FOR KIDS : Furniture Fantasies

THERE’S ONLY ONE PROBLEM with the Vienna Children’s Museum Furniture Collection: Kids may have a hard time keeping their parents away from it. Guy Cnop, owner of Linea-Ligne Roset, says he’s been playing with the colorful furniture since the day it arrived at his shop.

The pegboard-like pieces (recommended for children ages 2 through 8) were developed by E. Warlamis, a Greek architect living in Austria. The line, exhibited at the Vienna Museum of Applied Arts, features three chairs ($112 to $119) in the shapes of a hill, a house and a tree; a house cupboard ($468), and a crescent-shape desk ($171). These are accompanied by an architecture game set ($38) composed of 20 simple forms--cubes, semicircles, cones, clouds, a tree and a bird--that children use to create unique environments by inserting them (with pegs) into the perforated furniture. Children become landscapers and urban planners, and the variety of their fantasy domains is limitless: from bucolic scenes of rolling hills, clouds and medieval castles to futuristic cities of skyscrapers, tunnels and rockets.

The pieces are available in either natural pine or bright red, yellow and green. Chairs come in two seat heights (about 12 inches and 14 inches) and can support the weight of an adult--just in case.

The Vienna Children’s Museum Furniture Collection is sold at Linea-Ligne Roset, 8840-A Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 273-5425.