Kids' Furniture Develops
A More Grown-Up Design

February 14, 2005 -- It isn't exactly the type of furniture most 5-year-olds are craving: an armoire with rococo carving and antique coloring. But that is what furniture makers are increasingly offering them.

The fast-growing kids' furniture segment has been successful in recent years in part because many adults have been buying pieces not just for their kid's rooms but for the rest of the house as well.

Blurring the lines: Palliser Furniture's new bedroom set for kids ($2,080).

Lea Industries, a division of La-Z-Boy Inc., pitches its new vintage-inspired line of kids' beds, armoires and dressers as having an "heirloom-type finish that a 40- or 50-year-old could keep in their house."

This spring, Stanley Furniture Co.'s Young America line, which has about 70% of the high-end children's market, will begin selling Teen Bungalow, a 30-piece collection of bedroom sets and desks that come in an "urban, deep merlot."

At the same time, companies are adding pieces that haven't shown up before in kids' lines. Riverside Furniture Corp. sells "king-size" beds for kids that cost $959.

Lea Industries armoire (Price: $1,200). Comment: From the Jessica McClintock "Heirloom" collection.

In contrast to some of the more avant-garde looks that dominated kids' furniture during the recent past, some of these pieces now seem barely distinguishable from what the parents (or even grandparents) have. But they are still different in a couple of important ways: size and price.

Hooker's new armoire-style entertainment centers for kids, for example, are about 35% smaller than similar pieces in the company's main line. (Some kids furniture is up to 60% smaller, which is attractive to some people trying to outfit small guest bedrooms or second homes.) The entertainment centers are priced at $899 versus an average of $1,499 for the adult version.

Stanley's Summerhaven dresser (Price: Dresser is $810; mirror is $320). Comment: Dresser has a scallop-top mirror, and comes in barn-door red and weathered black.

Manufacturers say many seniors -- having moved out of single-family homes and into condos -- are also in the market for kids' furniture, according to manufacturers. The number of seniors living in condos nearly doubled from 1985 to 2003, rising from 652,000 to 1.25 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Fast-Growing Segment

All of this has helped sales of youth furniture outpace the master-bedroom category in recent years -- at a time when the under-20 population has remained relatively constant because of flat birth rates. From 2001 to 2002, the most-recent data available, adult-bedroom furniture sales rose 8% while youth bedroom-furniture sales increased 14%, estimates Kay Anderson, director of market research at industry publication Furniture Today. She expects the youth bedroom market to rise about 21% during the next five years, hitting $5.3 billion in retail sales in 2009.

This has inspired more manufacturers to either enter the youth market or, if they are already in it, to expand their offerings. Stanley Furniture, for example, usually introduces two new collections at each of the semiannual International Home Furnishings Markets in High Point, N.C.

Hooker's Albany Park media center (Price: $899). Comment: Comes with a knotty cherry veneer and "antique" brass rings.

Kids' Savvier Tastes

Manufacturers acknowledge that marketing these pieces as timeless could hurt their bottom lines, if it means that parents upgrade less frequently. But they say that the demand is there.

It isn't just the parents who are driving the decision to buy more grown-up pieces for the kids' rooms. The style sensibilities of children and teenagers are being increasingly shaped by popular home-improvement shows and the crush of trendy teen and youth magazines, industry observers say.

"By the time the child turns 8, 9 or 10 years old, we're really seeing that...they really want something with a more-sophisticated design," says

Riverside's Garden Gate bed (Price: $599 to $959). Comment: Now comes in "king" size, in colors including chilled melon and denim.

For the same reason, some manufacturers report that sales of full beds are outpacing those of twin beds. At Palliser Furniture Ltd., for example, case-goods sales manager Werner Disselkamp says the company now sells 60% of its youth beds in a twin size and 40% in full sizes.

Just five years ago, the ratio was closer to 80-20. "Maid's beds -- the small ones with drawers at the bottom -- used to be very big," he says. "Once kids got out of the crib, they would move into a bed like that, but in the last three years, we've seen people wanting full-size options instead."

When shopping for her 4-year-old recently, Karen McOwen Ryan, an attorney in West Bridgewater, Mass., decided to pass on the girly, canopy-style beds of her youth. Instead, she spent $1,200 on a white sleigh bed.

"We wanted her to have something that she was going to like when she was 14 and maybe use in her first apartment," Ms. Ryan says. "I didn't want to have this piece of furniture that she thinks looks all terrible once she's a little older."

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