"Chez nous, faire le lit des enfants est une tradition. Mon grand pere a fait celui de mon pere qui a fait le mien...J'ai donc dessine celui de ma fille."

"In our family, making a child's bed is a tradition. My grandfather made my father's who made mine...Then I designed my daughter's."

That's Florent Lasbleiz, a young designer and dad in Tours in central France, who came up with the Lit de Camille, a multi-function cradle/bed/chest which he's selling as a signed, limited edition.

The central section comes out like a table leaf, allowing the two ends to close together for a cradle, or--with a lid--for a chest. It's made of molded, painted ply, and comes in a couple of other color schemes.

His renderings say the bed's good for "6 months to 5 years," and since his kid looks about 5 in the photos, I'd guess there were some cozy couple of years since 2004, when the bed made made its actual, fabricated debut. But as someone who's own kid is fast outgrowing her own daddy-designed toddler bed while it sits, nearly completed, in a Brooklyn workshop, I'm the last one to be pointing stuff like that out. [d'oh] Besides, it's really an heirloom, not just a piece of functional furniture.

Lit de Camille [lasbleizdesign.com, bonne chance with the navigation, via mocoloco]