This isn’t a crappy little painted-pine toy bench like you see at the big boxes. Leave it to Lee Valley to recommend a kids’ bench that you’d be proud to use as an adult. They claim it’s “solidly built with mortise-and-tenon joints, lag bolt construction, and a 1″ thick top made of solid birch.” And its beauty is more than wood deep: You get two vises, too, (perfect for woodworking) and a little particleboard shelf for storage.
Best of all, when your kids outgrow it, you can install the longer trestle leg sections (that come with it) and raise it from a kid-friendly 25-1/2″ height to 33-3/4″ — just the thing for sliding out to hold something in place while you sand or glue. Think of it as a really fancy Workmate. From Sweden. (With love.)
It’s currently $300, which seems spendy compared to toy benches but doesn’t sound bad at all for something this usable. Hell, I’d have killed for one of these as a kid. The only trick will be convincing the kids that it’s not a paint stand.
Sjobergs Compact Workbench [Lee Valley]