Johnston Business Profile: Kazzoinks Sets Alphabet On Its Seat With Letter Chairs

Keith Nelson of Johnston turns the alphabet on its seat — chair seat that is. 

Nelson's company, Kazzoinks, produces children's chairs to resemble letters of the alphabet.

The project began nearly five years ago when Nelson was sketching and thinking of wooden alphabet blocks.

“My first idea was to use alphabet blocks like a puzzle a child could put together to create a chair, but that was too difficult,” he said.

The road to the alphabet chairs from A to Z has been filled with several prototypes and processes, but now, Nelson and his wife, Tomi, are selling the letter chairs and tables to match.

“My first design for the chairs had 20 parts,” said Nelson, who also paints and sculpts for corporate clients. “Then I whittled them down to 12 and then 10. I spent the last year and a half working on the design.”

With safety guidelines to consider, and finding a way to make the base fit the seat of a J, an L and a Z, not to mention all the other letter shapes, Nelson eventually found his groove. 

“Some were more difficult to figure out than others, but I finally came up with a pretty simple shape and base for all the letters.”

Finding the perfect balance for his chairs was difficult, but so was finding a unique company name.

“Then one day I woke up from a nap and it just came to me: Kazzoinks. It is different enough that it catches people’s attention,” he said.

The Nelsons' son, Lucas, 2 ½ years old, has been the chair-tester as his father worked on several versions.

The chairs are produced at Swan Creek Cabinets in Boone. The company can manufacture a few hundred chairs a week.

So far, Nelson's sold chairs and matching tables to several corporate clients, on the Kazzoinks website, and a limited number through retail outlets.

A few chairs were donated to charity auctions and events.

Rob Shoeman, owner of Outdoor Recreations, 830 Hickman Road in Waukee, said he will soon have some of the Kazzoinks chairs in his showroom.

Heather Yost, owner of Yost Family Chiropractic in Urbandale, has three alphabet chairs – Y, F and C after the business name – and a matching table in her office waiting room. Yost personalized her set with her business logo added to the center of the table.

“After eight months of use, they are still in good shape,” she said.

The chairs, made of native woods, are for children ages 2-8. They can be painted in 11 solid colors from a light lavender and white to bright yellow and shades of blue. 

“Some people also order their favorite team colors,” Nelson said.

Online, the chairs are being sold for $89.95 per chair.

As the child gets older, a booster kit can be purchased for $15 to raise the chair’s seat from 8½ inches off the floor to 11½ inches off the floor.

“We are really just getting started on spreading the word out about the chairs,” he said.