P’kolino- Modern furniture for pipsqueaks

P’kolino’sphilosophy is "children are not mini-adults so why do we give themmini-adult furniture" and "our children grow so fast but the furnituredoes not and the uses are limited." Any parent who has had to retire anExerSaucer knows this all too well. 

Their children’s play furniture is clearly designed with how childrenplay in mind, and not just their short stature. Each piece truly growswith your child and most are rearrangeable. Their signature piece isthe Play Table (top), a modular play environment.  For example, the desk piece can be flipped over to use it as a lounge chair or slide.The collection also includes the Klick desk and chair that fit together, Play Ottoman, which has a top that reverses from a padded top to a flat birch surface, Little Reader arm chair, Kube Set, a modular storage set that can also be purchased individually, and The Wave(2nd from top), which can be arranged in different ways to createsitting or lying down surfaces.  All of their products are designed togrow with the child and have multiple uses.  Though the pieces (andprices) are high end, they are a worthwhile investment because they aremade of high quality wood, stain-resistant vinyl and micro-fiber suede,not particleboard or plastic (like most children’s furniture is), andbecause you will use them for years with each child.  Plus there’s noassembly and most of the pieces fit together to save space whenplaytime is over for the day.

Their newest products are the Clothes Tree (3rd from top), which is a playful reinterpretation of a coat stand, and the Silly Soft Seatingwhich combines a toy with toddler seating in four different looselybased on animal designs (and named after the designers’ children). Theyalso have really cute triangular colored pencils and jumbo hexagonalcrayons, the shapes of which make it much easier for little hands tohold, and which don’t roll away from them.

Onthe other end of the spectrum are designers who think miniature-sizedadult furniture for kids is the way to go. Looking like it got zappedby the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" machine, Jennifer DeLonge’s Ava chair is an upholstered armchair, with straight lines all around and a matching ottoman.  She has expanded the line to include a larger kid size version (recommended for 4+ years), a sofa version, and an overstuffed Pottery Barn-o-rific armchair and sofa.Her chunky round Grace table looks like a modern coffee table until yousee the stools that can be easily tucked underneath.  We really likethis piece except that the stools are very heavy- I have a bad feelingthat one of these days one of the stools is going to fall on mydaughter’s foot.

In Boom’scase, they may very well have used that shrinking machine.  Their mainline is furniture for adults, but at the ABC Kids Expo, they introduceda set of kid’s sofas, loveseats, coffee and end tables, andbookshelves.  They look totally normal when you see them together butwhen an adult enters the picture, you realize that the scale is not1:1.  It’s more like 1:3 and the result is entirely amusing but alsoslightly absurd.  Who has room for a separate child-size living roomset up?  If I put it in my daughter’s room, will it look out of placewith her crib?

Where do you find yourself on this spectrum? Do you like kids’ stuff to look like kids’ stuff?