Ette Tete

Patented Latvian Children's Furniture Built in a Basement.

Ette Tete is a Latvian family-run brand founded in summer 2016 by Linda Riekstiņa-Šnore and her husband Krišjānis, working out of their own basement in the early days while Linda watched the children upstairs and Krišjānis crafted the first helper towers and cradles below. Eight years later, the brand operates from an 860m² workshop near Tinuži in Ogre County, employs thirteen people, exports to 42 countries (French Polynesia, with a population of 280,000, has placed three orders, which says something about the brand's reach), and has accumulated a properly serious credentials shelf — multiple WIPO design patents, the German Design Award 2026, the Junior Design Award 2025, and first place in Latvia's Export and Innovation Award for Industrial Design. The brand name carries the personal origin: "ette" is what Linda and Krišjānis's eldest son Madars called everything when he was two ("ette, ette, ette"), and "tete" references the father who was making all the furniture by hand.

The hero product is the STEP'n'SIT® — a patented convertible helper tower that transforms into a child-sized table, designed around Montessori principles to bring toddlers up to kitchen-counter height so they can participate in cooking, washing, and the wider business of family life. Alongside it, the catalogue includes the STEP UP helper tower (kitchen step stool), the MOPITRI® modifiable Pikler climbing triangle (also patented — the shape can be adjusted into a steeper triangle, lower house shape, flat configuration, or two smaller triangles depending on the child's stage), the new TULLA Montessori furniture collection, climbing frames, bookshelf add-ons, and personalisable laser-engraved options. Every piece is made from 15mm Baltic birch plywood, finished with non-toxic water-based UV paint and varnish, certified to support 50kg, and tested against the full set of European children's-furniture and toy-safety standards (EN 17191, EN 14183, EN 12520, and the EN 71 toy-safety series including mechanical, flammability, and chemical-migration testing). Made to order, ships worldwide with a 100% money-back guarantee.

For more pieces from independent makers, browse our Baby & Kids and Baby Toys collections. Discover complementary makers in our Baltic Brands edit, find more for the youngest in the household via Nursery Décor, and find brands chosen for how they make things through Sustainable Brands.