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Kids Beds
In this topic we look at the traditional type of bed you probably think of when you grew up. Kids’ beds have come a long way since then and you can be forgiven for finding all the choices a little overwhelming.
Here we’ll explain all the main types of modern non-themed kids’ beds and talk a little about their construction and their uses.
Traditional kids’ beds are usually those that perform just one or two functions.
Traditional kids’ beds don’t lend themselves to a theme and can be categorised into three main areas; pine beds, metal beds and divan.
Let’s take a look at each of those three categories and briefly explain a little more about them.
These are kids beds constructed primarily from pine and are usually finished with a natural coloured stain, although it’s becoming more popular to use coloured shades. Pine beds are the stereotypical 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. The best type of pine is called Polar Pine and is only found along a certain line of latitude (hence the polar), it grows much slower due to the climate difference and produces fewer branches which would have later shown in the wood as knots.
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. Often bunk beds are constructed from metal as they are cheap and easy to make compared to wood.
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. Metal beds can vary hugely in terms of build quality, strength and price. Many beds are made in metal to keep costs low, some however are much higher quality with these differences being obvious.
Divan beds are a very basic type of 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 often 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 bed!
A disadvantage to divan beds is a core part of the beds construction and appearance – the base. It’s now thought best to use slats to sit a mattress on, allowing fresh air to circulate around the mattress making it much more hygienic.
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.
A good example of fun kids’ beds are kids specific divan beds. These are the same as the traditional style divans as discussed above only these include some fun styling differences. The most common differences include a styled headboard, sometimes to include a character or fun shape, and bright/fun fabrics to cover the divan base and mattress. Other differences could include more elaborate shapes for the base and/or “feet” for the bed making it look more like a character.
The basic concept of a modular bed is that you can change your kids’ bed to meet your child’s needs or to change the functionality of the bed. Modular beds have modern designs with stylish durable materials used in their construction.
You can, for example, start with a standard low single bed. When required/wanted you can simply buy an extension pack, in its most basic form longer legs and a ladder. Now your standard kids’ bed has grown into a mid sleeper bed, bunk beds or a high sleeper bed, able to accommodate desks, furniture, play tents and even slides under the raised sleeping platform.
Fun Kids Rooms sells the entire range of modular kids’ beds from award winning manufactures Thuka. The range is called Kids-Space and all the Kids-Space Maxi range are on our Kids-Space Maxi beds pages. Because Thuka modular beds offer much more than any other type of kids’ bed we will go into more detail on a specific page:
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