Finding a kid-and-baby store with products that appeal to everyone, including people with no offspring of their own, can be a daunting task.
 
At Cherry Four Junior Home, however, parents will have as much fun shopping as their kids and ditto for the unencumbered in search of the perfect gift for a pal's new baby or favourite niece or nephew.
 
Cherry Four Junior Home offers unique gifts and everyday items, along with quality and stylish kid-focused furniture, bedding and accessories.
 
The fun and colourful stock is guaranteed to strike a chord with most breathing beings, and reflects the efforts of Cherry Four owner Fev Hunter to find product with personality.
 
"My buying can be gut, it can be completely personal," she said.
 
"But when people come in, I want them to have a good time and I want it to really speak to the kids, and when the kids come in and say: 'I like this store,' then you know you've got it right."
 
It's a philosophy Hunter carries through to the selection of beds, cribs, dressers, nightstands, bedding, fixtures and wall art available in the Inglewood shop.
 
Cherry Four is a place where Ugly Dolls share space with Puff Dogs plush toys, and favourites like Sea-Monkeys kits, stretchy dinosaurs, and sock monkey jack-in-the-boxes hang out with Curious George and a magical musical ballerina jewelry box.
 
Doodles or Squiggles books by Taro Gomi (of Everyone Poops fame), have great gift written all over them, especially when accompanied by Smencils, scented pencils and pencil crayons crafted from recycled newspaper.
 
The New Parent Apology book boasts postcards with written apologies for various real-life scenarios (kids destroying restaurant, screaming newborn in the wee hours, etc.) that harried parents can detach and hand over in situations where they need to make amends.
 
The smattering of furniture on the retail floor accommodates ages everything from babies through to ages 7 or 8, but can be carried through to teens or beyond on the custom furniture side.
 
A larger selection of furniture is available in catalogues on hand.
 
The furniture is focused on kids in every aspect, from scale, to styling and finishes, and is built to last. "Ideally, buy it once. It needs to see them through," she said, noting many of the cribs convert into double beds.
 
Other pieces on display include the Fatboys bean bag chair.
 
The giant sacklike item can be stood on its end or laid on its side, and appears virtually indestructible. "It's super heavy duty, so you can just wipe it down," Hunter said of the heavy nylon fabric.
 
There are a couple of glider rockers disguised as stylish chairs, including a model that reclines.
 
Cherry Four offers bedding, custom bedding, window coverings and cushions in fun fabrics from designers like Duralee, Joanne, Serena and Lily, and Dwell Studios.
 
Some novelty baby clothing is on hand to sate gift shoppers.
 
Included here are onesies and infant T-shirts with humorous sayings and slogans.
 

The section features Babylicious Boutique line's sleep cosy and sit and spit cloths. Baby blankets and nightlights are also on offer.
 
For older kids, there's Crocodile Creek bags, with age-appropriate boy and girl patterns, Automoblox and glitter filled bouncy balls.
 
Humorous child-rearing-related cards from Speckles&Weeds by Calgary mom Jane Desilets are also on offer.
 
Cherry Four opened in 2001 as a gift store for all ages, after Hunter left a longtime gig as a merchandiser for a big-box retailer overseeing stores across Western Canada.
 
Hunter, who'd studied interior design and worked in retail for years, was ready for something different. She took her cue from her travels to Toronto, Vancouver and San Francisco, where she'd seen a lot of fun gift stores and noted there wasn't anything similar in Calgary.
 
Cherry Four had a section of kids and baby items, which quickly proved popular with customers.
 
"It just kept growing, because it was really popular," she said.
 
That segment of her gift store soon took on a life of its own.
 
At the same time, Hunter was picking up on the constant laments she was hearing in casual conversation with family and friends about the trouble they were having in finding great things for kids.
 
Customers too would come in, asking if she had specific brands or types of child products.
 
It wasn't long before Hunter started to rethink the store and what she wanted it to be.
 
The clincher came when she realized how much she enjoyed buying kids stuff for Cherry Four.
 
"When I was finding stuff for the store for the kids section, it cracked me up. It's the happiest stuff, it really is just so fun," Hunter said.
 
The decision was made to focus the store solely on kids and babies. In addition to following her own instincts, Hunter let clients help direct her buying. "The difficult part of buying was choosing, because I just was finding great fun product, so the store took on a life of its own and I felt like it had a stronger and stronger identity," she said.
 
With the core businesses now firmly set in a new direction, Hunter devoted considerable time investigating kids' furniture to find a manufacturer that exceeded her strict quality standards, yet also appealed her sense of style.
 
The focus on kids and babies was a pivotal change for her business, she said.
 
In 2005, Hunter added the Junior Home to the Cherry Four name.
 

 
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