When the Family-friendly Workstation Went Viral

Parents in America have always had to juggle the challenges of work and childcare, a situation exacerbated during the pandemic. Last January, an ingenious family-friendly workstation at a Richmond-area library went viral on social media. Ali Faruk, Policy Director of Families Forward Virginia, shared a photo of the desk on Twitter when he was at the library with his sons, which ignited an important conversation about child care challenges in the U.S.

The story was picked up all over major media outlets and shined the spotlight on the Michigan-based company TMC - short for The Makers Creative - who designed the custom workstation in collaboration with the architecture firm Quinn Evans. TMC is a nationally recognized furniture and manufacturing company based in Ann Arbor with their own factory in Grand Rapids. They were founded in 1998 by Sherri Moore and Blake Ratcliffe who came from backgrounds in the arts and education.

The “Fairfield Parent + Child Carrel” by TMC Furniture has a parent workstation with a built-in, engaging play area that includes TMC learning panels and a mirror. Cevan Castle interviewed Blake Ratcliffe, co-founder of TMC, to get his perspective.

TMC was brought in to collaborate on a new library for the Henrico County Public Library System in Virginia by Shannon Wray, Principal at Quinn Evans. Ratcliffe shared that Barbara Weedman, library director, prioritized innovative design that would better accommodate families, and had an idea that would help meet the needs of parents working in the library that have a baby or toddler in tow. After research, the team realized - to their surprise - that there wasn’t anything that combined a desk and a playpen on the market.

“We all had the same reaction. That's such a great idea … there must be something like that on the market,” Ratcliffe recalled. “There was only an old carrel workstation and the Graco collapsible cribs. There was nothing.”

The team saw an important opportunity that would draw on design and technical expertise within TMC. “One of our key passions is early literacy,” said Ratcliffe, reflecting on TMC’s extensive work with libraries and educational programs. Complementing this background was their commitment to use materials and methods that meet high standards adopted for use in TMC furniture lines, ranging from durability, to toy safety standards. The Fairfield Parent + Child Carrel combined early literacy expertise with finishes and fabrics developed to meet stringent healthcare grade specifications.

Fairfield Parent + Child Carrel for Henrico County, VA libraries.
**Courtesy of TMC Furniture /Chris Cunningham Photography**

While working on the design for the carrel, the TMC design team, including Co-Founder Sherri Moore, and Designer Craig McGeachie, “worked while looking at Shannon Wray's designs in the library, to make it match and fit these really beautiful, modern shapes, organic materials,” said Ratcliffe.

The TMC design team created the graphics for the carrel, which were then applied using a process innovated by TMC. Ratcliffe described the technique, termed imprinting, which “uses natural dye products to print onto raw wood.” The printed wood is subsequently “sealed with TMC top coats and seal coats, that are all healthcare grade, for cleanability.”

Ratcliffe sees public libraries as “adapting and adjusting,” and while their “mission is always the same, serving a community, creating learning environments, and opening up the world,” libraries are also “sensing a mission where they can help within the community.”

When TMC first started their children’s furniture line in the late 90’s, defined contract furniture for kids didn’t exist since it was a patchwork of school furniture and reappropriated adult furniture. The challenge to develop new forms that are more inclusive, and better meet evolving library roles, aligns with TMC’s values of learning and curiosity. Ratcliffe says. “We love innovation; there’s nothing we do that comes on a container… even our standard products, there is a lot of customization built into them.”

Besides designing spaces and products for parents with children, TMC are also innovators in the architectural component space. Their Ode Creative brand wall panels, which are made from organic materials and created by artists and craftspeople, have won numerous AIA awards.

Ode Creative wall panels at Wellesley Free Library in Wellesley, MA
**Courtesy of TMC Furniture**

TMC is a mission-driven family business that is invested in hiring within their local communities in Michigan, as well as sourcing local materials. “When the big furniture companies were offshoring, we were hiring a lot of the folks that had a [high] experience level,” Ratcliffe explained. “We source [our wood] within about a 30 mile radius of our factory in Grand Rapids … it’s renewable, farmed for us in Michigan.” He concluded, “my wife and I love this, love the folks we work with, and the clients... They come to us usually because they know our brand and they're drawn to it.”