How to choose a learning tower in Australia
A learning tower that works for your family is one that brings your child up to the height of your bench, sits somewhere you're comfortable having them stand, holds the weight it needs to, and turns into whatever else you need from it.
Choosing one is harder than it looks, because in a photograph most towers look much the same. The differences show up in six places: how the height works with your bench, how it's designed for safety and what testing sits behind that, where it will live in your kitchen, what it converts into, what it's made of and how much it holds, and what it costs plus what to ask beyond the price.
This article works through those six in that order, with the measurements and the wording you can use to ask a seller a straight question. There's a checklist at the end.
What is a learning tower, and what does it do?
A learning tower is a timber frame with a step and a surround, designed to bring a small child up to bench height so they can take part in what's happening in the kitchen: washing fruit, stirring a bowl, watching you cook.
That's the difference between a tower and a step stool. A stool lifts a child up. A tower lifts them up and puts something around them, which is what makes it usable for the stretch of time it takes to actually help with something.
You'll see the tower in more than one look through this article. Bunny and Fox are the same product in two designs, so this choice is simply about the look your family loves.
If you want to see one in use rather than described, we've written about what a 3-in-1 tower is used for.
Six things worth comparing
Here are six practical things you can check before you buy.
| What to compare | The question to ask |
|---|---|
| 1. Height and fit | How high is the standing platform, and does that height suit my bench? |
| 2. Safety design and evidence | What does the rail do, and has the product been tested, by whom and when? |
| 3. Where it will live | How much floor does it take, and does it need to move? |
| 4. What it converts into | Does it become anything else, and will I use that? |
| 5. Materials and load | What timber is it, and what weight is it rated to carry? |
| 6. Price, and what else to ask | What's included, and what happens if something goes wrong? |
Which compromise fits your family?
There isn't one feature that makes a learning tower right for every home. Start with the job you want it to do most often, then decide which trade-off you can live with.
| If your priority is… | Check this first | The compromise | Ask yourself |
|---|---|---|---|
| A regular place at the kitchen bench | The standing-platform position, overall dimensions and your own bench measurements | A fixed-height design may not suit every bench or every stage | Does the standing position work at the part of the bench we'll actually use? |
| One piece for several activities | How it changes into its other modes, and the space each mode needs | Conversion adds value only if you'll use those modes | Will the table-and-chair or chalkboard mode be part of our routine? |
| Easy movement or storage | The footprint, weight, route between rooms and whether the model folds | A non-folding tower needs a practical home when it isn't at the bench | Where will it live without sitting in a busy walkway? |
| A straightforward comparison | Exact dimensions, materials, instructions and test evidence for that model | Marketing labels alone won't answer fit or use questions | Can I verify the details that matter for this exact model? |
Will it fit your kitchen bench?
Many Australian kitchens are designed around a 900 mm bench top, but that is a convention rather than a rule. Accessible and custom kitchens can be lower or higher, so measure yours before you decide anything else.
Measure from the floor to the top of your benchtop, then take off the height of the standing platform. What's left is how high the bench will sit above your child's feet once they're up there. Picture your own child against that number.
Use the platform height for this, not the tower's overall height, which includes the frame above their feet.
For The Little Bunny tower:
- Standing platform: 40 cm from the floor. This height is fixed. It doesn't adjust.
- From the platform up to the top of the frame: about 45 cm. That's how much frame stands above your child's feet.
- Overall height: 86 cm, measured from the floor to the tips of the fox or bunny ears at the top.
- The climbing step adjusts. It unscrews and refits in three positions, so you can set the step to suit your child as they grow.
What does 86 cm tell you? It is the tower's overall frame height. It doesn't, by itself, tell you whether the frame will slide beneath your bench. For standing position, compare the bench top with the standing platform. If any part of the frame needs to pass beneath an overhang, measure the lowest point underneath that bench as a separate number.
