The Joovy Nook High Chair offers an affordable minimalist seat to feed your baby in. Joovy put some thought into the chair, making it a unique option in its class. It does have a few concerns – it’s missing a few key features necessary for a high-quality chair.
Take a look at the pros and cons so you can decide if this basic high chair is the right option for your family.
Important Benefits of the Joovy Nook High Chair
Joovy recently remodeled the Nook to bring this new chair to the market. They read customer reviews to redesign their already-popular high chair and bring a new chair to the front lines. Overall, they did a decent job.
Space Saving
The main benefit of the Joovy Nook High Chair is that it saves space. Some high chairs are space stealing monsters, ready to swallow your kitchen or dining room whole. If you want a high chair you can easily walk around, definitely consider this compact option.
Once you fold the chair up, it takes up even less space, meaning you can keep it around when you need but keep it out of the way when it’s not needed. We will go into more about folding down below.
Minimalist Style
With the Nook, you get a basic high chair without the bells and the whistles. It’s ready to keep your baby or toddler seated for a meal safely without stealing space or a babyish design.
In the past, high chairs came with ultra-decor stealing styles like teddy bears or ruffles. Now high chairs actually come in styles and colors meant to complement your modern design instead of stealing the show and turning your kitchen or dining room into yet another baby room.
The streamlined design is a basic frame and seat. It’s two colors: white on the frame and your choice of black, coral, or red. Sometimes you can find dark teal or gray, but they aren’t always available. No matter what color you pick, it’s not going to clash with your dining table as much as cartoon baby designs they baby can’t even see when in the chair!
It’s about time baby furniture works for decor instead of against it! No crazy patterns or designs here ready to ruin the ambiance of your home.
Easy Assembly
Are you ready for a huge advantage with the Joovy Nook? It folds up so compactly, you don’t have to assemble the high chair! This is a good thing as you are probably tired from assembling the crib, bassinet, swing, changing table, and all of the other baby stuff.
Simply take the Joovy Nook out of the box, unfold it in one movement, and add on the tray table. Done! You have enough stuff to put together, you don’t need another project, and this is a project-free assembly.
Storing & Folding
The Nook is easy to store because it folds up like a dream. As a matter of fact, it folds up small enough to shove in the pantry to make room for guests or just out of the way. Also, as the high chair folds up compactly, you can take it with you to grandma’s house or anywhere else you want to go.
To fold, simply push in the lock button at the top of the high chair and lift the folding mechanism. Push the seat down and grab the handle. That’s it!
Lastly, the handle makes carrying the folded up high chair exceptionally easy. Mind you, the chair is just shy of 15 pounds, though, so it’s a little hefty, but not too difficult to lift into the trunk. Honestly, it’s lighter than your baby and car seat combo!
Tray Table
The tray table is another marked advantage of the high chair. Imagine carrying your baby and trying to move the tray with two hands. No need to go through these acrobatic movements with the Joovy Nook as the tray table. Simply push the button on the side, and the tray table swings open, making room for your baby!
Next, the tray is a very large space, ready to hold a full-size plate and cup while giving your baby plenty of place to squash their hands in mounds of food. If you want to skip dishes your baby can throw off the tray, simply use the removable tray cover. Toss the cover in the dishwasher for easy cleaning.
Furthermore, the tray has four depths to find the right amount of space for your baby. Although, keep in mind that babies are messy and the more space you give them between their tummy and the food is more cleaning of the seat and your baby!
Finally, you can fully remove the tray if you want to give it a thorough cleaning.
Seat Cover
The cover comes with custom lines built-in to prevent the cushion from clumping. Also, it includes two harness adjustment areas to ensure a proper fit for your baby.
Moreover, the leatherette seat offers both a comfortable sitting space and an easy-to-wipe material. For massive food explosion messes, remove the cover and put it in the washing machine for a thorough clean.
Harness
Not all high chairs come with a five-point harness and instead come with a lap belt. Babies tend to squirm and come out of lap belts, though, making five-point harnesses a much safer option. It even comes with two harness lengths to grow with your baby, and you can adjust the straps individually.
Footrest
When your feet dangle in the air, they can get that horrid pins and needles feeling. The Joovy Nook avoids this by adding a footrest for babies’ feet. However, you cannot adjust the footrest, but you can with the Joovy Foodoo.
Specs
Maximum Weight – 50 pounds
Minimum Age – 6 Months
Open Dimensions – 41 x 23.5 x 32 inches
Folded Dimensions – 9 x 23.5 x 28.5 inches
Tray Width – 21 inches wide
Warranty – 2 Years
Free of BPA, BPS, Phthalate
Concerns About the Joovy Nook High Chair
Cleaning Difficulty
Many customers believe the name of the high chair derives from how many nooks that are on the high chair. Yeah, cleaning this chair isn’t easy. They don’t even cover up the screws with little plastics covers to make your life easier.
The tray is the only thing about the Nook that’s easy to clean, and only if the baby manages to keep their mess to the top of the tray. If their little hands touch the bottom of the tray, you are not going to enjoy the clean-up.
