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Bloom Fresco Loft
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A Beautiful High Chair for Modern Mamas!
The Bloom Fresco is a gorgeous high chair with a 3-in-1 design. Unlike most high chairs that are not usable until your child can sit up, the Fresco is the only contemporary chair that is suitable from birth up to 5 years old. We absolutely love the versatility and longevity that the Fresco provides.
This is a chair that we coveted from afar because of its B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L, modern design. When the chair arrived, we weren't disappointed and neither was every visitor we had to our kitchen that commented on our new gorgeous high chair. The Fresco has a unique design that includes a pod-like seat set up on a pedestal with a wide circular base. Available in vibrant, beautiful colors, there is a choice for all modern mamas. The Fresco is loaded with features for both mom and baby.
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The pod-seat is roomy and complete with a padded 5-point harness. Now, the harness covers are a little ridiculous, in our opinion. As much as we love padded harnesses, the removable covers on the Fresco are huge. They are not very flexible so with the size, they are more a nuisance than a help. Even with our older tester approaching 2 years old, the harness covers seemed to just get in the way. We suggest removing these covers from the start to avoid the hassle.
The color of the chair pad and harness you choose is important as well. We tested a black Fresco Loft chair with a white seat pad and harnesses. While it was gorgeous to look at, we do not recommend white harnesses on anything that will have food anywhere near it. Our kids eat spaghetti, squash, and even holiday Oreos (with the colored filling), so white harnesses are not our friend! They stain and look very dirty, very quickly. So, we recommend getting any color of seat pad and harness BUT white!
The seat has a pneumatic-assist, easy-lift height adjustment that allows the height to be put in any position. To adjust the height, pull up on two levers on either side of the frame and push down or pull up on the seat to adjust the height. This is a great option to get the perfect height for your dining table or counter top.
The entire seat can swivel 360 degrees for easy access with a swivel/height resister. The resister can be engaged to prevent the seat height from being adjusted and prevent free swiveling. We found the swivel feature doesn't become completely locked but more slows it down. It was designed to prevent inadvertent or free spinning. Put a young child in the chair with an older sibling nearby and you'll understand what free spinning is. With adult force, the chair can still rotate with the resistor engaged. The seat also has a 3 position recline that is easy to do one-handed with a lever on the back of the seat.
What makes the Fresco so great besides its gorgeous design is the versatility and longevity. There are three modes of use starting with the cradle mode that is suitable from birth to 6 months. (Bloom recommends stop using the cradle mode when the child can sit up unassisted.) The cradle mode has three recline positions including horizontal for the comfort of sleeping babies. We love that the cradle option gives us a place for our new babies to rest while we are in the kitchen. The cradle mode can be used with or without the included 'comfort nest', which is a large plastic insert for the bottom of the seat to provide a better fit for smaller babies.
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Once your baby can sit up, the Fresco can be transformed from cradle to high chair mode. Changing from mode to mode isn't hard but you do have to make sure you read the instructions to do it correctly. By adding the safety bar and the dual trays, the high chair can be used from 6 months to 3 years old. We love the safety bar because it's fixed to the seat keeping our child in place in the chair plus it allows us to push the baby up to the table without the tray to eat with the family. There is also an adjustable footrest with three height positions for the comfort of your child.
The dual trays consist of a mini tray and a larger food tray that slides on and off with two hands by squeezing the left and right levers located under the tray. The food tray can also be put in two different positions by sliding it in and out using the same levers. Both trays are dishwasher safe. The food tray slides easily but we found that it also scratches very, very easily. If you get the tray in black (an option with the Loft version), these scratches will be much more evident! After we hand washed the tray one time and hand dried it with a soft towel, the entire tray had scratch swirl marks on it. Out of the box the Fresco was absolutely shiny new and looked fabulous, so needless to say we were a little disappointed that on a $400-$500 high chair the tray scratched up so quickly and easily. Our high chair tray looked "used" after only one use. Maybe we are a bit anal, but we'd compare it to the first scratches/scuffs on our husbands' brand new cars that they dwell on for weeks. Plus, the tray gained more and more scratches with subsequent uses. We don't see this happening with the white tray so if a scratched up tray will bother you, stick with a white frame and tray.
In high chair mode, the seat has two positions and will recline halfway back. Note: the seat does not recline to the horizontal position in this mode.
Once your child is past the "high chair age", the Fresco transforms into a toddler chair to extend its life even more. By removing the safety bar, tray and 5 point harness, the chair can be used from 36 months to 5 years (79 lbs). The toddler chair mode can be used with or without the safety bar and we found that we liked to keep the bar on until the child can comfortably and safely sit in a chair on their own. Even our biggest toddler/child testers were still comfortable in the chair at 4 and 5 years old.
With the exception of white harnesses, we found the Fresco rather easy to clean. While crumbs do fall and like to hide under the seat pad and comfort nest, it's all very easy to wipe down. Our one complaint would be that there is a huge strip of Velcro under the seat pad keeping it in place that likes to collect food that is hard to clean. Ever try to wipe down Velcro? Not easy. Since it has a micro-suede seat pad, there are very specific cleaning instructions in the product manual for tips on cleaning and removing stains. With such an expensive price tag, we have a sneaky suspicion that parents purchasing this chair are not cleaning it themselves as they may have some help.
Other features of the Fresco include a compartment for storage of small accessories needed for the high chair to transform it from one mode to the next and castor wheels on front of base for easy 'lift and glide' movement.
The Bloom Fresco is available in two different models: standard Fresco and Fresco Loft. The difference between the standard Fresco and the Loft is height, color choices and price. The Fresco Loft has an extra 5 inches of height than the standard Fresco - making it a fabulous choice for using at not just standard height tables but also breakfast bars, counters and those taller bar height dining tables. The Fresco Loft also comes in black. The additional height and color choices are going to cost you $100 though.
Even though we think the Bloom Fresco is very expensive retailing for $400 for the standard and $500 for the Loft, we do think you are essentially paying for versatility, longevity and art with this chair. Definitely a luxury baby item, the Bloom Fresco High Chair is absolutely gorgeous, like a piece of modern art in your kitchen. It has some great features such as a 3-in-1 option making it suitable from birth to 5 years, a large roomy 360 swivel seat, dishwasher safe dual trays, a infinite height adjustment and a great modern look. If you can afford a stunning chair that will last you at least 5 years (more if you use it with multiple kids) that you can start using from the moment you return from the hospital, the Bloom Fresco is a great choice that will look fabulous in your kitchen.
Remember, as absolutely gorgeous as it is, if your baby really plans on using the high chair, we suggest that you do not choose the white seat as the harnesses are very, very hard to clean and know that the black tray scratches very quickly and easily.
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