BUNK MATE: Ace hotel bunks

LOOK NO FURTHER for inspiration for your pre-teen or teenage son’s room than the recently opened Ace Hotel in New York. One of our (male) colleagues spent a couple of days there recently and is still extolling the virtues of the large canvas laundry bags with Navy-style typography, the masculine-chic toiletries from Rudy’s barbershop, the blankets embroidered with the Ace logo, and the mix of vintage and new interiors, devised by NYC design firm, Roman & Williams.

Our favourite part, however, confirms the return of the bunkbed: the ensuite bunk rooms in the NYC hotel are a perfect stopover for singles, guys on their stag weekends, grown-ups reliving their childhoods, or teens who you’d prefer to have their own room. We can’t help falling in love with the almost military issue, sleek, fuss-free, heavy-duty, powder-coated bunks sourced from American Bedding that would clearly last a lifetime and beyond. Can we have, please?

*Bunk rooms in March 2010 are approximately £150 per night. www.acehotel.com. Ace Hotel New York City, 20W 29th Street, New York City, NY 10001; tel: + 212 679 2222.

Posted 24 February 2010 in Furniture, Travel

SIT DOWN: chairs for children

TO COINCIDE with Sit Down, the new V&A Museum of Childhood’s touring exhibition of children’s chairs, we asked child chair expert, collector and exhibition advisor, Molly Price of Molly Meg for her favourite, and lesser known, chairs for kids.

1. I love UK designer Peter Murdoch’s spotty chair from the 1960s. How modern does it look? This chair was incredibly forward-thinking for its use of polyethylene-coated laminated kraft paperboard, and was the first piece of commercial furniture made of paper. It was designed to be assembled at home by simply folding along the pre-scored lines: it’s an icon of the Pop era. Read the rest of this article

Posted 4 February 2010 in Furniture

FURNITURE FOCUS: sebra

MIA DELA IS THE BRAINS behind Sebra - the Danish furniture and accessories design brand with the ever-growing UK and international presence.

35-year-old Mia - mum to Gustav, 7, Alfred, 3-and-a-half, and another on the way - puts this growth down to a universality of aesthetic awareness among the new parenting generation. “Our design has a very Scandinavian feel to it, which luckily many more than just Scandinavians find nice,” says Mia. “And we may be a Danish company, but we are experiencing more and more that products are universal. Children all over the world seem to like many of the same things - animals, nice colours and patterns.” Read the rest of this article

Posted 14 January 2010 in Furniture

TOP FIVE: cot beds

By Christine Samuelian

AS ANY NEW parent will attest, the biggest challenge is to get your baby to sleep. At all. To make things easier (at least psychologically) it’s worth investing in a beautiful cot or cotbed, preferably one that grows with the child. Plus, with the bed most likely being the biggest lump of furniture in the baby’s room, it’s wise to buy stylishly.

Best for value: IKEA’s Leksvig cot is simple in design and construction but will fit into both modern houses and well as more ornate ones. One side of the bed can be removed when the child is ready to climb in and out on his/her own. And, as with everything at IKEA, the price is more than fair. £73.40. www.ikea.com

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Posted 19 May 2009 in Furniture

THE CHAIR: the Parupu

AMIDST ALL THE excitement, hype, paninis, bellinis and footsoreness that are guaranteed at the Milan Furniture Fair this week, there’s a chair to look out for that’s already of note. Chairs are two a penny at each year’s fair, but this one is a little special - and it’s for kids.

The Parupu stands out not just because it has been designed by Scandinavia’s design royalty, Claesson Koivisto Rune, and not just because it’s made from eco wood pulp provided by manufacturer Södra. It’s super cute too, and is already up there with Enzo Mari’s Seggiolina Pop for Magis as a kids’ chair that ticks all the right boxes: great colour palette, so light the kids can move it themselves (or create houses and play structures), super sturdy and user-friendly. Plus it’s stackable and biodegradable. Read the rest of this article

Posted 21 April 2009 in Furniture