Modern Furniture

If you've invested time and money creating the perfect contemporary environment in your home, chances are that traditional baby colors and furniture styles don't exactly fit your vision for your child's room. You're not alone. An increasing number of parents are embracing the new and aptly named Modern Baby aesthetic that incorporates contemporary design into nurseries and children's rooms. To fill this growing need, designers are creating furniture with the same minimalist lines and bold colors appreciated by discerning adults. As a bonus, many of these cutting edge designs are also eco-friendly. Because sustainably harvested hardwoods and non-toxic finishes are used in their creation, these contemporary takes on childhood furniture essentials won't be burdens to the planet when they finally outlive their usefulness.

As many parents are discovering, owning contemporary children's furniture that would be at home in the Museum of Modern Art can definitely go hand-in-hand with taking care of the planet. In fact, many of these furniture offerings come from manufacturers that pride themselves on being green commandos. One in particular, Oeuf (which is pronounced "uff" and means "egg" in French) actually recycles their wood waste into the briquettes that heat their facilities, and even collects factory dust with a state-of-the-art system and recycles it into fuel. And as a further nod to environment responsibility, Oeuf, like many other manufacturers, have cribs that extend their lifecycles by converting to toddler beds.

As a result of the Modern Baby trend, there are more options than ever to outfit your little one's room with contemporary eco-chic. Many new designers and manufacturers have popped up in the last decade, including trend-setters such as Nurseryworks, NettoCollection, bloom and Jennifer Delonge. But that doesn't mean all modern children's furniture designs are actually new. In fact, the child-sized Womb Chair comes from a design originally created by Eero Saarinen in 1948. And Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Chair, with a shape that's immediately recognizable to any modern furniture aficionado, was designed almost 20 years earlier in 1929. Thanks to Knoll, which has manufactured the adult versions of these designs for decades, the Womb and Barcelona chairs now also come in pint-sized versions. And you don't have to sacrifice eco-consciousness to incorporate these designer classics into your child's room, because Knoll has long been a leader in green business practices. Not only has Knoll proven that good design has no age requirement, but they stand in solidarity with newer manufacturers by doing it in a way that's environmentally responsible.