A 900 mm bench top and an 860 mm frame are 40 mm apart as a simple calculation. The underside can sit lower than the top, so that calculation is not a clearance recommendation or a promise that the tower will fit. Measure the exact place you plan to use.
The platform and the step are worth separating, because they're easy to run together. Plenty of towers on the market advertise an adjustable platform, meaning the surface your child stands on moves up and down as they grow. Ours doesn't do that. What ours adjusts is the step they climb on to get up there.
The reason ours is fixed is the convertible design: the frame has to hold one geometry so it can be turned over and used as a table and chair. That's the trade-off in this design, and it's worth knowing before you choose. If an adjustable platform is the thing you want most, that's a fair reason to look elsewhere.
You'll find the full measurements on the product page.
Kitchen measurement worksheet
Use this worksheet to record the kitchen you actually have, then compare like with like. Kitchen plans often use millimetres; 10 mm = 1 cm. The worksheet helps you organise fit questions. It does not certify a setup as safe or suitable.
1. Measure the intended place
| Measurement | Where to measure | Your figure or note |
|---|---|---|
| Bench-top height | Floor to the top work surface | ________________ mm |
| Lowest underside or overhang | Floor to the lowest fixed point underneath the bench edge, if relevant | ________________ mm |
| Usable bench run | The clear width where activities would happen | ________________ mm |
| Available floor width × depth | The clear floor area at the intended position | ________ × ________ mm |
| Walking path or doorway | What opens, passes or moves nearby | ________________________ |
| Route and storage | Doorways, turns, steps and where the tower would live | ________________________ |
2. Copy the exact model dimensions
| Product measurement | Exact figure | Source/model |
|---|---|---|
| Overall frame height | ________ mm | ________________ |
| Standing-platform height | ________ mm | ________________ |
| Width × depth | ________ × ________ mm | ________________ |
3. Compare the same points
- Bench top − standing platform: − = mm
- Lowest underside − overall frame: − = mm
- Available floor width vs product width: mm vs mm
- Available floor depth vs product depth: mm vs mm
Arithmetic example: 900 mm bench top − 400 mm standing platform = 500 mm vertical difference. This only shows how to subtract two measurements. It is not a recommended clearance, an ergonomic target, proof that the frame clears the underside, or proof that a setup is safe or suitable.
4. Record your next step
☐ Fits the intended place
☐ Needs another location
☐ Ask the maker or seller
Questions or notes:
Is it safe to have a toddler up at bench height?
The tower itself doesn't make a kitchen safe or unsafe. What matters is where you put it, what's within your child's reach, and whether an adult stays within reach while they're up there. A tower at a clear stretch of bench with nothing sharp or hot nearby is a very different thing from the same tower pushed up against a cooktop.
That's the straight answer to a fair question. Plenty of parents look at a learning tower and see a small child standing up near a hot bench, and the question deserves an answer rather than reassurance.
In Montessori language, that's a prepared environment. You give a child a real setting to practise in, and you prepare that setting so it's safe for them to practise in. It's how we think about setting up the space, rather than a claim about the product.
So the useful question isn't "is a learning tower safe?" It's "where in my kitchen does this go, and what do I move first?"
How to set up the space
This is the guidance we give, and it's short enough to remember.
- Put it at a part of the bench with no cooktop. The sink area or a clear stretch of bench works well. Somewhere with no heat source is the first thing to get right.
- Clear anything sharp or hot out of reach before your child climbs up. Knives, boards, the kettle, a hot pot: move them to the far end of the bench, not just to one side.
- Sit it close to the bench. A small gap is fine; a big one isn't, because then your child has to lean to reach anything.
- Face the open side into the room. That's the side with the removable rail, and it's how your child gets in and out, so keep it clear.
- Keep the floor flat. We don't rule out any flooring; it just shouldn't sit on an uneven surface.
- Stay within reach. As your child gets more confident this looks different in every family, but staying within reach is the call we'd always make.
