Morning ladies!

Hubby and i took the plunge and went nursery furniture shopping yesterday. We had been looking online for a little while already so went to check out some of the stores we liked. We still have some more to visit. However i have two issues that i would like advice from you lovely ladies if possible:

1) White furniture: is this practical?? Hubby seems to like a lot of the white ranges whereas i think that it is a bit impractical...We are hoping to get a cotbed and the matching furniture in the hope that we'll get some good mileage out of them and they will last a good 3ish years until we move house. But i just have visions of finger prints, crayon scribbling etc all over whit furniture-which i will have the job of cleaning no doubt! lol! What do you ladies think? I'm more leaning towards wooden furniture i.e pine/beech...

2)Is "nursery" furniture actually woth the price tag?? I'm begining to think that it may be better for us to get a wardrobe and matching draws from somewhere like ikea in the hope that they will be sturdy enough for baby to grow into...I've had a look oline and with a cotbed we could probably kit out the babys room for about ??350-400 and have a good mileage as opposed to spending ??500+ on cute furniture that baby is likely to grow out of much quicker?? I'm just not sure what to do as i want the room to be really lovely and cute yet not growable-if that makes sense?

What do you ladies think? What did you do for nursery furniture and did you manage to find anything for a reasonable price?? Some of the ranges we've seen are just so expensive. We did see one nursery set that i LOVED and that baby could definitely grow into but it cost ??1,600 (included cotbed, wardrobe, cest of draws and toy chest) and as much as i'd love to i really can't afford to stretch to that at all! Any advice or opinions are greatly appreciated.

KB 18+4 xx

hi, i think it's entirely up to you what you go for in terms of 'nursery' furniture or 'furniture' as only you know your budget. there some lovely ranges out there but equally you could still find something beautiful. we didn't go for nursery furniture. i got ds's 3 huge wardrobes and cotbed from ikea (about ??200 altogether) plus 2 matching chests for storage . i then bought a cot top changer from babies r us. we just went all out on soft furnishings instead.

in regards to white furniture, personally that would be a 'no no' for me. we have white furniture in our lounge (pre parenthood decision) and i do regret our decision now. it shows up every bit of dirt & dust (can't even read the newspaper on our table without it leaving marks and fingerprints everywhere) so i dread to think what state it will be in when ds is more mobile. :roll: xx

I got my furniture from Ikea too with the exception of our cot which was from Mothercare.
I would have loved to spend a fortune on gorgeous nursery furniture but baby also needed clothes, a pram, carseat...lol

It looks fine, we bought our change table from Ikea too and like Alcott, we've gone all out on furnishings instead!

xxx

Hi,

I have to say we have gone for white!!

My niece (5) has got white in her room and it still looks as fresh as it did when she was a baby.

We loved the clean-ness of the white and it makes our little girl's room look really fresh and airy.

On the normal/nursery furniture, we went for normal. We found that a lot of the 'nursery' wardrobes didn;'t have very long hanging space - obviously intended for little clothes and we wanted longer use out of them.

We bought a white Mamas and Papas cot, a wardrobe, chest of drawers and cabin guest bed from Julian Bowen and a white bookcase from Ikea and they all go perfectly together!

xx

For our first we went for nursery furniture, but from Ikea. The wardrobe is shorter than the normal one but not tiny, and we also bought a cot, toybox, bookcase and a changing unit that converted into a chest of drawers when she was older. When she outgrew the cot we bought the toddler bed that matched which extends into a full size single. I think we spent about ??500 in total, but the furniture should last untill she's about 10 without being too babyish iyswim?

For my little boy we bought a cot and changing unit form M&P's (in the sale ??170 for both!) and then matched it up with a wardrobe, bookcase and chest of drawers from Ikea, the total came to about the same as his big sister.

Personally I think the proper nursery furniture is a little bit of a waste of money, unless you are going to have a big enough gap between children to be able to reuse it. They grow up so quickly that you'd soon be replacing it with something more grown up which seems like a bit of a waste to me.
xx

Hi, we were looking at IKEA also as we wanted to get plenty of mileage out of the furniture. Although we liked IKEA, we found a chest of drawers (with removable changer on top) and a wardrobe in John Lewis which will last for a good number of years. We made the decision early on to avoid anything that looked too young. We paid more than we had originally budgeted for, but we think it's worth it as we'll get plenty of wear out of it.

Hope this helps,
Dx

one thing i have found invaluable is the changing dresser, mine has drawers so everything is at hand, we struggles to find one that didnt have a piddly shelf and cupboard. i also had a section so it was a better height to change him at. we didnt need a wardrobe as we have fitted ones and most of them have little space for clothes anyway so theres no need for one. we have got white furniture as we have wood floors (a life saver when the vomit monster comes to visit) in the nursery.

what we did was got thing in sale, our cotbed was from babies r us we got a free matteress and all the bedding included and out dresser was fromm mamas and papas with 25% off

defo worth shopping round as you have a while to go x

I bought the savannah cotbed from a mamas and papas outlet store and then bought oak wardrobes & drawers from Ikea. The room looks co-ordinated but didnt cost a fortune and will (hopefully!) last longer than baby furniture. If not then at least it didnt cost a fortune! We also saved on buying a changing station by putting the change mat on top of the drawers.
I'd contemplated baby furniture but when I found their little wardrobes cost ??250+ I couldnt justify it - think of all the things you could buy with that when LO is here. x

We got an absolute steal with our furniture, it's pale green (pistachio i think) it's mammas and pappas savannah range, we got it 2nd hand (off ebay) delivered to our door for ??250 we got the cotbed, changing unit, chest and wardrobe and it's immaculate. We would have went for ivory if we were buying it new but the green is actually really nice and unusual and if we were buying it again would go for it again!! I think that nursery furniture is worth it if you are intending on having more than 1 baby! But as someone else said shop around you can get some bargains!

We didnt do the traditional nursery furniture as couldnt justify the cost. We had a wardrobe already fitted in the room so bought a cotbed from mothercare for ??200 (inc mattress) and I already had a tall chest of drawers and shelves that matched so used those. For the changing table i actually just bought a ??6 changing mat & velcroed it to the top of the drawers. It matches the room & will easily carry the drawers into post baby age.

Thanks for your opinions ladies. I really appreciate them. There's so many decsions to be made! I'm going to go and see some furniture i like the look of at Ikea later. I've seen it online but need to see it in person. If it looks nice and sturdy then i might go for them. I'm not that keen on Ikea Cotbeds-only because of the one side staying on it so think i'll go elsewhere for the cotbed and just hope i can find a reasonable match...It would work out a lot cheaper and should have more space for baby as he/she grows...