Is this a reasonable amount of money to spend on nursery?

[ALittleBitWorried1983]

Hi everyone,

I'm moving in two weeks and I am expecting my first baby in April.

The place I am moving to is a lot bigger and though most of the stuff from my current place is coming with me, there are more rooms to fill & of course the nursery.

I'm just wondering if this a reasonable amount of money to spend, or whether I should try to find for less? Must add that every piece I've selected is in the same colour scheme as my place and I love it, I just don't want to be careless with money and don't have much experience with furniture!

So, my basket is so far £560.

This includes:

A new desk & office chair for home office
A velvet sofa bed for guests
Two new grey shabby rugs (160cm x 240cm)
Grey chest of drawers
Two grey bedside tables
A vintage grey velvet armchair
Some coffee, tea and sugar canisters (mine are too old now!)
A grey cot with teething rails

Is this a good deal?

Thank you!

Velvet = hard to clean vomit off = impractical

Other than the cot and drawers surely most of that isn’t nursery furniture?

That said if you like it and can afford it then who cares?

Sorry, it's furniture for the whole house including nursery :)

I would factor in having to replace the rings/velvet sofas after 1-2 years when they get dirty.

Shaggy rugs are a pain to clean little tiny toys out of later. Try to go for flat rugs if possible.

The other stuff it all sounds very cheap for all that?

Oh and the cot, armchair, chest of drawers & bedside tables are for nursery.

Why do you need bedside tables in a nursery?

A velvet armchair and a baby sounds like a recipe for disaster!

I think I'd spend some money on a bed side crib for the early months and then get a cot that turns onto a cot bed for the nursery.

Sorry everyone, as mentioned I'm a first time, single mum and any advice on what I would need to get would be great. I wanted the bedside tables as they have big baskets in them for nappies and things. Where is best to get a bed side crib? And what fabric instead of velvet?

I would get a nursing chair rather than a normal armchair. As others have said, velvet is a poor choice - get something with removable, washable covers if you can

Buy only what you need. You can fill the house once you are in it.

That all sounds really cheap, a decent sofa bed would be £1000 alone

So for the baby room you need

• cot
• chest of drawers for clothes/ this also doubles as a changing table with a mat on top
• if space a comfy chair for feeding
• a large basket for toys but don’t need that for ages

And if you are on a tight budget, then Ikea stuff is really good for babies room.

You don’t need a nursing chair just a comfy armchair, ideally one that you might want to use elsewhere afterwards. Cotton washable covers

Bedside crib - have a look on Mothercare or John Lewis. We got a swinging crib which I really liked. Snuzpods were very in about 2/3 years ago when I was pregnant. Baby will be in a crib until ~6 months then move into a cot.

Ikea cots can be converted to 3-sided so work well as a home made bedside cot. Otherwise one of the purpose built ones are fine. I had a normal sized cot for DS1 converted to 3 sided and then put him in a normal single once he outgrew that at 2. DS2 is bigger and likes to stretch out when he sleeps, so we've bought him a cotbed for the space, and we'll convert it to a toddler bed when we think he doesn't need the sides any more. Then I expect he'll need a single at about age 5. At which point DS1 will be 15, so might upgrade to a double or a high sleeper.

I agree bedside tables are a bit of a waste of time. Baby will just pull the baskets out as soon as they are toddling and you'll be forever defending them from the corners of them. Or they will use them as climbing obstacles and make your life hell.

We actually don't have a chest of drawers for DS2's room yet as we tend to change him in the living room so I have his clothes stored in boxes there. He is obsessed with opening drawers and taking things out so we're waiting until he's passed that phase before we get some.

We have a cot bed, (we had a next to me for the first six months), chest of drawers that doubles up as a changing unit (IKEA hemnes 3 drawer) , a full size wardrobe with a big drawer in the bottom and DH out in an extra hanging rail (I didn't see the point of a baby wardrobe that will be too small in no time at all, and we have high ceilings and it would've looked odd) , a toy box/blanket box and a book case with canvas baskets on the bottom two shelves. Oh and an IKEA poang chair which was great for breastfeeding, we did splurge on a nice cover for the cushion from Etsy but you don't need to, a small rug. I wanted furniture that was furniture and I didn't have to change after the baby stage. I think the whole lot cost about £500, the wardrobe were got in a black Friday sale from Dunelm mill though. We already had new curtains in the room so didn't replace them but have since invested in an easy blind which gave me my morning sleep back over the summer.

Baby won't need a nursery for a while anyways as will be sleeping in your room. Both mine were in my room until at least 6 months DD was in until she was 1 as she wasn't a great sleeper. In the early days we had a Moses basket downstairs (which is fine if u have a small baby we got months out of it with DD but DS was bigger and only got a few weeks out of it!) Then had a bedside crib and then bought a cot bed when she was starting to sit up in the beside crib. In the nursery we have cot bed, wardrobe, a changing table which has a cupboard for nappies and a few drawers for vests and baby grows underneath and then one of them 4 cube Ikea kallax units just for extra storage of blankets and soft toys

All we had before DS was born was a cot (we did the take one side off and hitch it up to the bed back for the first 8 or 9 months) and some storage baskets. It’s taken us until after his first birthday to actually bother to decorate his bedroom.