Best Wooden High Chair: Three We've Used, From Solid Beech to Wooden Legs

Our pick, if you don’t read another word: the best wooden high chair is the Stokke Tripp Trapp. We own one, rate it 5 out of 5, and it’s now the chair we use every day. It’s solid beech, it brings a baby right up to the family table, and it keeps going as a chair long after the high chair years. If you want the look of wood without the weight, two chairs on wooden legs share our 4.5: the Lalo, which we’ve used at daycare for about three months, and the Graco Ready2Dine DLX, which we own.

One note on scope. We cover high chairs as gear. When a baby is ready to sit and eat is a question for the AAP and your pediatrician, and how to fit the harness and use the chair safely is a question for the manual that ships with it and the CPSC, rather than a blog.

What counts as a wooden high chair

Two quite different things get sold as wooden high chairs. One is an all-wood chair, where the frame, the seat and the footrest are wood. The Tripp Trapp is that kind. The other is a seat that isn’t wood on wooden legs, which gets you the look of wood with a lighter, wipe-clean seat. The Lalo and the Graco are that kind.

Neither is better across the board. All-wood is heavier and built to last for years. Wooden legs under a plastic seat are lighter and quicker to clean. Know which you’re after before you compare.

These are the three wooden chairs we’ve actually used, and we only write about chairs we’ve had our hands on. For the wider choice between materials, see wooden vs plastic high chairs.

The three side by side

Our ratings are a judgment about each chair, not a total worked out from this table.

1. Stokke Tripp Trapp: the all-wood chair that lasts

5 / 5our rating

A solid beech chair, rated to 300 lb, that weighs 21.4 lb. Ours came as a bundle with the chair, the Baby Set, a removable 5-point harness, the tray and a cushion. The Baby Set is for 6 to 36 months and attaches without tools, and there are newborn options for it as well. The chair comes with gliders for stability, and the wooden parts carry a 7-year warranty.

What makes it different from every other chair we own is what happens next. When your child outgrows the Baby Set, it comes off, and the chair has adjustable seat and foot plates that move to fit them as they grow, well into adulthood. It was designed by Peter Opsvik in 1972 for exactly that: one chair that seats every age at the same table.

The full review is our Stokke Tripp Trapp review.

2. Lalo: wooden legs and a 5-point harness

4.5 / 5our rating

A 3-in-1 convertible high chair with a non-toxic plastic seat on wooden legs. It weighs 10 lb, is rated to 30 lb, and measures 24.5 by 24.5 inches and 33 inches high. It has a 5-point harness with silicone straps that wipe clean and go on the top rack of the dishwasher, a dishwasher-safe tray, an adjustable footrest, and an organic cotton cushion that machine-washes. With an optional conversion kit it becomes a booster seat, and it also works as a toddler chair.

We’ve used a Lalo but we don’t own one. We know it from daycare, where we’ve used it for about three months, and it’s good for part-time use.

The full review is our Lalo high chair review.

3. Graco Ready2Dine DLX: wooden legs and a chair that folds

4.5 / 5our rating

A compact high chair on beechwood legs, weighing 10.5 lb, with a 3-point harness. Its tray has a clear top insert that lifts off and is dishwasher safe and BPA-free, and its crevice-free seat has fabric and straps that come off to wash. It’s sold as four stages, high chair, toddler feeding seat, youth stool and big kid chair, up to 60 lb. It folds, though not flat, and it’s small standing up. We’ve had ours about a year and a half.

The full review is our Graco high chair review. How it compares with our old everyday chair is in Baby Trend vs Graco, and the other compact chairs we own are in the best high chairs for small spaces.

Ratings compared

Every product on this page, ranked by our overall rating. These are considered verdicts after living with them, not the average of any table above.

#	Product	Our rating
1	Stokke Tripp Trapp High Chair	5 / 5
2	Lalo The Chair 3-in-1 Convertible High Chair	4.5 / 5
3	Graco High Chair	4.5 / 5

Stokke Tripp Trapp vs Lalo

These are the two wooden chairs people most often weigh against each other, and they’re built on different ideas. The Tripp Trapp is a solid beech chair meant to last into adulthood. The Lalo is a light plastic seat on wooden legs, made for the baby and toddler years. We own the Tripp Trapp and it’s our everyday chair. We’ve used the Lalo at daycare for about three months.

Build and weight

The Tripp Trapp is solid beech, rated to 300 lb, with gliders for stability and a 7-year warranty on the wooden parts, and its build is very good. That solidity is also why it weighs 21.4 lb, more than twice the Lalo. The Lalo weighs 10 lb because only the legs are wood, which makes it far easier to lift and move, and it’s rated to 30 lb.

Harness and cleaning

Both have a 5-point harness, so neither gives anything away there. Where they differ is cleaning. The Lalo is built around it: the tray is dishwasher-safe, the silicone straps go on the top rack of the dishwasher, and the organic cotton cushion machine-washes. The Tripp Trapp is easy to clean in our use with its tray on, but it doesn’t have the Lalo’s dishwasher-safe straps.

How long each one lasts

This is the biggest difference. The Lalo is for the baby and toddler years: it’s rated to 30 lb, and with an optional conversion kit it becomes a booster. The Tripp Trapp starts earlier, with newborn options as well as its 6 to 36 month Baby Set, and when the Baby Set comes off, the chair’s seat and foot plates adjust as your child grows, well into adulthood. It’s the one chair we’ve used that doesn’t have an end date.

Comfort and everyday use

Comfort is the one place we’d mark the Lalo down, and it’s the most likely reason it’s a 4.5 rather than a 5 for us. For part-time use, like daycare, it’s a good chair. The Tripp Trapp is the one we chose for every meal at home, and it’s the chair we use every day now.

Which to pick

Pick the Stokke Tripp Trapp if you want one chair for every meal at home that keeps going for years, from the newborn options to a chair an adult can sit in. Pick the Lalo if you want wood on a light chair, easy-wash straps and cushion, or a chair for part of the day rather than every meal. The full write-ups are our Stokke Tripp Trapp review and our Lalo high chair review.

Which one to buy

If you want one chair your child will use for years, buy the Stokke Tripp Trapp. It’s the only chair we’ve used that carries on past the baby and toddler stages, and it’s the one we use every day. For cheaper grow-with-me alternatives to it, see the best convertible high chair.

If you want wooden legs and a 5-point harness on a light chair, buy the Lalo. It weighs less than half as much as the Tripp Trapp, and it’s good for part-time use like daycare.

If you want a wooden-legged chair that folds and takes little floor space, or cleaning is what you care about most, buy the Graco. Its lift-off tray insert is the easiest to clean of any chair we own.

If a 5-point harness matters to you, choose the Tripp Trapp or the Lalo. The Graco is 3-point.

For every high chair we own, wooden or not, see our best high chair roundup. If you’re still deciding which features matter, our high chair buying guide goes through them one at a time, and how to clean a baby high chair covers the daily routine for any of them.

The bottom line

The Stokke Tripp Trapp is the best wooden high chair we’ve used and our 5 out of 5: solid beech, very well built, easy to clean, a 5-point harness on its Baby Set and newborn options, and a chair that keeps going for years. The Lalo and the Graco Ready2Dine DLX share our 4.5 as lighter chairs on wooden legs. Pick the Lalo for its 5-point harness, and the Graco if you want it to fold and clean up fast.