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Most parents choose furniture for children

For millions of children, being sent to their room is no longer a punishment. That's because, according to the American Furniture Manufacturers Association, kids are being encouraged to furnish and decorate their bedrooms in ways that express their own style and personality.

TV shows and teen magazines are among the resources inspiring kids to visualize and explore their personal spaces, according to the AFMA. "Furniture manufacturers are introducing a wide range of product styles-from whimsical to sophisticated and everything in between-to help kids make those visions reality."

Interestingly, according to a recent AFMA parents' poll, more than half of the furniture bought for children in the last year was purchased with no input from the kids at all. Fifty-two percent of parents described their child's role as "passive," while only 13 percent said kids played an "active" role picking out the furniture and making a final decision. Twenty-two percent of parents said their children were "helpful," assisting with research and having limited decision-making power.

"We expect to see changes in the future, with children playing a more important part in decorating their space," said Hirschhaut. "With a little forethought, there's no reason the furnishings your child helps select for his or her dream room today can't transfer to a guest room, home office or hobby room later on. It can be a win-win."

The AFMA survey reveals that about one-quarter of the parents who bought children's furniture last year furnished an entire bedroom using matched pieces from a single collection. The majority of parents report that their kids' rooms are works in progress. These parents purchased one or two pieces to add to the existing furniture in their child's room.

When space is limited, loft beds, compact armoires and under bed drawers offer the most function while using the smallest square footage. But parents are also urged to look beyond bedroom walls for additional storage opportunities. Today's youth furniture collections contain a host of smartly-scaled pieces that are ideal for unfurnished nooks and crannies throughout your home-some in very practical places like the foyer, laundry room, hallway or kitchen corner where kids deposit coats, shoes, backpacks and toys.

A couch only a mother could love

Wendy Kokinda and Colleen Stasinchak have seen a lot of unusual furniture during their careers as interior decorators.

But nothing caught their eye quite like Sylvia Stern's couch.

Stern purchased the chartreuse sectional with swirls of green and yellow shortly after she moved into her Richboro home 32 years ago. To her, it was a functional-and expensive-piece of furniture in the seldom-used formal living room.

To Kokinda and Stasinchak, though, it might just be THE ugliest couch in the country.

And so many people agree with them that the couch (and Stern) will make an appearance Tuesday on "Live with Regis and Kelly." There, audience members will determine if it is, indeed, America's ugliest couch. If it is, Stern will win $5,000 from the contest sponsor, Sure Fit.

Kokinda and Stasinchak, who own Larsen Redesigns in Middletown, discovered the couch when they were consulting with Stern on a project. As interior redesigners, the pair use what's already in a person's home to come up with a new look.

Thinking the couch could have a place in the design, Stasinchak snapped a picture of it.

shoes | Gymnastics | Microscope A few months later, the pair was ordering a slipcover from Sure Fit, an Allentown company that specializes in couch coverings and other home accessories. They learned about the company's contest and immediately thought of Stern's couch.

Inmates learn the furniture-making craft

In a furniture plant here, fine wood products such as desks and chairs are being sanded, painted and assembled for various government agencies in the state.

But those people who are sweating over every brushstroke and tightened screw aren't lifelong carpenters, exactly.

The meticulous workers include convicted murderers and sex offenders.

They're considered the worst of society, but for 40 hours a week they can forget about past sins and contribute to the outside world.

Eighteen inmates are employed full-time at the furniture plant at Huttonsville Correctional Center, a medium-security facility that holds about 900 men in rural Randolph County.

Clothed in white prison shirts, inmate workers emerge from their military-style dormitories around 6 a.m. Monday through Thursday for a day "at the office." With a lunch and a few breaks in between, their workday ends at 4 p.m.

West Virginia Correctional Industries, a program intended to offer industrial skills to prison inmates and eliminate idleness, operates the furniture plant.

Piecing together furniture is the most privileged job in the entire facility, according to some inmates.

It beats mopping floors and working in the kitchen, said Kenny Mason, who's serving a first-degree murder sentence that will keep him in prison for at least 15 years.