The safety instruction label that comes with the product adds a few more, and they're worth reading in full: remove all packaging and fastening materials before the product goes to a child; the product must be fully assembled by an adult; never place a child and the product on an elevated surface; keep it away from open fire and other sources of strong heat; always have direct adult supervision when it's near a window; and it is for indoor use only.
There's more on looking after it safely if you want the care side as well.
What safety testing should you look for?
Ask two questions of any seller: which standard was it tested to, and can you see the report?
In Australia and New Zealand, the relevant set is AS/NZS ISO 8124, the toy safety standards. It comes in parts, and three of them matter here:
| Standard | What it covers |
|---|---|
AS/NZS ISO 8124.1:2023 |
Physical and mechanical hazards |
AS/NZS 8124.2:2016 |
Flammability |
AS/NZS ISO 8124.3:2021 |
Migration of certain elements |
A report number and a date are a straight answer. Wording like "meets safety standards" or "certified safe", with no report behind it, isn't one yet, so it's worth asking again for the number and the date. That's the same question we'd want you to ask us.
The Little Bunny tower was independently tested by Eurofins, report EFHZ23102022-CG-01, dated 24 October 2023, and passed all three. That report covers both the Bunny and the Fox designs.
You can also read the testing details on the product page.
Where will it live?
A learning tower takes up a fixed patch of floor and stays where you put it. Ours doesn't fold down, so it's worth choosing its spot before you buy rather than after.
The footprint is 40 × 36 cm, standing 86 cm tall.
Some towers on the market do fold. Ours doesn't, and that follows from a frame built to be turned over and used as a table and chair.
In the kitchen shown here, the tower is parked against the cabinets rather than left in the middle of the room. Treat that as one household's example, then measure the bench top and the lowest underside in your own intended spot.
In practice, two spots tend to work: a corner of the kitchen that isn't on the main walking path, or against the end of an island where it's out of the way but close enough to pull across when you're cooking.
What it turns into
The Little Bunny tower is a 3-in-1: it works as a tower, and it turns over to become a table and chair. It also comes with a chalkboard.
- As a tower, your child stands at bench height and takes part in what you're doing.
- As a table and chair, the same piece, turned over, for drawing, snacks or playdough at their own height.
- With the chalkboard, a surface to draw on that doesn't need to be packed up after every use.
Whether that matters depends on your house. If you already have a toddler table, the conversion is a nice extra rather than a reason to choose. If you don't, it's two pieces of furniture in the footprint of one, and that's worth weighing against the fact that the platform height is fixed, which is the direct consequence of the same design.
You can see it set up as a table and chair if you'd like a clearer picture of the change.
What it is made of, and how much it holds
The frame is plywood: birch or basswood, depending on the batch.
We'd rather say that plainly than name one timber and have it be true only some of the time. Which one arrives depends on what was available when that run was made. If the timber matters to you for a particular reason, ask before you order and we'll tell you what's in stock.
The safety label on the product states a 75 kg maximum load. That's the figure printed on the label that ships with every tower, so the number comes from the product rather than from a sales page, which is exactly what you should be asking any seller for.
For the rest of the specifications, see materials and weight details.
What age is it for?
The Little Bunny Learning Tower is made for ages 1 to 5. That's the range on the safety label that comes with the product, and it's the range we publish.
The first few years are an especially active time for learning, connection and growing independence. A lot of what a tower is for is simply being included in what the adults are doing. What that looks like changes enormously across those years, and it's less about the tower than about what you're doing at the bench.
If you'd like ideas that match where your child is now, we've broken down kitchen jobs by age.
The published age range doesn't change the setup guidance above: keep hot and sharp items out of reach, position the tower close to the bench, and stay within reach while your child is using it.
What it costs, and what else to ask
Bunny and Fox are the same product in two designs. Check the current product listing for today's price, then compare what is included as well as the number itself.
