Storybook Furniture

]>Americans who grew up reading Dick and Jane stories now can share this memory with their families through furniture. Piggy Toes, a Denver, CO-based manufacturer of hand-painted furniture, recently signed a license with publisher Scott Foresman to create children's furniture featuring fine art illustrations and text from the original series that started in the 1930s.

At the recent Toy Fair in New York, Piggy Toes rolled out its initial line known as "The Picket Fence Series." The 18-piece collection features furniture from the Little Colorado line and includes table and chair sets, chests, step stools, and nightstands, plus a vintage, limited edition line of the actual school furniture from Denver in the 1940s to 1960s. The Picket Fence Series offers 58 select images and text from the stories. A table and chair set is expected to retail at $500 and the vintage school desk at about $730. This is the first license for Piggy Toes, which has its eye on expanding into the mainstream market and securing additional licenses for children's furniture. Jayme Mansfield, president of Piggy Toes, says the concept to integrate Dick and Jane into furniture came to her as she thumbed through her father's collection from the 1930s.