Modern Furniture

Given the way most children prefer to sit on the floor anyway, you would think there was little need for chairs at an early age. In fact there are quite a number of chairs associated with each of a child’s growing stages and all of which are very necessary to them.
In the beginning you need a good comfortable chair for nursing and feeding the baby. This should be low with either no arms at all or the sort that will allow the mother plenty of unrestricted movement. An ordinary straight-backed wooden kitchen chair with the legs shortened is ideal, padded out with cushions for comfort. Out of the baby stage you need the sort of relaxed chair that is both good for comfort and comforting and for climbing on: a capacious, overstuffed armchair with lavish arms that will go on to be a favourite chair for a child to curl up in to read. Children love being nursed and cuddled in a rocking chair and the smaller versions are comforting for small children to sit in while they watch a new baby being fed. If there isn’t a spare knee to sit on, a rocking chair is a good place to be for watching television or listening to a story.
You will definitely need a strong, stable highchair, preferably one that can be adjusted to a convenient height for feeding the child from the table, or that can come apart to be put on a lower level. Unless you are fortunate enough to have a nursery, this will, of course, be located in the dining room or kitchen. There are low level chairs with trays as well, but a dual-purpose one will save money and space. If the chair is made of metal, there should be no sharp ends or open-ended tubes and when the feeding tray is in position there should be no possibility of the child slipping out from under it. There should also be a safety strap, a seat adjustment device that locks securely and, for maximum stability, the base should always be wider than the seat. You may have to buy the harness separately. Either way, make sure that there is firmly fixed anchorage for it. A proper foot rest adds comfort. As they get older children will need proper chairs so that they can sit at a table to eat, sturdy chairs to climb on to reach things, soft, comforting body-moulding chairs for relaxing in and chairs that give good support for working. They particularly like chairs that move (rockers, chairs on wheels or castors) or chairs that they can sink into, like bean bags or sag-bags. These should have fireretardant stuffing. Toddlers prefer low seats so that their legs rest on the floor, otherwise they get very tired. Stackable plastic chairs in bright colours are ideal for mealtimes and for working. So are sturdy wooden chairs, especially those with arms which feel safe and are more restful. Stools, too, are quite good for painting, model-building, drawing; there is an adjustable variety which will grow with the child. If you can get a step-stool you will find it invaluable in the bathroom (for reaching the basin or sink) as well as in their playrooms and/or bedrooms. Look for the kind with suction devices that keep them steady and firm.
Benches, wood-topped or upholstered are useful for accommodating several children, marvellous for games of pretend, especially as they can be turned upside down, good for putting under a window (with bars!) and handy for model-building when things can be spread out along them. From the safety point of view, there are not too many don’ts about chairs that are not taken care of by common sense but here are some points to bear in mind:
• Buy strong sturdy chairs that won’t tip over when they are climbed on.
• Don’t provide children under eight years old with canvas folding chairs as they could collapse when climbed on.
• Be wary of plastic or wood folding chairs. They might be sturdy enough but the folding mechanism could easily trap and hurt small fingers.
• Make sure wooden chairs are smooth and splinter free.
• Check that paint is non-toxic.

Experts cite three converging reasons for the dramatic rise in home-based business: advances in personal computers and other office electronics, corporate downsizing, and dissatisfaction with urban stress and long, tiresome commutes.

The computer can arm a home-based worker with much the same power and polish as the big players. And new telecommunications technology makes it possible to access information and transfer finished work almost instantly.

Many established businesses are taking a look at telecommuting as a way to motivate workers, solve overcrowding, ride out economic changes, and grapple with tough new commuting laws. Telecommuting is also growing because the nature of much work is changing-away from producing goods and toward information services.
The appeal of home-based work goes beyond the opportunity to make your morning conference calls in sweatshirt and jeans or a bathrobe. Many home workers cite newly found (noncommute) time, lower stress, and lower overhead as major benefits. Others experience a better balance between work and family life. Many two-earner families resolve conflicting business and home duties when one (or both) adult works at home.

The first thing to plan in any room that is going to be both bedroom and play space is storage. Children, even babies, have a lot of belongings - toys, clothes and equipment of various kinds - that are going to accumulate with the years. Where are you going to put it all?

For an average, say 4X3 metre (12 X 10 ft) room that has no existing cupboards, either build in a full-length double cupboard, floor to ceiling, or buy a sturdy, roomy second-hand wardrobe. It really is
false economy to bother with any of those specially built mini cupboards that may look rather sweet but become obsolete in no time at all.

In the very early stages, your basic cupboard/wardrobe can be divided in two. Use one side for hanging space, with perhaps one rail at waist level and either another rail or removable shelves above. These can be removed as the child’s clothes get larger and longer. Fit the other side with well-spaced shelves and use it for toy storage; later on it will be useful for sweaters, shirts and a lot of chunky, bulky clothing.

You will also need at least two chests of drawers. Unpainted wooden chests of drawers are inexpensive and perfectly adequate. Or you can buy a modern furniture from us. Set them against the wall leaving a knee-hole space in between (to form an eventual desk/dressing table) and top them with some sort of easily cleanable laminate surface. If these can run along the length of one whole wall so much the better: such an arrangement looks neat and tidy and these are words you are going to be using a lot over the next ten years.

The drawers can be used for nap-pies, night clothes, underwear, talc and all the other baby necessities in the beginning as well as for an over-flow of toys. Later the same drawers will take other clothes, other toys, other games, school work and general clutter.

The long run of work surface along the top of the chests can first be used for changing the baby, then for play (painting, drawing, cutting out) and later still for school work and displaying possessions. The actual chests can be painted, lacquered or otherwise decorated, many times over the years in whatever style happens to be in keeping at the time.

Against the wall behind and above these units it would be a good idea to build a series of shelves or shelves and lockers interspersed with pinboards and space for drawing and the inevitable posters and pictures of pop stars. Make sure all drawing pins are out of reach of toddlers.

In the first instance, shelves can hold soft toys later giving way to books, records, files. The pinboard takes progress charts and nursery information to start with and can carry on into school years to provide space for homework timetables and general reminders.

Good curtain is like a favorite dress. It drapes handsomely, looks well made even if it’s Shaker-simple, tempts you to touch the fabric, and suits the window it was made for.

How do you decide what your windows should wear? Here is a good advice: if the room has a lot going for it-great art, furniture, or architecture-you should simplify the window treatments; If the room is not that outstanding, go ahead and really decorate the window.

Remember that dressing your living room windows is a little like getting dressed up yourself for the theater: finery isn’t required, but a certain attention must be paid to style, quality, and tailoring. You can do without frills and formality, which in the language of curtains means swags, jabots, and voluptuous valances. But good fabrics, modern furniture and good construction, are essential.

You can boost a low ceiling using color contrasts. Paint the walls darker than the ceiling (use any two colors, or shades of a color, that you wish). Then, using the darker wall color, paint a 6-inch-wide border all the way around the edge of the ceiling, as if framing it. The central, lighter area of the ceiling will now look higher.

To magnify the effect, leave 6 inches of white space between the edges of the ceiling and your darker painted frame. The central framed area, now smaller, will look even higher.