Funky Kids Furniture is not just offbeat appearance. It can be practical too.

What does "funky kids furniture" actually mean? One definition of is "Not quite right; offbeat, unconventional or eccentric". But while it might be something you don't see every day, it could be practical too, even educational.

What do you see on the Internet? (Type "funky kids furniture" into your favorite search engine like Google, Yahoo, Bing or Ask.) You can find kids commodes, mice designs, fur covered lamps, zebra painted chairs... lots of things that look uncomfortable. But how about something with an unusual but useful feature?

How about something like this?

First of all, what is it?

Well obviously it is strong enough that a child could safely climb on top of it. In this case it is made of solid hardwood that not only looks good, it is durable too.

We call it an example of funky kids furniture because it holds or stores toys in a special way.

It is called the "one at a time" toy cabinet. That means the child can have only one toy out at a time. I came up with the idea after watching my first small grandson systematically spread his toys all over my son's house. I'd forgotten that when we were parents our kids had done the same thing. But we just took it for granted that this was inevitable.

It is not obvious how it works so here is an video of a child using one of my solid hardwood One-at-a-time toy cabinets.

On other pages of my web site you can learn more about this example of modern childrens furniture. "Modern" in the sense that the toy cabinet was designed from both the child's point of view (see child psychology) and the parents point of view (see toy clutter).

Here are some other features and finishes of One at a time toy cabinets.

Here you can see the "crystal" door handles sparkling in the light. The wood is solid Cherry showing the typical variations in grain that often accompany this hardwood.

This photo features a Walnut toy storage cabinet in more of a bench design. The dark color is NOT a stain, that's the natural color of Walnut.

This last photo is an example of a solid hardwood Poplar toy cabinet. At first glance it may look like Pine. However the Poplar grain is much finer than Pine and the wood itself is considerably harder and durable.

Take your time in considering all aspects of your children's furniture. "Funky" is not just cute or different, it can be really useful too. Should you choose solid hardwood kids furniture for your own children they will enjoy the security of having the same furniture for many years, or even for generations.

There are lots of ways to make toy storage that gets kids to automatically put away their own toys. Grandparents and parents of young children can explore the one at a time Toy Chest and other toy storage ideas.

Other ideas beyond the funky kids furniture to help your children pick up their toys and keep their rooms clesn!

Funky design can also be environmentally friendly. For example, once you consider the energy in producing it, number of years it will last and the amount of cleaning and refinishing done over the years a solid hardwood one at a time toy cabinet makes even more sense.