Kids Bed

Kids bedroom furniture can be hit or miss. Parents are torn between style and design or practicality and usability.

Often there are two types of bedroom furniture, themed and a more traditional style.

To start with let's take a look at traditional beds.

Traditional beds

Traditional kids beds usually perform just one or two functions and don't lend themselves to a particular theme. As such they are more likely to be a long-term solution rather than a short-term fashion statement and can be categorised into three main areas; pine beds, metal beds and divan beds.

Kids Pine beds

These are kids beds constructed from pine and are usually finished with a natural coloured stain, these are the type of bed you first think of when asked to imagine a kids bed.

Pine is a cheap building material and is strong for its weight. Pine trees often grow fast and as such bed manufactures often source the pine from sustainable forests. Pine trees also produce a lot of branches, these branches can be seen in the pine of the bed as knots.

Kids Metal beds

Metal is a good material for the construction of kids beds, it is strong, inexpensive and can be made into elaborate shapes.

Traditional kids beds are often a combination of pine and metal, using metal for structural support, and pine for the base of the bed.

Metal kids beds are usually powder coated or use a hard type of plastic coating applied to the base metal. Small chips and marks are often easier to spot than on pine beds.

Divan beds

Divan beds are a very basic kids bed in a simple box shape, usually with storage in base. Divan beds are made from a combination of a lightweight wooden frame, MDF and other inexpensive building materials, covered in a durable fabric.

The mattress sits on top of the box frame and headboards are attached as a separate item. As divan beds are basically a box they have the advantage of having a lot of storage space inside them, great for a kids bedroom!

Fun Kids beds

Fun kids beds are often a traditional style bed that use bright colours and fun accessories, such as themed headboards. This creates a more cost effective kids bed as these beds can be made on the same production line as a traditional bed.

Modern Modular (adaptive) Kids beds

These newer and increasingly popular types of bed are usually more traditional in design and are often made from high quality pine. Modular designs ensure a long life span along with adaptability to meet yours and your child's needs.

So what does modular mean?

In this context modular furniture is that which can be modified or altered. A basic example would be to take a standard single bed and add an extension pack to create any manner of other beds such as mid-sleepers, bunk beds, loft beds etc.

Modular beds are a great way of changing your kids bed to meet their needs. For example, a young child may require a "first bed", a shorter than normal bed. This bed would suit their needs for a year or two, but then they would require a full size bed. This is where the "Modular" aspect comes into play, an extension is added to the existing bed and the short bed becomes a full size bed. The bed is changed to meet the changing needs of the child and you don't have to worry about buying a whole new bed.

A few years of growing means that your needs are different. Take the existing low bed and add another extension pack, and the single low bed becomes either a mid-sleeper able to house drawers, desks etc, or a bunked able to sleep two. A high-sleeper/loft kit can also be added to make a towering bed capable of fitting a full height wardrobe, or a full sized desk, or even a futon bed chair under.

Themed beds

Themed beds are those that often relate to a well-known character or object. Themed beds are both exciting and often expensive and can rage from the traditional sports car bed to a Disney© Princess tower bed. The drawbacks of a themed bed can be that they often fall out of style after a few years.