Oh Baby: 7 Steps to Decorating A Unique Nursery

4.) Find Functional Furniture

Romina's Ventianni Collection

Unlike other rooms in your house, furniture is typically not a focal point in the nursery. So you don’t have to spend a lot, or agonize too much about finding the cutest stuff available. Focus on quality (e.g. hard woods) and function over form, and invest in pieces that will grow with your child. An elegant solution is to buy a low profile dresser and have it do double duty as a changing table. A helpful feature is soft-closing drawers, which are very handy when you only have one hand free! When shopping for a crib, look for one that can morph into a toddler bed with the purchase of a conversion kit, as a bridge to the “big girl” bed.

You’ll also want to think ahead at all of the toys your baby will have, and how you will want to store them. Those baskets from Pottery Barn Kids or the Container Store that slide onto a bookshelf are cute, but trust me, they have a low capacity, and they definitely won’t hold all of junior’s playthings. It’s not too early to get a full-on toy box, which you could put either in a closet or along a wall.

A glider, or some sort of rocking chair, is a must for all the feeding and reading you’ll be doing with your little one. The most important features for me have been overall comfort (obviously) and padded arms. Lots of gliders are handsome enough to find a home outside the nursery once its tour of duty there is complete – for much more information on gliders, please check out Thoroughly Modern Glider.