A Guide to the Best of Southern California : FOR KIDS : Rabbits and Rocking Horses and Bears, Oh My

WHEN SHE BEGAN designing children’s furniture, Katherine Ward had a specific seating problem to solve. It was difficult to find chairs proportioned to fit the little legs of her 18-month-old daughter Stephanie, and most of the tiny chairs she did come across lacked the style she was looking for--whimsical yet sophisticated, and not covered with cartoon characters. So, a company--San Diego-based Plum Salad, which makes children’s and doll furniture--is born. (“Plum Salad was my nickname when I was a little girl,” Ward explains.)

The Plum Salad animal chairs--which include the Rabbit Chair (20 inches high by 12 inches wide by 11 inches deep), the Rocking Horse Chair (17x12x11) and the Bear Chair (19x12x11)--are sized for children ages 1 to 3 years old and priced at about $100. The chairs, which are almost entirely handmade, go through five processes of hand-spraying to achieve the hot, tropical colors and lustrous finish; the designs on the chair backs are hand-silk-screened.

“One thing that’s nice about these chairs,” Ward says, “is that color-wise and art-wise, they mix nicely with other pieces of furniture. They’re not so cutesy that they have to be hidden away in a child’s room.”

Plum Salad furniture is available at By Design, Beverly Center, Los Angeles, (213) 822-9600; Kids Furniture, 2270 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, (818) 957-7622; Nana Knows, 27 Morningwood Dr., Laguna Niguel, (714) 248-8402.