When Lucas was born, I had to have all new nursery furniture and it had to be what my warped mind perceived as the best; Pottery Barn Kids brand. Read: expensive. Too expensive for the quality.
I have purchased some very nice things from Pottery Barn, but in my experience the furniture only looks nice in the catalog. Once it’s delivered and in your own home and gets a little wear and tear, you soon find that it is not made very well and is certainly no match for a toddler. But, it was my first child and I didn’t want to spare any expense. In hind insight, a waste of money.
The set we bought Lucas included a crib/toddler bed, a seven drawer dresser and a bedside table in espresso. We still have and use the dresser and bedside table but they look like crap… hairline cracks, dinged corners and the dresser still has a missing pull knob from about the first week we got it. We’ve moved the set from one house to another and then to storage and now the crib is propped up in our garage gathering dust.
Lucas’s room circa 2009
I don’t want to use the set for Lola and not just because of the unfortunate way it has worn or because I don’t want to break up the set (part in his room and part in hers), but because as soon as we found out our second and long awaited child was going to be a girl, I automatically wanted to go in a completely different direction with her bedroom. I wanted white furniture.
My other argument is that she is using all of her big brother’s other hand-me-down baby things; rocker, car seat, bouncy seat, swing, strollers, blankets, toys and even some gender neutral clothes. She deserves a new crib.
We had a cheap white dresser and an old white bookcase I inherited from my parents that are now hers but the poor little girl is almost three months old and still doesn’t have a crib. She’s been sleeping in between me and my husband, a habit that we are feeling bittersweet about breaking, but are breaking nevertheless!
My husband keeps reminding me of the almost perfectly good crib we still have in the garage, but I want a white one (said in a completely whinny voice) and as I’m not a bigger DIYer, painting it is out of the question. I have been searching for an inexpensive one on the Internet and had my heart set on one from Ikea but it has been out of stock for over nine months.
Well, this month I finally found one at Babies R Us. I purchased it last week and will pick it up today!
Delta Bennington 3-in-1 Classic Crib. Click on photo for more information.
Once we my husband assembles it and we finish decorating Lola’s room, I’ll share photos. In the meantime, if anyone in the Southern California area needs a slightly used Pottery Barn Kids crib, let me know.
This post was written for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop, Prompt 5) The most exciting thing you purchased this month.
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I always wanted the perfect looking room(s) for my kids when they were babies. I don’t know why… they didn’t seem to care all that much. But it was important to me that everything coordinate from furniture to the bedding.
Now? Well, they’re independent people who have minds of their own and doors that close to their rooms.
I am still so happy we bought Abbey white furniture. I love that crib!
YES! That is the best news and I’m right there with you on the white crib. I went with light colored wood with number one and the next two were both white. I still like the white better. You can promise your husband that with the NEXT baby you can reuse one of the older cribs. 😉
We have the white IKEA crib and have had it since our first (though he never used it). We are now transitioning #2 out, and the twins will share it for the first few months. White is really the best color! Glad you’ve got Lola her bed!
Our kids’ crib was white but was second hand. I’m less about perfection than about saving money. It worked out well because the changing table that we were given as a gift was white so the room looked pretty good in the end.
Oh, that’s a great looking crib! Love the white theme idea.
How did she do in her crib that first night over the weekend?
I enjoy seeing the photo of Lucas’s room. So many memories in there in that great house.