My Inner 10-Year Old Desperately Wants The New JELL-O Furniture
Photo by Noah Fecks
I am 30 years old, and a big part of me wants to be the sophisticated, neutral-toned, grown ass woman I always thought I would be by this age. I want to pick out a nice beige couch that won’t clash with the brown rug, own a full set of matching cutlery and spend my weekends wandering around a West Elm.
But every time I try to embrace this fantasy style identity, I am thwarted by some neon piece of home decor that reminds me that life is too short to be boring or beige. This time, that piece of home decor is the new limited edition Jelly Collection by JELL-O, a collection of—you guessed it—JELL-O inspired inflatable furniture.
To say that my inner 10-year-old is screaming would be an understatement. These inflatable chairs, which come in bright, vibrant orange, red, green and yellow, are shaped like iconic JELL-O molds and come complete with a cup holder (ostensibly so you have a place to set down your cup of JELL-O while you’re sitting in it).
JELL-O is, for many, a nostalgic treat, a pantry staple that was always on hand when they got sick as a kid or needed a jiggly, artificially colored after-school snack. Regrettably, it played an important role in the salad recipes of yesteryear, when lime JELL-O would serve to glom together various fresh salad ingredients.
But I think that JELL-O has a relevance that stretches beyond the culinary horror shows of the 1950s. Although we may not relish neon green gelatin in our salads these days, JELL-O represents a fun, a levity, that we crave in our food choices today—and better yet, one that’s markedly more affordable than many of the other playful food trends we’ve seen popping up in the last few years (ahem, caviar bumps).
I love that this chair is inflatable (and deflatable), so you can use it when you want and put it away when you’re taking a break from your own 10-year-old persona. They seem especially fun for parties or movie nights, particularly ones in which JELL-O plays a starring role on the menu.
They’re available on Amazon now, and at $30, you don’t have to break the bank to snag one for yourself. However, they’re only available for a limited time, so if you’re interested in sitting on a massive plastic JELL-O mold, you shouldn’t wait too long to get your own.
Sure, it’s impossible to go back to childhood, to feel that freedom again, that absence of responsibility, that unique sense of wonder that seems impossible to capture after a certain age. But at least I can sit on a giant inflatable JELL-O mold and dream.
Samantha Maxwell is a food writer and editor based in Boston. Follow her on Twitter at @samseating.