Stokke Tripp Trapp Review: The Last Highchair You’ll Buy?

Who this is for

Families who want to buy a highchair once, and who eat at a table the chair can pull up to. The Tripp Trapp's whole design premise is that the child sits at the family table from the first meal — if your eating happens on sofas and breakfast bars, a tray-based highchair fits life better.

Why the adjustability actually matters

Most highchairs are outgrown; the Tripp Trapp is re-fitted. The seat and footrest plates slide to any depth and height, so a six-month-old, a three-year-old and a ten-year-old all get the same ergonomics: bottom back, knees at ninety degrees, feet planted on a solid footrest. That footrest is the sleeper feature — dangling feet make toddlers wriggle and tire during meals, and a supported base measurably helps self-feeding. Almost nothing under £100 offers a properly adjustable one.

The pricing honesty section

The £199+ headline buys the bare chair — which a baby cannot safely sit in. For the highchair stage you need the Baby Set (harness rail and back), and many families add the tray and a cushion. Cost the real bundle at £250–£300, then weigh it against a decade-plus of use and a second-hand market where clean Tripp Trapps sell fast. Per year of service it undercuts almost everything; as an upfront outlay it's the most expensive chair in our highchair guide.

Living with it

Weaning mess wipes off the lacquered beech easily, though the seat-rail crevices collect porridge and want a weekly toothbrush pass. The chair is stable in normal use with its extended floor gliders, and replacement parts (straps, gliders, plates) are all buyable individually — repairability being half the reason these chairs survive multiple children.

Setting it up right (most people don't)

The Tripp Trapp's ergonomics only deliver if it's adjusted — and the adjustment most families miss is the footrest. The rule: seat depth so the child's back touches the backrest with two or three fingers' gap behind the knees, seat height so elbows land at table height, footrest so knees bend at ninety degrees with feet flat. Re-check every few months; a growth spurt quietly turns a perfect setup into dangling feet. Allen key adjustments take five minutes and the manual's guide is genuinely good.

Two safety notes from long-term use: keep the chair pushed fully to the table (the extended gliders prevent backward tipping, but a child pushing off the table edge is the classic incident), and always use the harness with the Baby Set — the rail alone is not a restraint.

Tripp Trapp vs the £25 IKEA Antilop

The comparison every parent makes. The Antilop is brilliant at what it is: £25, wipeable in seconds, zero adjustment, and unbeatable as a second chair for grandparents' houses. What it can't do is grow — no footrest support (dangling feet), outgrown by age 3, and the child sits away from the table on their own island. The honest framing: Antilop if budget rules or as the messy-weaning workhorse; Tripp Trapp if you're buying once for a decade of family meals. Plenty of households run both and regret neither.

Colours, wood and the second-hand market

Beech is the classic and toughest; oak versions cost more and mark slightly more easily. Painted colours hide toddler damage better than the pale naturals. Second-hand, Tripp Trapps are the rare baby purchase that holds 50%+ of value — check the year (post-2006 chairs have the extended gliders), buy the Baby Set new if hygiene matters to you (straps are machine-washable regardless), and factor that resale into the price complaint: a £259 chair that returns £130 after a decade of use costs about £13 a year.

Verdict

Four and a half stars. The half held back is for the out-of-box economics — needing the Baby Set to make the chair baby-usable feels like buying a car and adding the seats. As a piece of design that grows with the child, nothing else in the category comes close.