They say children can play with anything they find around them… well, what if you designed regular objects with playful characteristics and features to help engage children? Meet the Island Stool, a child-size sitting stool that has a bead-maze on the bottom of its seat. Just flip the stool over and it turns into a toy that the child can play with!
The Island Stool was designed after Hyeona, a kindergarten art-teacher, noticed that kids often try to engage and play with the things they find around them. If it’s in their visual periphery or their arms reach and it piques their curiosity, a child will reach out and try to play with it. The Island Stool was designed to encourage and facilitate that playful nature. The lightweight stool comes with E0 rated plywood on the top and ash wood legs. Coated with non-toxic paints, the stool comes in either pastel blue or green (which plays off well against the wooden finish of the legs) and features a fun, wooden bead-maze on its base that kids can play and engage with. The bead maze’s convoluted 3D design is a good way to exercise a child’s motor skills and their ability to plot the bead’s path in 3D. The wooden construction makes the Island Stool safe for children, while the beads produce a rattling sound whenever flipped over, adding an element of fun to the furniture!
Designers: Hyeona Kim & WooSeok Lee.
