Clark Davis at a Kid’s Table and Chair Set

To hear Clark Davis, the founder of Sprout Kids Furniture talk about their kids furniture, you can hear real passion.  You can tell how excited he is about the furniture that he is making and that he loves doing it.  Clark’s experiences growing up have been put into the creation of Sprout.  Creating is something that he has loved to do ever since he was a kid.  As a child, growing up in rural Utah, Clark and his eight siblings had no TV, so inventing and creating became their means of entertainment.  They played legos in the winter and worked on forts, huts, and other imaginative “buildings” in the summer, using scrap wood from their father’s cabinet shop.  He even says, “ I might have been a little obsessive about creating as a kid.”

Clark playing legos as a child.creating as a kid.

Well, his obsession has paid off.  Sprout kids furniture is an exciting brand of kids furniture that we now offer here at ModernTots.  It’s easy to see how Clark’s experiences and passions as a child have been put into the creation of furniture that enables children to be creative inventors themselves.  Each item is modular in the way that you can mix and match pieces to create something new.

In college, Davis got into mechanical engineering, although there were many other interests, including anthropology, economics, and linguistics.  He took business classes to help him “be able to do my own thing.”  He says that he wanted to follow his dreams and make a difference in the world.  Each of his experiences contributed to his success with his Sprout Kid’s furniture line.  Including, his decision to quit his job working part time at an engineering company and dump half his life savings into a buying a license of CAD software to do freelance design consulting.  “It was a rocky start but unless you are an idiot, rocky starts will teach you a lot really fast,”  Clark says of his first venture.

Clark with his little sister and the fort they made.

There are so many good things to say about the furniture that Sprout is making.  First, it is made in the USA.  It is eco-friendly by being made from pre and post consumer recycled materials, which is something we love here at ModernTots.  All products are made from CARB (California Air Resources Board) compliant materials, which means that the chemical emissions in the materials are regulated to be extremely low.  It is assembled without requiring any tools.  It is easy to put together and take apart for easy storage.  It is so easy in fact, that it is fun for kids to do it too!

If you are interested in seeing more of Clark’s brand, we carry the full line of Sprout Furniture.

We have just recently added bean bags to Modern Tots.  Our first brand to be added is appropriately called Sit On It.  In reality, you can do a lot more than just sit on this variety of bean bag!  They offer pretty large bean bags that you can really lounge and lay down, like The Original.

Getting cozy with a book.

We offer several styles of the Sit On It bean bags, but we were lucky enough to receive a Tryangle bean bag in the color Fruity Orange to get a feel for the product.  The Triangle bean bag is the perfect size for small kids.  In fact our 2 yr old and 4 yr old can both fit on it at the same time pretty comfortably, although it doesn’t last very long without some sort of pushing going on.  When they sit on it by themselves, it is the perfect size for them to plop down and get cozy.  They like to sit down and lay back a little and it just kind of forms around their bodies and supports them.  Very comfortable.  It is great for reading and relaxing, and also perfect for movie time.

Just enough room for two little ones to relax – for a short time!

One of the the first things that I noticed about The Tryangle, when I pulled it out of the box, is that the material of the “bag” is good quality.  It is very durable and you can tell just by feeling it, that it will easily resist spills and stains (which we also tested), a must for having small children.  I was a little worried at first that this would make the bean bag less comfortable, but after trying it out myself, I soon realized that this was not the case.  The material of the bean bag, also allows for outdoor use.  One thing that I was not so fond of about the material, is that it has a little static cling to it, so that pet hair, dust etc sticks to it a little on the bottom.  This is no big deal.  It easily wipes off with a lent cloth and I will also mention that the outer bag is machine washable in cases of emergency, although it is not recommended.  To do so, you have to take all of the beans out and contain them, which is not so easy.

  I have made a reading corner in my son’s room with an Aero Bookcase and Tryangle bean bag.  He loves it!

One last thing to mention, do not throw out the box it comes in too fast, because my two had a lot of fun with it for several days.  It was their “house” and it kept them busy for some time.  Well worth hanging on to it for a little while.

“Living” in the box the Tryangle came in.

Sodura is a very design oriented company.  They even design and create custom pieces when they are not producing their popular Aero line.  It all starts with a 3D CAD design or drawing, like the chair below.  Once the design is put down on digital paper, that’s when the real magic happens.

A 3D CAD drawing of the Aero Chair.

Almost everything made by Sodura is cut out by a CNC router.  Most of us aren’t familiar with this kind of technology, but this large machine is what cuts out the pieces of the furniture from wood.  It uses the “digital blueprint” from the CAD drawing to know what shape to cut.

This is the router that does all of the heavy lifting down at Sodura’s manufacturing facility.

Sodura’s Founder Brian Scyphers has a background in engineering, where he was educated in quality and organizational systems.  These skills helped to translate into the manufacturing process of creating furniture – all of the steps involved from the thought, to the drawing, to the setup of the router and cutting, to the sanding and finishing, and making sure that the quality of the finished piece is high.

According to Sodura, these two things are the key to having superior quality.  The level of precision and repeat-ability that the CAD to CNC process gives them is far greater than using traditional tools.  It also allows them to produce in small batches which makes doing custom work possible.

See all of Sodura‘s items.

Sodura was started by a mom and a dad who wanted to see a brand of children’s furniture that was truly eco-friendly and heirloom quality.  All of their products proudly have the label of made in USA.  All products are designed and made in Louisville, KY.