Nursery Furniture

[DropsofJupiter1980]

Hi all

I'm currently trying to plan my baby's nursery and am looking for some inspiration....

Where did you buy your nursery furniture? It all seems so expensive! Any advice on what is best in your experience, or pictures, or ideas would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance

You know what? It doesn't matter.
Your baby won't care about the colour of the walls, or the pictures, or if everything is coordinated.
You don't even need a nursery from the word go, as most likely baby will be in your room for the first few months.
Don't let yourself be talked into buying an expensive furniture range from mothercare or wherever! Think about what you really need - initially, just a changing bench and somewhere to put clothes, and a nappy bin if you like.
If the 'nursery' is meant to be baby's room later on, leave the decorations fairly neutral as a toddler / school aged child won't want anything too babyish. For now, you can get whichever pictures you fancy!

Look on houz.

Personally after 3 kids I'd say the only thing you need is a cot bed.

Silly small wardrobes and changing tables IMO are a waste of money.

In all honesty, the biggest waste of time, money and effort with our first baby was setting up a nursery. He slept in our room for the first seven months, and by that time we'd decided we'd picked the wrong room for the nursery and rearranged the house anyway. He then slept in his room for an entire month, before he was back in ours because we all got more sleep that way. In terms of "nursery furniture" even then all we bought was a cot, and just used a normal chest of drawers for clothes. We changed his nappy on a changing mat on the floor in whichever room of the house we happened to be in - then there's no risk of them falling off!

For baby number 2, we are setting up the cot in our room and emptying one of our drawers for clothes and nappies.

Go for it if you want to, and enjoy it if you do, but just be aware that in the scheme of things the nursery may well turn out not to be very important.

I got a Hogarth set from Cosatto. It's been going strong for 5 years nearly. Cot bed has been converted back to cot for ds2. I love the tallboy as it's useful to have a different drawer for socks, vests, sleep suits, Muslins, towels etc.

I think you need a cot bed and good set of drawers and a wardrobe if you can fit it. I used a changing table all year with ds1, always changed on it. Even if we were downstairs I'd take him up. With ds2 I haven't touched it! I just change on a mat on the floor wherever I might be. I have 3 mats around the house with small baskets with nappies wipes and bags.

Do yourself a favour and just get a good wardrobe and drawers you like anyway and a cotbed that co ordinates. Under bed storage (see ikea ) also handy.

And a comfy chair, not a nursery rocker thing. Something that will last.

Btw I meant any old full sized wardrobe and drawers.

Also a bookshelf might be handy eventually...

A cot and chest drawers is all you need ikea should do the job easy enough

I think just get normal furniture, with a matching cot bed. We already had a wardrobe, chest of drawers, and bedside table that were plain ish white, and got a cotbed from mamas and papas I think? One that was going cheap because it had a dint in the end

We put a change mat on top of the drawers, so that did as a change table, and DP put a shelf above to keep nappies, wipes etc to hand, which worked well.

Oh and decorate it in a way which will suit a toddler.

I had a chest of draws decluttered and used that then got everything else from either eBay or gumtree got a changing table and a cot bed just brought new mattress for it. Not bothering with a wardrobe cus I hate hanging things!

I am planning out painting our baby room violet white as its bright but not over the top. Will go with the already lilac carpet we have got, just plan on cleaning it an getting a nice rug, got some purple and pink curtains from a charity shop and will get some wall stickers and put some shelves up to store teddy's an things on.

Also have a sofa bed I stole of my dad that is made into a single bed as I use it some nights as DH snoring wakes me up or I wake up with back ache so I move rooms so I don't disturbed DH to much as he has to get up for work.

I shall be keeping this is DD room when she arrives in case it is easier for me to be in the other room then our bedroom I shall be breastfeeding (I hope) so I might as well stay in babys room.

My chest of draws were natural wood colour so I have got with that theme when buying babys cot and other bits.

We literally just made up the nursery furniture today we got izziwotnot bailey range from Pramworld £1500 down to £895 it is beautiful! Very sturdy and doesn't look like nursery furniture so will last for years and years!!!

I'm planning on buying 3 sets of Malm drawers in white & a Gulliver cot from ikea. I already have a single bed in the baby's room which we are keeping in there as its new & will be needed eventually! Also I may be sleeping in it when doing night feeds. I'm not bothering with a wardrobe & my friend said changing units are a waste of £

Wow, thanks - some great tips!

