Submitted by: Jesse Akre

Outdoor furniture is not just for adults anymore. Think back to your days as a kid. If you were trying to join the family at the patio table, you had to climb up on that big chair and try to peek over the table’s edge. Outdoor furniture just wasn’t made for kids at that time. If you wanted to really be able to sit at table level, you probably had to find a book or a box to prop yourself up on, or use the lap of a relative who would humor you. Not anymore.

Furniture designers seem to be thinking of everything these days, and are taking that awkward fit of the outdoor furniture set away from today’s youth, creating outdoor furniture pieces that are proportional to their size.

If you are thinking this means the end of always watching to see if the little one is going to tumble from their oddly balanced position, and you are ready to run out and find pieces of kid furniture, there are a few notes you should heed when buying kid friendly outdoor furniture.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-wpQ1Je8EA[/youtube]

First, with kids, one size never fits all. Look for customizable kid friendly outdoor furniture that can be created to the right size to fit your child’s body. There are some pieces that are adjustable so they will be able to change with your child for a while, as their body grows from a toddler, into a child and then even into the pre-teen years.

Make sure it’s a quality piece of furniture. While there are a number of kid-friendly furniture pieces that are well built, there are also a number of knock-offs that look like they would be safe, but are made cheaply, and may not hold up to the play patterns of a child. When you are considering a piece of furniture, look at its safety features and see if you think it will really hold up. Often, price will tell you the truth, as high-quality, tested kid-friendly furniture is going to cost a bit more than the less-safe knock-offs.

Before you let your child on their new piece of outdoor furniture, make sure there are no hidden threats. Feel around for sharp or rough edges that were not smoothed as well as they should have been. If it’s wood, that could mean a splinter waiting to go into your child’s skin. Sharp plastic edges are a cut waiting to happen. A major source of injuries on outdoor furniture is all those screws and bolts that are used to tighten the pieces together. On children’s outdoor furniture these pieces should be fastened tightly, and flush, if possible, with the furniture pieces.

Additionally, if the piece of furniture has any joints where it bends from one position to another, these joints should be covered, often they will be within a piece of hard plastic, that will let them work but keep little fingers from getting pinched when the furniture piece is in use.

About the Author: Jesse Akre, author and owner of several decor sites offers his thoughts on buying elegant

teak furniture

,stylish

patio furniture

classic and

teak tables

.

Source:

isnare.com

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