Price is the easy part to compare, and the least useful on its own. Four questions are worth asking whoever you buy from:
- What's the warranty, and how long is it?
- How many days do you have to return it, and who pays freight if you do?
- Does it arrive assembled, or do you assemble it?
- Can you buy replacement parts separately later?
The last two are our suggestions rather than anything we can point to data for. They're just the things that tend to matter once you've had it a while, or when you move house.
One thing to be aware of
Once your child is confident, they can climb out on their own, including at the moment you've turned around to the sink. It's the ordinary consequence of a piece of furniture they can get into by themselves.
In practice this means a tower suits the times you're right there doing something together, rather than a place to leave a child occupied while you're elsewhere. Stay within reach throughout use.
Learning tower or step stool?
These aren't really alternatives. They're two different stages.
A tower is for when a child needs to be lifted to bench height and kept inside a frame while they're up there. A stool is for later, when they've grown enough to get up on their own and climbing into a tower has stopped being interesting, or has started to be a nuisance because they're tall enough that getting in feels like a squeeze.
Our two-step stool is 40 × 40 × 26 cm. It answers a later stage rather than being a lower-priced version of the same thing, so the question isn't simply which costs less. It's which setup suits your child and the task now.
The Little Bunny tower at a glance
Every number here comes from the product itself or from the label that ships with it.
| Standing platform | 40 cm from the floor. Fixed, does not adjust |
| Platform to top of frame | About 45 cm |
| Overall height | 86 cm |
| Footprint | 40 × 36 cm |
| Maximum load | 75 kg, from the safety label |
| Timber | Plywood: birch or basswood, depending on the batch |
| Ages | 1 to 5, from the safety label |
| Climbing step | Unscrews and refits in three positions |
| Folds flat | No |
| Converts into | A table and chair, plus a chalkboard |
| Tested to | AS/NZS ISO 8124.1:2023, AS/NZS 8124.2:2016, AS/NZS ISO 8124.3:2021 |
| Test report |
EFHZ23102022-CG-01, Eurofins, 24 October 2023 |
| Use | Indoor only |
| Price | Check the current product listing |
A quick checklist before you decide
- Height and fit. Have you measured your bench, and does the standing platform height suit it?
- Safety design and evidence. Do you know the standard it was tested to, the report number and the date?
- Where it will live. Do you have a spot for its footprint that isn't in the walking path?
- What it converts into. Will you actually use the second and third configurations?
- Materials and load. Do you know the timber and the rated maximum load?
- Price, and what else to ask. Do you know the warranty, the returns window, and whether it arrives assembled?
If you can answer all six, you're choosing on the things that matter rather than on the photograph.
Frequently asked
Quick answers to what usually comes up next
What safety standard is The Little Bunny learning tower tested to?
It was independently tested by Eurofins against AS/NZS ISO 8124.1:2023, AS/NZS 8124.2:2016 and AS/NZS ISO 8124.3:2021, and passed all three. The report is EFHZ23102022-CG-01, dated 24 October 2023, and it covers both the Bunny and the Fox designs.
What age is a learning tower for?
The Little Bunny tower is made for ages 1 to 5, which is the range on the safety label. The same setup and supervision guidance applies throughout that published range: keep hot and sharp items out of reach, position the tower close to the bench, and stay within reach while your child uses it.
Is the platform height adjustable?
No. The standing platform is fixed at 40 cm from the floor. What does adjust is the climbing step, which unscrews and refits in three positions, and the platform is fixed because the frame has to hold one geometry to turn over into a table and chair.
How much weight does a learning tower hold?
The Little Bunny tower is rated to a 75 kg maximum load. That figure is printed on the safety label that ships with every tower, which is where you should want any seller to get their number from.
What is the difference between a learning tower and a step stool?
A stool lifts a child up. A tower lifts them up and puts a frame around them, which is what makes it usable for the length of time it takes to actually help with something. They suit different stages rather than being cheaper and dearer versions of the same thing.