INNER SPACE GIVE KIDS A PLACE TO DREAM.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

Kids' bedrooms are for sleeping, playing, reading, dressing, dancing, hiding and dreaming - both the nighttime kind and the wide-awake kind.

So, why do so many parents do little more than set up a metal-frame bed, toss on some boring sheets, add a hand-me-down dresser and a mismatched desk and cover up the wall dings with tacky posters? And then they always close the door when company comes over.

``Have you seen how my kids treat their rooms?'' they would probably say. ``They can't handle nice furniture.''

But Geoffrey Halpern, owner of Ethan Allen Valley Manor in Northridge, says most kids actually rise to the occasion and start taking better care of their rooms when they have appealing furniture. ``Children take pride in their things, especially 8-, 9- and 10-year-olds,'' he said.

Ethan Allen is one of several furniture and home decor companies that have launched kid-specific lines in the last year or so. Others include Pottery Barn, Lexington Home Brands and the Company Store. They didn't need the 2000 Census to recognize the population boom in little kids, pre-teens (ages 8-12) and teen-agers coinciding nicely with a very robust economy.

Stanley Furniture, which launched its Young America line last month at the International Home Furnishings Market, says the youth furniture business has grown 10 percent to 20 percent a year over the last five years to reach $2.7 billion in annual retail sales.

Of course, a good chunk of that is nursery stuff. For newborns, moms and dads yield to their oooh-isn't-that-cute mushy sides and spend liberally for the coordinated furniture, wallpapers, window treatments and bedding that will be used only two or three years.

Wouldn't it make more sense to invest in furnishings that will last children longer?

If kid-inflicted damage is a concern, Halpern steers his customers away from the high-polished Chippendale and Queen Anne reproductions into the Cottage and Country French lines, which can be ordered with Tuff-A-Nuff laminate top surfaces that resist rings, crayons and scratches left by toy cars and trucks.

Or you could go for the weathered finishes on the handmade furniture available from Joseph Wahl Arts in Woodland Hills, which can look even better after it has been used.

Both Wahl and Halpern agree it is wise to ask kids' opinions about furniture and other decor elements, and to think beyond the immediate future. When Wahl is helping a customer choose a hand-painted motif, for example, he advises against cowboys and Indians, which a boy will outgrow, and encourages his customers to think sports or transportation instead.

Wahl, who relies mainly on word of mouth and counts Kim Basinger, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Emilio Estevez among his clients, mines the nostalgia vein in his furniture, paint finishes and antique accessories. Pokemon posters and Barbie dollhouses would look out of place in Wahl's rooms, but his customers find it irresistible. ``I'm not for everybody, but people who get it, buy it,'' he said. ``I think kids respond to it, too, more than we give them credit for.''

In getting his shoppers to look ahead to the day they pack a son or daughter off to college, Halpern shows off E.A. Kids' Organizer - desk, dresser, cabinet and bookshelf components that can be mixed and matched in varying configurations according to need and floor space. The desks include computer spaces and keyboard trays with plenty of work surface for hand-written assignments, yet without the cold office-furniture look.

E.A. Kids also offers entertainment centers in smaller cabinet work than the family-room models.

In newer homes, children's rooms have shrunk as master suites and sitting areas have expanded. So making furniture fit might be more difficult than making it affordable.

Pottery Barn designers found the secret to creating more floor space is giving kids ways to get their junk off the floor. They've made canvas storage pockets on a space-dividing screen as well as bedside and footboard arrangements. The Pottery Barn Kids line, currently available only through catalog and online shopping, also offers square storage baskets and some nice interlocking wooden cubes for a do-it-yourself shelf system.

For older kids - those who no longer tumble out of bed - IKEA suggests going up. Way up. Its Stora full-size platform bed in lacquered knotty pine hovers about 5 1/2 feet above the floor to allow a teen or young adult easy access to a very functional desk and bookshelf space beneath. The trade-off, of course, is less headroom in bed. Although there isn't a matching dresser, IKEA's Bialitt unfinished pine dressers (add the lacquer yourself) go well with it.

If you want your children to read more, try giving them a cozy place to do it. Whether it's E.A. Kids' Thinking Chair or Pottery Barn's Basic Chair Junior, the trend is toward comfortable upholstered seating on a smaller scale. These are not toddler-sized, outgrown by age 6. Most are broad enough to fit narrow adult hips, yet low enough to the floor to welcome small ones. And when they show wear and tear, they can be re-covered for another child.

If the budget simply won't allow for a total redo, adding accessories can make a difference. Joseph Wahl Arts usually stocks 4- to 5-foot U-Control model planes from the '50s for $150-$400. Pottery Barn Kids and The Company Store both have great bedding aimed at pre-teens and teens, and IKEA has a huge selection of affordable lamps and lighting fixtures, storage systems and rugs.

When it's all done, kids probably will enjoy spending more time in their rooms and might even clean them up without being asked. And moms just might leave those doors open.

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9 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) On the cover: Zach Noonan, 10, of Calabasas goes back in time in a room by Joseph Wahl Arts, featuring Wahl's hand-crafted cannonball bed ($1,075) and vintage U-Control model planes.

(2 -- color) Pottery Barn Kids encourages reading with its cozy P.B.K. Basic Chair ($499) and ottoman ($199). Both are available in machine-washable natural twill (shown) as well as red twill and denim.

(3 -- 5 -- color) You're never too young to get organized. Pottery Barn Kids sells pocketed bed skirts (above, $49 twin), footboard pockets (below, $29 twin) and even a pocketed folding screen (right, $149). If kids still don't take the hint, try the not-too-subtle ``pick up your toys'' banner ($39).

(6 -- color) Joseph Wahl Arts is all nostalgia with handmade solid wood furniture of Wahl's own designs, including this Aidan lace panel bed ($975), five-drawer dresser ($1,250), vanity ($395) and stool ($85), and rosebud-painted table with two chairs ($335).

(7 -- color) Unlike molded plastic tool benches, Wahl's wooden bench ($245) will take real pounding and endure to be handed down with love to its first owner's child.

(8 -- color) IKEA has lofty ideas. The Stora knotty pine platform and desk ($649) is shown with a four-drawer rolling cabinet ($99) and Svenarne adjustable swivel chair ($29.95).

(9 -- color) Ethan Allen's American Impressions computer desk ($1,349) and hutch ($799) include a surge-protected outlet and a pull-out writing surface for homework done the old-fashioned way.