The Nursery-Furniture Picking

Rather than start with a theme, I actually started with picking furniture. I was reading the book Baby Bargains for research, and they had mentioned that furniture could possible take up to 16 to 20 weeks to order plus chances of delays. We didn't want to take a chance with it so I started doing brand research. I read reviews on all the different brands listed in a book, and I would definitely suggest anyone to at least get the book or access on the website to read through them. It was a bit scary both about how many actually had recalls and the costs of a crib. Some of the cribs out there were costing more than the headboards we were consider purchasing for ourselves!

We set what we thought was a realistic budget, and I narrowed down the selection to brands in budget and picked out styles. Then Brett looked over them and slimmed down the selection of styles. Then we went to one specialty store along with the chains Buy Buy Baby, Baby Depot, Target, and Baby R Us. Seeing things was definitely a helper; it was very much like searching for the perfect wedding dress. The furniture style I thought I wanted actually came out a lot darker in person. It was great for us, but we didn't think it worked as well for a nursery. It was great to know the brands beforehand since we could discount some of the cribs, but things were a bit easier looking when we kept our style options open. While the specialty store had the best selection, most of our picks came out to the top of our price range. You also have to watch that you go to full Baby R Us because we went to a combo with Toys R Us first, and we didn't find a very large selection. When we went to just a Baby R Us, they had a lot more to pick from. After all the searching, we ended up going with one of La Jobi's Europa Baby cribs that wasn't even an original pick along with small dresser for a changing table. I put a picture below. of the full set in cherry. The staining (Harvest Oak) ended up matching a rocker from my childhood we planned to use. We got a fairly good discount on it due to a sale going on along with the fact that the stain was being discontinued, and we had the set within only a few weeks of purchasing so I am really pleased with serve we got from Baby R Us

Once we got the crib picked out, we were in a bit in a holding pattern since we didn't know the sex of the baby, and I will save that for next blog. Here are some does and don't we found out when picking furniture while picking furniture:

1. Do research about costs and brands
2. Don't purchase used since you don't know if things are missing pieces or have a recall.
3. Decide on a budget and stick to it
4. Try to take a look in person since things look differently
5. Look at a variety of places to get the best deals
6. Don't wait to the last minute-we got lucky with time limits, but there are tons of horror stories about not getting furniture in time.
7. Decide what things you can live with and without
8. Keep an open mind
9. Remember your taste may not be what you want for your baby after all-we figured we be jealous of the baby furniture since it was what we really wanted for us.