Kids' Room

Bookcases, chairs and nursery furniture for a child's room

Furniture gives a child's room its shape, so it is usually where planning begins. Our bookcases give picture books, comics and favourite toys a proper home in the room where reading actually happens, so a bedtime story can start with the reader choosing. Children's chairs sit alongside them for drawing, quiet play and a book of their own, and a few tables join them for puzzles, crafts and tea parties with the teddies.

For a baby's room, we also stock nursery furniture: a few changing tables and convertible cot beds, and a few nursery furniture sets. Our Nursery Furniture range goes into these in more detail, while our Kids' Furniture and Kids' Bookshelves ranges look closely at the bookcases and chairs for older children. When choosing, think about who will use a piece and where it will stand. A bookcase a child can browse alone encourages reading, and a chair at a comfortable height for the table it sits at makes drawing easier.

Storage that keeps a child's floor clear

Toys multiply quickly, and good storage is what lets a room recover at the end of the day. Our kids' storage gives toys, books and dressing-up clothes somewhere to go, and a few pieces hang on the wall to keep the floor free for play. Some come with lids, which helps when you would rather the contents stayed out of sight, and a few are sold in sets so that matching pieces can sit side by side on a shelf.

A few baskets are woven from natural fibres such as seagrass and water hyacinth, and they bring texture to a room of painted furniture. Open storage suits younger children, who tidy best when they can see where things go, while lidded pieces suit older children with collections to keep safe. In a small bedroom, storage on the wall frees up floor space for a play mat or a reading corner, and a basket at the end of the bed keeps soft toys together at night.

Toys for the bedroom floor and the ages they suit

Our toys are made for the kind of play that fills a bedroom floor for an afternoon. Some are wooden, such as an activity set and an abacus for early counting, and a few lean towards pretend play and small-world games, with play figures and a toy stove among them. There are a few soft toys as well, for cuddles at story time, and one or two rocking toys for a playroom corner.

Where a toy carries a recommended age, you will find it on the product page. A few are marked as suitable from birth, while others start at 12 months, 18 months, two years or three years. If you are buying for a baby or toddler, check that age first, and keep toys meant for older children out of reach of younger brothers and sisters. Storage at floor level makes tidying up part of the game. Our Kids' Toys range sets them out in one place.

Children's stoneware for breakfasts and teatimes

Mealtimes are as much a part of a child's day as play, which is why our kids' range takes in tableware too. Many pieces are stoneware, a ceramic fired at a high temperature until it is dense and hard-wearing, so it suits daily family use. It is still ceramic, though, so it can chip or break if it falls onto a hard floor, and younger children are best supervised while they eat and drink.

Many pieces are marked food safe, and many are dishwasher safe and microwave safe; the care rows on the product page say which. Many can go in the oven too, but a few are marked as not oven safe and a few as not microwave safe, so a quick look before warming food is worthwhile. Where a piece has a capacity, it is listed in millilitres, and a few tableware pieces come in sets for when friends stay for tea. A spare stoneware cup also makes a tidy home for pencils on a bedroom shelf.

MDF, wood, fabric and stoneware in a child's room

Four materials carry the range. MDF, short for medium-density fibreboard, is made from fine wood fibres bonded together under heat and pressure. It has no knots or grain to show through, so it gives a smooth, stable surface that takes paint well, and a few pieces pair it with beech, plywood or fir. Wood brings natural grain and warmth to toys and furniture, fabric softens storage, toys and textiles, and stoneware is the material behind many of the tableware pieces.

Care follows the material. As a general rule, wipe MDF and painted wood with a soft, slightly damp cloth and dry it straight after, because standing water and harsh sprays can lift paint and swell the board. Our few woven pieces need little more than a shake and a light dust, and stoneware goes by its care rows. Where a piece mixes materials, the material row on the product page sets out the mix, which is the quickest way to see what it is made of before you buy.

Colour, calm tones and hand-painted detail for a child's room

Many pieces are multicoloured, which suits a playroom corner or a bright, cheerful bedroom. If you would like a calmer room, we stock white, natural and brown pieces too, and these sit easily beside wooden floors and plain walls. Some pieces are painted or decorated by hand, so small variations in pattern and colour can occur from one to the next; they are part of the character of a hand-finished piece rather than a fault.

Our kids' decor gives a room personality that can change as tastes do. There are a few mobiles to hang over a cot, a few pieces for the walls, and a few rugs and soft textiles to warm the floor and soften the room, along with one or two lights for bedtime. Start with one or two pieces in a favourite colour and build from there, so the room feels like theirs without being busy. Our Nursery Decor range brings together pieces for a baby's room.

Measuring a child's room and planning for the years ahead

Children's rooms are often the smallest in the house, so a tape measure earns its place before anything else. Across the range, our tallest piece stands 148cm high, our longest runs to 204cm and our widest to 140cm. Check the measurements on the product page against the wall, the window and the radiator, and leave room for drawers to open and chairs to pull out.

Two habits make a child's room safer. Fix tall bookcases and storage to the wall, as climbing is part of growing up, and place a cot away from windows, blind cords and radiators. Beyond that, think in stages: nursery furniture for the baby years, then chairs, bookcases and storage as crawling turns to walking and walking turns to running. White and natural pieces carry easily from one stage to the next, while multicoloured pieces and decor can change with your child. To go further into one part of the room, turn to our Kids' Furniture, Kids' Bookshelves, Kids' Toys and Nursery Decor ranges.