Eva Chen Just Launched a 26-Piece Collection with West Elm Kids

By Lydia Geisel

Published on Sep 5, 2024 2:30 PM EDT

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When Eva Chen asks her kids to share their favorite color, they happily yell out shades like blue, green, or, in her 3-year-old son River’s case, “lellow.” “I don’t know many kids who are like, ‘My favorite color is almond,’” says Chen, a children’s book author and Instagram’s vice president of fashion partnerships. And yet, there’s a trend of parents decorating their kids’ spaces in shades of beige and opting for miniature-size versions of adult furniture. So when West Elm Kids asked Chen if she’d like to collaborate on a furniture collection, she was determined to bring in a sense of wonder and silliness.

“I really wanted to create pieces that were very inviting; that kids would want to immediately jump into and make their own,” she says. Case in point: on the day they photographed the 34-piece collection, her 7-year-old, Tao, crawled into the cubby underneath the lofted bed and cracked open his book totally unprompted. Later on, he plopped down in the arched reading nook, kicked his feet up, and picked up the story where he left off. “So much of the collection is centered around raising readers and kids who love to be transported into the worlds of books,” says Chen. Foster future bibliophiles with these standout pieces from her collaboration.

Made with FSC-certified wood, the lofted bed packs a lot of function into its 77-by-41-inch frame. There are deep bookcases on two sides, a small metal ladder for crawling up to the mattress, and a cozy nook underneath the headboard. Even Chen’s youngest, who is still too little to sleep up top, loves the cubby. “I don’t know how to describe it, but he loves to burrow and almost build nests,” she says.

We know Chen’s collection is all about letting kids be kids, but we secretly want this lacquered mirror for ourselves. “I could definitely see people buying it for their apartment entryway,” she says.

As someone who lives in a two-bedroom apartment with three kids, Chen decided to sneak in shelving wherever she could—even on the sides of the dresser. “In the afternoons between calls, I’d go into their room, frantically grab as many books as I could, and stack them on top of the dresser or on the floor. Now there’s a place to put them,” she says.

A traditional nursery glider is great for story time until you’ve got a 9-year-old curled up on your lap. “It gets a little crowded,” says Chen (she and her husband, Tom, know from personal experience). Cue the chair-and-a-half. The seat’s width is 37.5 inches, meaning there’s just enough room for everyone to gather without feeling like your legs are going to go numb.

While your kiddo could technically sit upright in this low velvet-clad chair, they’ll probably do what feels most comfortable and lean back in the swooping seat so they can toss their feet into the air.

The point of this petite wardrobe isn’t to pack in all their clothes but rather set mornings up for success; it offers little ones a spot to plan and display the week’s outfits.

Home Editor

Lydia Geisel has been on the editorial team at Domino since 2017. Today, she writes and edits home and renovation stories, including house tours, before and afters, and DIYs, and leads our design news coverage. She lives in New York City.

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