OOTS! Dish Set $29.95

If you’re a mom and you’ve never heard of OOTS!, you must consider these designs for your little ones this holiday season. Talk about style meets fun, meets function. I’ve said before that I have a huge appreciate for style that also serves a purpose, especially in home decor. In fact, take a look at a previous post on the same topic.  So, when I recently came across OOTS! online, we caught up with the design team to find out the full story. We submitted our questions to Dutch designer, Arian Roefs who gave us some background into their process of design, how they determine what moms need and how they make function also fun…something the Dutch do particularly well!

Here’s what she had to say:

LDB: Your pieces clearly have a modern design, but they also have a specific function. How do you determine what moms want in the items they buy for their children?

OOTS! We mainly draw from our own experience as parents. We see what’s out there, what’s NOT out there, and make what we would like to see out there. We apply our Dutch design skills to everyday products, and make them not only nice looking, but also simple and functional. A very Dutch trait.

We know from our own experience how we want to use a certain product. For example, the Lunchbox: we always used vinyl lunch boxes. But we could never get them clean, and would throw them out after a few months, because they started smelling. So we wanted a lunch box that we could clean well. We also used containers to put the different foods in for our kids’ lunches. Then put those containers in another lunch box. It was hard to find the right containers though, that fit in, and were the right size for the food portions we wanted.

And we didn’t like the pink princess and loud action figure lunch boxes…

OOTS! Lunchbox- $46.00

LDB: What most inspires new designs in your line?

OOTS! We often start with a material that we would like to use, and work with that. We learn about the limitations and possibilities. My partner then is very good with colors. Colors are essential in our product designs.

For the bbibs and dishes, for example, we wanted some “standard” boy and girl designs, but not too “pink and blue”. So we used those colors, but the applications we came up with were not run of the mill.

Sometimes you just have to let the object and color alone speak for themselves. So even though we had initially wanted to put something on the outside of the lunch box, we eventually decided to just let the material, the shapes and colors do all the talking.

LDB: What would you say is your most popular item?

OOTS! That’s the Lunchbox with containers. There really turned out to be a big need and demand for this eco-friendly product. Kids love it for the stackable containers they can put inside, and for the funky colors. And although the Lunchbox was made for kids, adults loved them as well. More and more adults take lunches to work. We heard reviews of adults whose lunch habits were changed by our Lunchbox: they were now taking more of a variation of home made foods to work, and brought leftovers. Women were particularly enthusiastic about the portion control quality of the containers.

And of course, Oprah loves it, so that helped…

I would imagine that Oprah’s endorsement sure didn’t hurt! But we can certainly see why it’s a favorite. Set the table in style this holiday for every boy/girl who needs a lunchbox, bowl, plate or fork. So fabulous!