michelle kaufmann designs

Some friends of ours recently had a baby. When imagining the perfect gift for our new dear young friend, Kevin and I thought about what we enjoyed most when we were children. We both had the same answer: building blocks. I suppose this is no surprise given that he is a contractor and I am an architect.  And for the past 6 years I have been playing/buiding with module blocks.

So we designed a series of blocks using reclaimed wood (extra wood pieces from Kevin’s wood shop - his favorite species from special projects that he has held on to for the past few years, as well as some old furniture pieces that Kevin and I don’t use any longer). We (ok, that is the royal “we”, it was really Kevin), spliced together different types of wood including cherry, wenge, white oak and purple heart and then cut the pieces into “modules” of 2″. We then sanded them, and used a natural oil wax finish (that is sustainably produced, non-offgassing, biodegradable, and edible just in case our young boy decides to chew on these blocks).

We designed the blocks to also be a 3-dimensional puzzle when they get put back into their translucent container (also made by Kevin).  We designed the box to be sized such that it can double as a stool for our young lad.

Then the play began. Because, really, we needed to test-drive these blocks to make sure they were going to work.

I can’t wait to play with these with our friend’s baby boy and see what creations  he will come up with in the years to come.