By Nicole Swengley

Parents who want their children's rooms to look as stylish as their own have hitherto had a hard time finding good-looking furniture. Choice was limited to clichéd nursery furnishings or Ikea's ubiquitous offering. It's only quite recently that the industry has started taking children's furniture seriously and designing specifically for under-18s.

Designers have not totally ignored children. Back in 1944 Danish designer Hans Wegner came up with a charmingly simple wooden, miniature chair for a colleague's young son, while Charles and Ray Eames designed a colourful children's chair and stool the following year. And Artek, the Finnish furniture manufacturer, has made kids'-sized versions of Alvar Aalto's iconic bent-plywood furniture since 1935. But these were exceptions.

Now the children's furniture market is booming because of heightened design-awareness coupled with greater affluence. Sales of Me Too, a contemporary children's collection launched three years ago by Italian manufacturer Magis, doubled between 2005 and 2006. And the secret, says Magis's founder Eugenio Perazza, lies in inviting star designers to create a dedicated children's collection instead of producing scaled-down adult furnishings. Another reason for the popularity of this pint-sized collection is that it's so imaginative. Spanish designer, Javier Mariscal, has created Julian, a range of colourful polypropylene seats that look like fantasy animals. Similar creatures act as supports for Mariscal's Ladrillos shelving system. Maverick Dutch designer, Marcel Wanders, has given his Little Flare table with four legs that double as pen-holders, while Satyendra Pakhale's organically-shaped rug has a small separate section like a jigsaw-puzzle piece. Trioli chairs by Eero Aarnio are multi-use with three seat heights and can be turned on their sides as rockers.

A new collection of children's furniture and bedroom accessories has just been launched by the Conran Shop. An oak-framed rocking chair with a colourful rubber seat, a lacquered ball-shaped chair that's suitable for use indoors or outside and a red stool that looks exactly like dice are all star turns. High street retailer Habitat has similarly turned its attention to teenage rooms. Its VIP for Kids range comprises a dozen pieces inspired by childhood memories. Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin has designed a white resin pendant light that mimics the moon's surface. Model Sophie Dahl has contributed a frilly dressing table with chair, while actress Kate Winslet has created a Secret Box with wooden compartments. Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame designed the Cu-bed, a set of versatile fabric blocks for use as a bed, chair or sofa. “It's not just adults who enjoy the finer things in life - kids do too,” explains Tom Dixon, Habitat's non-executive creative director. “This time round, the people we chose had to be the kind of personalities that kids have admiration and respect for too.” Bedroom furniture and bed linens have also been designed to give teenagers a sense of control over their own surroundings.

Parents can even go to furniture specialists like Vitra, which has produced a mini-version of Verner Panton's iconic cantilever chair in seven bright colours. Vitra also sells Algue which, though not specifically aimed at children, is likely to appeal to teenagers since its design, by French brothers Ronan and Erwen Bouroullec, in its frondy, plant-like, plastic elements, can be linked together for use as curtains or room dividers.

Online retailers are competing for a share in this growing market too. Try LionWitchWardrobe whose Bridge range includes solid oak beds, wardrobes, chests of drawers, tables, toy-boxes, bookcases, chairs and tables. A toddler chair with an integral leather pouch for books and toys is another of its clever designs. As imaginative is a table with an integral pencil-box whose top is punctured with holes for resting pencils. And if you can't find what you want, the company offers a bespoke service to create furnishings to a parent's - or child's - own specifications. Check out websites such as Absolute Zero Degrees, a London-based design agency which produces children's wallpaper, fabrics, tableware and cushions under its MiniModerns label. Funky Little Darlings uses the latest digital technology to print bespoke wallpaper with highly imaginative, contemporary designs.

Lizzie Allen's hand-screen printed wallpapers, such as Changing Guards at
Buckingham Palace or the teen-friendly Pineapple Flower Damask, offer similar
generation-gap appeal.

“There are some very clever ideas out there and we want to embrace the new move by young designers towards kids' design,” says Lucy Ryder Richardson, a mother of two children who organises the Midcentury Modern furnishing shows. For the first time, Ryder Richardson is holding a selling show in February called Kids.Modern at which designers will sell stylish children's furniture and home accesories.

“We want to introduce parents to the coolest designers around,” she says.

www.absolutezerodegrees.com
www.conranshop.co.uk
www.funkylittledarlings.co.uk
www.habitat.net
www.lionwitchwardrobe.co.uk
www.lizzieallen.co.uk
www.magismetoo.com
www.minimoderns.com
www.thorstenvanelten.com
www.vitra.com

Kids.Modern takes place from 10am to 4pm on 24 February 2008 at Dulwich College, London SE1 (020 8761 3405; www.ourshowhome.