. The tray is plastic with a simple release mechanism and then has a clear plastic outer tray that snaps on. Since both are plastic is isn’t a big deal when my wife uses it without the clear over tray. Lew! You can throw the outer tray right into the dishwasher and since it’s small you won’t have to play musical dishes to make it fit.

I hate to give a glowing review but in fairness I’m having trouble thinking of a downside. It’s cheapish. The tray is small but handy. The looks aren’t awesome but still very pleasing. And the overall function is fabulous. I will say the brake that keeps it from rolling around isn’t very strong but it does the job.
Overall this is a very hard chair to beat. It even comes with an extra clear over tray.

Henry IV High Chair

Our last chair is the Henry IV High Chair from Sibi and it’s by far the most expensive. At $1200 this high chair is for the extreme modernist baby only. This sucker is a magnificent modernist masterpiece. Say that 3 times fast. Apparently the Germans don’t just make attractive cars. The Henry IV High Chair is a symphony of bent birch plywood and metal. It has a wonderful minimalist silhouette and just the right amount of cushion. But does it work?

So it’s lovely, and expensive but high chairs need to function. The Henry IV high chair has a small base and a converts to a toddler chair. So far so good. Feeding tray you ask? Well it’s more like a feeding plank. I suppose you could fit something on there but with no lip it won’t be there long. The person who buys a Henry IV high chair is truly committed to aesthetics. So, when mine arrives next week… just kidding. There isn’t much more I can say about this chair. I don’t think it even has safety straps but it sure looks good when not in use.

So if your mess machine needs a high chair it might be time to hit up the baby mall and see these bad boys in person.