Design Kids began in Melbourne as a small business with a simple idea: that furniture for children should be as well designed as furniture for adults. The shop has closed, but the idea hasn’t, and this site carries it on as an independent guide.
Who we are
We’re a small group of parents, designers and one very patient carpenter based in Melbourne’s east. Between us we’ve furnished more nurseries than we’d care to count, assembled flat-pack at midnight, returned things that arrived looking nothing like the photo, and slowly worked out what actually matters. We started writing it down for friends. This is the longer version.
What we believe
- Buy less, buy better. A nursery needs far fewer things than the checklists suggest. One good cot, one good chair and decent storage will outlast a room full of gadgets.
- Safety is a design feature. The Australian standards for cots exist for good reasons. Furniture that meets them without looking like it was designed by a committee is the goal.
- Design for the long run. Children grow. Furniture that converts, adapts or simply looks good enough to move into another room is worth more than something that only makes sense for eighteen months.
- Australian conditions. Our summers, our small bedrooms and our tendency to rent all change what the right answer is. Advice written for a four-bedroom house in Ohio doesn’t always translate.
How we work
We don’t sell anything and we don’t run affiliate links. When we mention a brand, a maker or a retailer, it’s because we’ve used their products, visited their showroom or heard consistently good things from people we trust. We’d rather point you to a handful of good options than list everything on the market.
We also link out to other sites when they cover something better than we could: safety regulators, independent testing, specialist makers, and the occasional blog that’s simply done the work. If one of those links goes stale, tell us and we’ll fix it.
Get in touch
Questions, corrections and photos of finished nurseries are all welcome at hello@designkids.com.au. We’re not a shop, so we can’t help with orders or returns from the old business, but if you’re stuck on a decision we’re happy to weigh in.