Time was when all a man could do was lament the shortage of sweet, modernist bamboo crib options. Then when his years-long wish is finally fulfilled, what's he do? I feel like that guy in the Shawshank Redemption, the ex-con who worked in the grocery store and couldn't handle the glorious options of his new, free world.
It's been weeks since I saw Celery's beautiful Lullaboo line at the International Gift Fair in NYC. The company was founded by some [the?] hip parents in Bozeman, Montana. The furniture is made of high-finish, eco-friendly materials like bamboo laminate and formaldehyde-free MDF. The flat-cut components are held together by old-fashioned mortise-and-tenon joints that you literally knock together with a bamboo mallet [included, as if you'd already have a bamboo mallet lying around the house].
The stuff looks like it was created by someone who grew up in a master woodworker's shop, then went away to design school, where he became a treehugger and fell in love with CNC routers.
Celery offers all-MDF options, which are the most traditionally nursery-like, or MDF-bamboo combos. I would love to see what all-bamboo looks like, personally. But the real temptation is the chalkboard painted components, partly for the color, but mostly for the awesome, pound-in chalkboard tray. Day-um, but that's sweet.
They're a bit expensive [cradle, $510-590, crib $1200-1400, changing table $815-950] but at least you know why, so it's good. If you're going to be at CA Boom, the indie design show at the Santa Monica Airport this weekend, you can get a taste of Celery's crunchy goodness in person.
Get Celery at DT advertiser Sparkability [sparkability.net]
Or check out the Celery Furniture site [celeryfurniture.com]
