Lofty living for children
Given all the comparisons between the current economic crisis and the Great Depression, it’s fitting that the nation’s housing woes have helped to revive another piece of history. Welcome back the bunk bed.
The first inklings of its renaissance are emerging from furniture designers and retailers, who report that parents are buying bunk beds as a way to squeeze more children into modestly sized homes.
IKEA has seen U.S. demand grow 10% in just the last year, a spokeswoman said. Los Angeles-based Nurseryworks said its sales more than doubled during the same period. The firm, best known for cribs and changing tables, said bunks are now its top seller.
At Room & Board, the contemporary furnishings giant with a showroom in Santa Ana, the twin-size Moda bunk bed has done so well that the company introduced a minimalist all-white version of the maple frame a few months ago. Another model with a full-size mattress will roll out next year.
Several factors are at play: the growth of the home office, the sentiment among many parents that sharing a bedroom is good for kids and, most recently, economics.
“People maybe aren’t adding that third or fourth bedroom,” Nurseryworks co-founder Traci Fleming said. Her first wave of customers largely consisted of urban parents buying bunk beds for, say, a cramped Manhattan co-op. But the spike in sales this year has been spread across the country, she said, indicating a broad need for kids to share bedrooms.
Survey results released Tuesday by the National Assn. of Home Builders support the notion that many additions have been put on hold. Demand for remodeling, as reported for the third quarter and as predicted for the immediate future, dropped to the lowest levels since the survey started in 2001.
Meanwhile, as property values plummet and homeowners see their equity evaporate, buying a larger house has become less of an option too.
“Families are not trading up like they used to,” said David Harris, spokesman for ducduc, maker of two chic bunk bed “systems” that can be configured as side-by-side twins.
Many firms also credit fresh, modern designs for reigniting interest in the old bunk.
“You had this big dinosaur that hadn’t changed in such a long time,” said Andrew Thornton, who runs the Brooklyn children’s furniture firm Argington with his wife, Jenny Argie. Last year they introduced the Uffizi, a well-received piece with cool cantilevered beds.
Even if the economic downturn lasts as long as some fear, no worries: The modern bunk bed is prepared. Many models incorporate a third bed -- a trundle, just waiting for that next child to come along.
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