I appreciate/understand the comments re not setting up a nursery, but after 7 years of fertility treatment, this will be our only baby so we are looking to embrace this and spoil him!

leanne, i love the rug in your nursery, where is it from?

drops it's from The Range!!! It's really shaggy and nice quality! £35 I think!! :)

We have a Boori cot and nursery furniture....had a bargain in the sale or would never have entertained it....

Still expensive but lovely.

Thanks leanne, I hadn't thought to look in The Range!

Only, the Boori furniture is lovely...

Just bought the Sienna range from Mamas & Papas. It does look lovely but how useful it will be remains to be seen

We have the Mamas and Papas Mia cotbed, we got it on sale for £150. We also have a white Mamas and Papas changing unit with drawers that we found on eBay for £50, it matches perfectly.

We also found a lovely white gliding nursing chair on eBay for £50.

We then purchased the Mothercare Daisy Lane bedding range, on eBay again as its much cheaper. We also found a lovely soft rug in Dunelm Mill for £30.

You can still have a lovely 'matching' nursery you just have to hunt around for good quality bargains. If you would like everything new but on a budget, Ikea is the best place.

Pinterest has some great inspiration for nursery ideas.

Congratulations on your imminent arrival!

We had a John Lewis cot, in a very simple white design, and then a couple of sets of drawers from Ikea. Babies really don't need wardrobes - most of their clothes are better off folded than hung up. We had DS's changing mat on top of one of the chests of drawers when he was tiny (and not wriggly) and then moved on to changing him on the floor.

On a practical front, does anyone in your family have dust mite or other allergies? DS was a "chesty" baby and now has an official asthma diagnosis, so we kept the soft furnishings in his room to a minimum to give the dust mites less places to hide.

The one thing that no one's mentioned so far, but which I thought were essential, were a really good set of blackout blinds for the window. Ours came with our house (we moved just before having DS), and I didn't appreciate what a difference they made to DS's sleep until we went to stay at my PILs and he turned into an insomniac monster baby! So, if you're going to spend money, they'd be my top recommendation

Aww congratulations, yeah, in your place I'd be splashing out on the nursery too!

Ps this is knittingirl who wrote earlier re not doing a nursery - now on my phone and due to mixing up and forgetting account details I'm under a different username when I post from here.

eBay! We got a full mamas and papa nursery furniture set for £80 a few months ago. Perfect condition the family were just moving house and it wouldn't fit in their DCs new bedroom. It has a human size wardrobe (which I currently use for my clothes), chest of drawers and cot bed. Perfect!

I would have a look on gumtree. Always bargains to be had! DO NOT BUY TUTTI BAMBINI! I got the marie range and I just need to look at it and it chips!

Bless you, congratulations.
With my first, my son I bought the saplings range from kiddicare it was in Ivory and lovely, we had the wardrobe, chest of drawers and ottoman. I bought his cot from babies r us.
His furniture lasted until he was 5 and now our daughter has it all, it's still lovely and going strong. I think I paid £500ish for the saplings bits. I'm now expecting baby number 3 so ive had my money's worth.
If you are stuck for ideas, maybe have a look on Pinterest. Some amazing rooms on there xxxx

Oh, thanks for your messages of congratulations!
Some great tips and ideas, thanks so much. Going to scour ebay, pintrest and houzz for some inspiration!

We got a cotbed/wardrobe/changing table set from toys r us. Was on sale and I was so tired of looking and comparing prices etc, I just went a
Head and ordered when it was cheap. Dd is nearly 4 and still in cotbed, wardrobe is fine size and changing table was used for nappy and clothes changes till she toilet trained this time last year.

Walls are neutral but one painted light turquoise and I made up some canvases to brighten it up - got some cute fabric and stapled over cheap canvases from Dunelm mill. Also made bunting with same fabric. Making it kept me busy on maternity leave before she eventually arrived.

This time, we've bought a chest of drawers for dd clothes to go in and will use wardrobe for baby. I don't have the patience or inclination to do any more sewing or making this time round!

I posted my recent bargain on the facebook page.

I have a 6 year old DS and we bought him a m&p set when he was born - cot that changes into a bed later, chest of draws with changing table on top and a wardrobe.

This furniture has been amazing! He is a clumsy boisterous boy and is still using the wardrobe and chest of draws that look new 6.5 years later!

We decided straight away now we are pregnant with dc2 that we only want this furniture. Argos have a 4 piece m&p set in white that was £800 and is now £399 so we have it ordered straight away!