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Tots in the hot seat
By Corinne Julius Last updated at 00:00am on 03.04.01There is an unspoken assumption that the onset of parenthood causes hormonal changes that directly affect aesthetic judgment. Instead of Stark or Arad, it is assumed that you will swoon at Beatrix Potter or knotty pine, recreating a real or romanticised version of your own childhood.
More likely is the sad fact that until two years there was little alternative for new parents to the tiresome and conventional items to be found at department stores, Mothercare and Ikea. The received wisdom was that parents were unwilling to spend money on well-designed items that their offspring would soon outgrow.
Now a new group of smaller manufacturers, designers and makers has responded to the needs of thirtysomething parents, concluding that if contemporary furniture that grows with the child can be designed and manufactured, it could stay with a family down the generations.
Nicola Henshaw is one such maker. She produces a veritable menagerie of individual animal furniture to commission for your children. "My clients include parents but also many grandparents who keep these handmade pieces in their homes, because they want something special to amuse their grandchildren when they visit. They look good in a room forever and often end up as footstools. I think a piece should tell a story. My own grandparents had magical objects that I always wanted to go and see."
A philosophy seemingly shared by Julienne Dolphin-Wilding, who also produces work with these qualities. Her branch-profile chair offers the youngsters who sit on it the sensation of growing as part of the tree.
Fiona Clark also specialises in furniture with a fantasy element. Her work has found its way into private homes and public commissions such as Southampton Library for Children. A mother herself , herimaginative pieces are practical yet engage children's own creativity.
Clark shares a workshop with Alex MacDonald, a designer whose interest in designing for children was sparked by trying to find a chair for his daughter. Unable to find anything suitable, he made one for her and then more for her friends. He now produces elegant stacking chairs made from a single sheet of red or white painted ply to order. In addition, his Hob Nob bench and seat is available as part of the Biscuit collection by Oreka.
Oreka, a new company specialising in children's furniture, spotted a gap in the market and approached designer Michael Marriott to produce designs for stimulating yet reasonably priced contemporary furniture for children.
Together with Simon Maidment, Marriott expanded the project to a whole collection of furniture by a range of designers. "The pieces were meant to be multi-functional, playful and stimulate creativity. Central to the brief was the observation of how children often play longer with a cardboard box than with the toy it once contained."
Nice, designed by Marriott, readily fulfils the criteria. The stepped storage-cum-trolley unit can become a train, house, castle, Trojan horse, desk, space rocket, racing car or, for older children, a computer station or TV and video stand.
A similarly imaginative approach to play is evident in Stephen Bretland's Shortcake Bench, also for Oreka, which is a shop or - up-ended - a boat or a train, complete with accessories of wheels or posts that support a banner or sails.
Several of the pieces in the Biscuit selection were shown with Robin Day's rocking bird in the exhibition Childsply. Initiated by the interiors shop twentytwentyone, designers had to create children's furniture from just one sheet of plywood.
A second project, this time using foam, is currently on show along with some of the Biscuit range at the Design Museum as part of Minor Works - Designing for Children.
Everything at Minor Works is specifically designed for childen. Yet in the 18th century it was fashionable to miniaturise adult furniture for children. As part of that tradition, Heal's currently has the Bunny Chair in chrome and resin, highly reminiscent of the Arne Jacobsen Antelope chair, found in many modern homes.
Similar miniaturisation can be found at St John's Wood Interiors, which stocks mini upholstered contemporary armchairs. It also has the extremely adaptable but more conventional Flexa range of bedroom furniture, which, like the Domino range at Noel Hennessey furniture, grows with the child.
Sadly, one of the most beautiful pieces of children's furniture, the Knoll Bertoia chair, a miniature version of the adult chair, has been discontinued just as new manafacturers have realised that modern families want modern furniture for all members of the family.
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