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A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP
by Kate Goodhart
We recently moved our two-year-old twins from cots to beds. The choice is overwhelming: standard size, or smaller for little ones? Divan or slatted base? Traditional, or something special and childlike? There are endless places to buy beds and you can do a lot of research on the internet. Here is a selection of the best.
Mail Order and Internet
Aspace
Tel 01985 301222
Wide, reasonably priced, selection. The Catalina bed is a classic design
made in solid pine, with an antique or solid white finish, and costs £225
(excluding mattress). Truckles (sleep-over beds that roll neatly underneath
the child’s bed) feature heavily and are available with most Aspace
beds for approx £175. Some beds are narrower than the standard 3-foot
width.
The
Children’s Furniture Company
Tel
0207 737 7303
A young company selling beautiful solid beech beds (and other furniture).
The gorgeous new cabin bed (pictured right) sits on top of two deep cupboards
and three drawers (£1275 excluding mattress). All beds are full-size
singles, and come with optional and replaceable decorative panels. Most
singles can stack into bunks and vice versa.
The White
Company
Tel 0870 900 9555
The bed linen company has recently launched a range of children’s
bedroom furniture. The pretty, white-painted sleigh bed comes in two sizes,
miniature and single. You can buy an under-bed with it. (£385 for
the bed, £165 for the under-bed and £135 and £110 for
the two mattresses.)
The Great
Little Trading Company
Tel 0870 850 6000
The Hamptons bed is lacquered pine with slatted head and foot boards (with
a mattress £299). For an extra £50 you can add two drawers
underneath. There is also a beautiful white iron bed (pricier at £599
excluding mattress) but perfect for fairytale princesses.
WigwamKids
Tel 0870 902 7500
For really spoiling little girls, take a look at the Midsummer four-poster
iron bed (pictured left - £599 excluding mattress). Also for girls,
and less imposing in a smaller room, is the Sweet Heart wooden bed with
heart cut outs in the headboard (£499 excluding mattress).
Urchin
Tel 01672 871 515
The range includes a good pine junior bed. It has half-rails on the side,
which can be removed once you think your child can last the night without
toppling over the side. (£99 plus mattress, though remember it won’t
last forever - you will probably need a full-size bed when your child
is 7 or 8.)
Bump Beds
Tel 020 7249 7000
Bump supplies beds flat packed and unpainted. The Swedish day bed is beautiful
and costs £255.
Specialist shops and showrooms
Innes & Innes
114 Blythe Road, London W14
Tel 020 7602 4426
The white painted sleigh beds cost £375 (exc mattress - the standard
single Peter Jones mattress fits perfectly and costs £99).
Junior Living
293 Fulham Road, London SW10
Tel 020 7376 5001
6000 sq ft of children’s furniture - everything you could imagine.
The Spiderbed is great: a standard-size bed, it comes in red or silver,
and costs £595 (excluding mattress).
Red Studio
12A Spring Grove, W4
Tel 020 8994 7770
This shop in Strand on the Green is the sole UK importer for the Steybe
range of German-made children’s furniture, which feature clean,
modern designs. The bunk beds look classic and strong - good for little
boys.
Simon Horn Nursery Collection
117-121 Wandsworth Bridge Road, SW6
Tel 020 7736 1754
Furniture which grows up with your child. Their beautiful lit-bateau style
cot turns into a bed and then a sofa. Their bestseller is the extended
cot in medium cherrywood (£1895 including foam baby mattress). This
is heirloom furniture, so if you think of the number of times and different
ways it could be used, the price looks a bit more reasonable.
Blooming
Marvellous
725 Fulham Road, London SW6
The pregnancy and babywear supplier has introduced the Monika toddler
bed. Made from birchwood, it has a natural finish and slatted head and
foot boards, as well as two removable side guards (£99 excl mattress).
Chic Shack
77 Lower Richmond Road, London SW15.
Tel 020 8785 7777.
A familiar story - Maria Myers couldn’t find any children’s
furniture she liked, so designed her own range. Her shop sells furniture
and charming accessories. The white-painted sleigh-style bunks are sweet
for girls.
Bigger stores
Ikea
Tel 020 8208 5600
Their best-selling children’s bed is the Viktoria, an extendable
bed – in a beech or white finish (£53). Mattresses start at
£32.
Habitat
Tel 0870 411 5500
The Cosmic bunkbed is made from steel tubing and MDF and costs £325
(exc mattresses, which start at £99).
John
Lewis
Tel 020 7629 7711
and
Peter Jones
Tel 020 7730 3434
Large range of children’s beds, including the upmarket Lion, Witch,
Wardrobe range and JB Beds. The Studio model is a metal bunk, with a fold-out
chair bed and a desk underneath the top bunk and costs £425 incl
mattresses.
Check out homesources for loads of bed links and ideas.
First published in angels & urchins, Autumn 2003