Also, while the adjustable tray may seem like a great idea, it just creates more ways for your baby to mess the high chair up. The fabric, too, isn’t quite as easy to wipe clean as Joovy claims. If this bothers you, check out the ultimate list of easy-to-clean high chairs.
Durability
As most items nowadays are made of plastic, it’s no surprise that many elements of the Joovy Nook are also made of plastic, and some of the important parts can break before you are done using the high chair. Thankfully, it comes with a two-year warranty.
Adjustability
Some high chairs can saddle up to the table, thanks to an adjustable height. That’s not an option with this high chair. Actually, it’s not very adjustable at all beyond the five-point harness and the tray table. You can’t adjust the footrest, which is made for only tall babies.
No Wheels
Another feature we would love to see on the Joovy Nook is wheels to make moving the high chair around a little easier. For the price, you would think the company would add a couple of caster wheels to the frame, but they didn’t. Instead, it is a special upgrade feature found on their next grade up high chair, the Joovy Nook NB, which goes up significantly in price.
Age Limit
The Joovy Nook does not work for babies under six months. This means if you want to use it for your newborn, you have to drag another piece of baby furniture into your kitchen or dining area. A newborn high chair will recline and allow for an infant who cannot sit upright.
The Joovy Nook vs. Joovy Nook NB
The Joovy Nook NB High Chair is the slightly better twin to the Joovy Nook. While they look and act very similar, the Joovy Nook NB comes with the wheels you crave and the adjustable three-position recline newborn babies need. Unfortunately, it comes with a much higher price tag, although it can hold the same weight of 50 pounds.
The Joovy Nook vs Graco Slim Spaces
For a lower price, you get some pretty amazing features with the Graco Slim Snacker High Chair compared to the Joovy Nook.
First, the Slim Snacker is easy to move around the room. Second, the high chair folds down to only 8.5 inches as the seat folds down into the frame and makes it small enough you can slide it between the fridge and the counters!
Next, the Slim Spaces has six high positions and three recline levels to make feeding your baby or infant a breeze! Another great feature is the harness converts from a 5 point harness to a 3 point harness easily for older tots. All this, and it comes with an easier to clean cushiony seat with an infant insert, too!
However, the Graco Slim Spaces High Chair can only support 40 pounds or a three-year-old while the Joovy Nook can hold 50 pounds. Most children have moved onto a booster chair at the table by the time they reach their third year. If you want a seat with a high weight limit, though, you need the Joovy Nook.
Lastly, the Graco Slim Spaces doesn’t offer solid color options but rather a few neutral prints you might find on curtains at a motel. Also, its footrests don’t adjust either, but they are more accessible for babies.
The Joovy Nook vs. Evenflo Symmetry
The Evenflo Symmetry High Chair offers a very competitive option for the Joovy Nook. It comes with a lower price and some fantastic features you won’t find on the Joovy Nook.
However, one downfall is the slightly tacky color option of the Symmetry in mint greens and gray, and even the other items are too bright and festive for most kitchens.
Besides the one downfall, the Symmetry high chair offers an 8-inch slim fit fold with a single hand. It’s easy to store and travel with thanks to the compact design. Next, the harness adjusts from a three to five-point harness, making it a great option for older toddlers. The high chair even has a handy pocket in the back for easy storage.
Next, the high chair includes a full fabric washable seat pad. It has two recline positions and three tray positions too. Front wheels on the front make it very easy to move. Although, the Symmetry can only hold 40 pounds while the Joovy can hold up to 50 pounds.
Reviews
Consumer Reports – 77 – Very Good
Target – 4.4 Stars – 92 Reviews
Walmart – 4.4 Stars – 92 Reviews
BuyBuyBaby – 4.2 Stars – 55 Reviews
Amazon – 4.6 Stars – 2,481 Reviews
FAQs About the Joovy Nook
I have a small kitchen/dining room, will the Joovy Nook fit?
The Joovy Nook is one of the most compact high chairs on the market. If your eating area is extra small, then you may want to measure before picking a high chair, but the Nook folds up very small, making it an excellent option. Otherwise, you may want to consider a space-saving seat instead.
How can I keep the Joovy Nook clean?
Honestly? You can’t. Babies are messy, and they will inevitably get any high chair disgusting in no time at all.
The best thing you can do is clean the high chair after every meal to ensure the food mess doesn’t dry on the high chair and make it look worse. If possible, feed your baby messy foods yourself and let them eat foods that aren’t messy from the tray.
Can I leave my baby alone in a high chair?
No. You should never leave your baby alone in a high chair, as they are designed for feeding and eating, not for watching your baby. Even though the baby will be strapped in with a harness, babies are crafty little troublemakers. Inevitably, they will find a way to get hurt like grabbing on to the table and toppling over.
Always stay in the room with your baby when they are in a high chair. Although, it is a safe place to keep them while you cook so long as you keep the far away from the counter and stove.
Conclusion
The Joovy Nook High Chair is very modern and minimalist in appearance, and it even makes our list of the overall best high chairs. However, it has a few flaws.
With the Graco Slim Spaces High Chair, offers everything the Nook is missing and everything we love about the Nook with a smaller price tag. If you can live with the 40 pounds weight limit, then the Slim Spaces is the better option; otherwise, choose the Nook as it can support 50 pounds.
