Advice - childrens' beds/furniture

[jigger]

I wanted to ask for any good advice on childrens furniture. Beds in particular. I bought a "full size" mothercare bed for my son which cost £100 for mattress & £100 for frame. The good point is that it is nice & low so that he can get in & out of it easily (he is 3) and my daughter (10m) can climb on & off of it easily but....it feels very ricketty for the medium/long term & I wouldn't consider the mattress comfortable although he isn't complaining yet. In addition mothercare mattresses are a non standard size so normal fitted sheets are too big. Even more annoyingly mothercare don't support the product & fitted sheets & mattress protectors are practically discontinued even though they do sell the bed in their current catalogue.

I am reluctant to go for the more expensive "sexy" children's brands like Flexabed where you start with a low bed & then put it on stilts as this would be expensive to do for all 3.

Can anyone advice of good brands/products that they have bought or are considering since I think in time I will buy new beds for all! Any web links to childrens ranges of furniture that you have used will also be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Bumping for you - not entirely selflessly as I, too, need to buy a first bed.

We have \link{http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10101&storeId=7&langId=-20&productId=11210\this one} for our dd, she's 3.5 now and just about to need the bottom piece dropped down. We used it with Ikea's Patrul bed rails at £4 each. It's nice and low, and with the Sultan mattress is really comfortable.

we also have the ikea bed. its on the smallest setting atm, and dd2 who is 2 fits very comfortably in it

i've tried to do a link but keep failing.

we recently got dd, just 3, the tromsnes daybed from ikea. v sturdy and looks nice. she calls it her princess bed. we didn't do bedrails, just tucked a duvet in sideways. it's not a child's bed, but she can get in and out easily.

\link{http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10101&storeId=7&productId=32909&langId=-20&parentCats=10103*10144\tromese bed}

no idea how you managed that misdee, it simply would not work for me

misdee-magic

dd 7 has the Tromses bed and ds (3) has a cabin bed that we bought from someone in the local paper for £40 and then dh guessed how to put it together. He is very proud of it. Mattress has to made to order though and will prbably cost 170 quid (false economies, eh!!) unless anyone out there knows where to get a 3 ft by 5 ft 6 inch mattress for less.

Both DSs went into \link{http://www.lilliput.com/html/thuka_3.html\these} sort of beds when they were 2.10. The built in rails act like bed guards and only DS2 has ever fallen out and that was when he tried to climb over the edge rather than go down the ladder. They both used a futon mattress to start with (we had one) which was lower than a usual mattress.

Uses a standard single mattress btw.

Thanks for all the suggestions. The Ikea one looks good and a bargain, so I might go for that.

Remember that you have to buy a mattress and bedslats with the Ikea one (and when we first put our dd's up, it really smelt chemically) - its worn off now though....... and it does look cute - we are about to put the big round veil thing up above it this weekend.....