Nursery furniture opinions...

[chillisbopper]

Hey again everybody! (Finally got internet back!!)

I'm having a bit of a dilemma, DH has left me at home today with the task of ordering some nursery furniture while he's at work.

He works really long hours so about a month ago I sourced what I liked, showed him and when he agreed on the items generated a shopping list to work on. I don't think he took in a lot of detail though, he said he can't remember the moses basket but he trusts my opinion on it. He was quite tired after work when he agreed the stuff to be fair.

But today when I went to order the agreed cot and changer set I found a different cot that is actually slightly less money but its SO close to the one he originally wanted back when we were TTC and I know he put a lot of time and thought into that cot however the reality is that we cant afford it so we chose a different one. Now this one I found today is on sale half price and it's only got 1 detail of difference from the one he really liked before. I think it would make him happy because he'd be like "wow it's like the one I dreamed of" and I could do it as a surprise as he will be assembling it.

BUT it doesn't come with a matching changer. So I looked to try and find one that matched and instead came across one of those changing units with the inbuilt bath. It looks really good from what I can gather and should make things much easier on me bathing the little guy since DH isn't home a lot. Unfortunately it isn't wood, so it doesn't match the cot. Not sure how DH will feel about this...

Not sure how I feel about it thinking about it. The rational side of me thinks it saves money, it's one less item on the shopping list (the bath) and it means getting the cot I think DH would prefer. But then the nursery furniture won't match.

How do you guys feel about having the nursery furniture matching? Does it really matter?
And has anybody else had any experience with these changing units with the bath under the changing top...are they any good?

Thanks in advance! :)

Don't waste your money on a changer. It'll hardly get used. You'll bath your baby in the bath and probably change it on the floor on a changing mat. I actually put a changing mat on top of my DD's dresser and it worked perfectly. No need for an expensive bit of specialised furniture.

Our nursery furniture -
Second hand cot from friends
Drawers we already had
Changing mat on top of drawers
New Moses basket which DS grew out of in a month and DD refused to ever sleep in.
Old arm chair.

At nearly 5 and nearly 2, they are both traumatised at having had non- matching nursery furniture, and toss and turn in their second hand Freecycle/ hand me down beds .

The changing units with a bath under are a nightmare - baby will be wet, slippery and wriggling when you lift them out of the bath and you won't want to be trying to hold them in one arm and trying to put the top down with the other (plus you end up soaked). It's so much easier just to use a changing mat on the floor, and a few months down the line when the baby is rolling over, that's the only safe choice anyway!

With my first we brought everything matching and new. With our second we learnt the error of our ways and went second hand for the other bits we needed.

We didn't go for matching nursery furniture - we bought a white cotbed (John lewis I think), changer table from kiddicare (more for storage etc as agree wont use changer for long), existing white tall boy drawers, and got a crib from somewhere else! It just didn't seem worth it for us to get all matching, the cost seemed to outweigh the benefits and to be honest as everything is white it all looks pretty matching! It's obvs also a matter of personal taste but I quite like it when things aren't all matching, our bedroom certainly isn't and I liked picking out different pieces of furniture etc when we were decorating.

Second hand and not matching...sorry wasn't very clear. Good luck.

I bought a cot and a cot top changer which worked really well. The baby bath thing in a changing unit sounds like a lot of hard work - you'll have to carry it from bedroom to bathroom to fill up, then back again after which would create extra work for you IMO.

I'd go for the cot you love and find a cot top changer which looks nice with it. Enjoy shopping whatever you go for!

Save your money. Nothing needs to match, the baby wont know.

Our nursery furniture for our twins consisted of...
Free third hand cot
Free second hand cot
Old chest of drawers (changed nappies on top of said drawers)
No moses baskets

Babies are happy and healthy.

There are more important things to worry about. Honestly, the style of nursery furniture does not matter. You may have dreamed of a certain cot or look for the nursery but once baby is here those kinds of dreams will be a distant memory. It will all end up covered in sick that mysteriously won't wipe off or bashed by overexuberant toy throwing. And your baby will be the only thing you care about.

I'm pretty sure DD will not be traumatised by her borrowed cot, chest of drawers that used to live in my mum's kitchen and old armchair that's been nicked from our lounge.

We already had a chest of drawers at perfect height to put a changing mat on that wasn't too dissimilar in looks from the cor we chose. Perhaps you can pick a chest of drawers that match the cot you both like?

If you go for solid wood it will last and last whereas all the changing units I've seen have plywood drawer bottoms which won't last at all

Don't worry about matching or buying specialised furniture mat on the floor - they can't fall off the floor! And. am going to follow suit.

Try freecycle for lots of stuff, ebay for other things. We have picked up a really nice wooden cot bed on ebay for £40. we will need to invest in a decent mattress, but with money saved on the cot, we should be able to.

We will also invest in a decent buggy amd some other bits I don't want second hand, but otherwise, babies grow out of stuff so quickly, places like Freecycle offer really good quality bits. I picked up a chicco bouncy chair the other day and I really like it.

When the little one grows out his/her cot bed, they can choose the theme in their bedroom and we can look at getting matching furniture.

I still have a few month left baking, but I am just keeping my eye open for bits before we go spending.

When I say they can't fall off the floor, I was refering to advice my friends gave me with the Ds and Dd for changing them. Just put the mat on the floor, assuming you can get up and down from there :)

Thank you everyone ...some how I managed to wait until DH got home a little after midnight and we ended up ordering the cot that I found today, we both agreed it was nicer and we were settling on the cot and changer set. Did also order a changer though just because it has a couple of shelfs under and we don't have a huge amount of storage so it seemed helpful to have. Glad it's out of the way now just looking forward to it all arriving

Your baby nursery furniture should be durable, safe, and have multi-functional adaptability. Choose nursery furniture that was crafted or manufactured with safety issues in mind. To select the best baby nursery furniture you have the convenience of the internet, where you can select what you think is the best for your baby.Thanks.