Furniture ?s....

[MamaKath]

Did you choose furniture to grow with your kids? Where did you buy it? If you bought Ikea furniture for your nursery/kids rooms has it held up? What types of clothes storage are you using? Also do your kids share rooms? How do you make that work?

We have moved so much over the years and lots of the furniture is a mishmosh. In talking about a new lo, we have realized some of that would desperately need to be addressed. Some of the hand me downs are beat (IMO, dh disagrees, lol) and just don't serve the purpose we need them too. So I am searching out many options while still trying to maintain a low pricepoint/high quality ratio. ;)

[daniele_ut]

We have a standard crib (not one that converts) that we've used for both kids. The nursery dresser is a hand me down. We decided not to spend much on furniture that would only be used for a couple of years for each kid.

When DD came along we bought DS an Ikea Hemnes Bed, a Hemnes dresser, and a 4x4 Expedit unit for his room. They've been in use for 2 years now and they look just as new as when we bought them. I'll definitely look at Ikea when we buy for DD in a year or two. The Hemnes bed is all solid wood, as is the dresser. We spent less than $700 on all 3 pieces.

[wellyes]

DD's crib was not a convertable. It's Babi Italia & I spent maybe $200 at albeebaby for it. I did look at some of the $800 cribs but it felt frivolous to spend that much to me. The rest of her stuff is a mix of Target, IKEA and what-have-you. It does get beaten pretty hard now that she's a toddler so I'm happy with putting that money towards other things for her. I think we'll eventually get her nicer stuff but it'll be based on her personality / needs / wants when the time comes.

[Seitvonzu]

we have an all IKEA nursery -- except for the upholstered glider/ottoman... i'd say all the furniture together (dresser w/ changing top, crib and bookshelf) were under 300 dollars. we still love all the pieces and plan to use them for another baby if we have another. the bed is convertible, but i'm not sure if we'll do that or not. lu seems fine in her crib still and we have no current plans to have another baby!

we just bought some cheapy IKEA stuff for the new playroom too. we actually damaged the expedit cramming it into the rental car i've been driving (just a hidden corner though), and i sorta wish we'd waited until i got my car back to pick it up. still, we're moving the toys into there today, so that's a wonderful feeling! i'm getting most of my living room back today! i feel so grownup!

we have mismatched furniture too-- lots of IKEA.i feel like it's a good value for our current lifestyle-- we're not pottery barn matchy people. :) don't get me wrong- i think that stuff is beautiful, but we can't afford to do it full scale and i wouldn't want to right now :) i LOVE our hutch/china cabinet from ikea (it's from the liatorp line, but it's been discontinued...they have a new one that's nice, but not AS nice imho)-- we display our formal china on it in our big eat-in kitchen. i just love it. it's a tad formal for a kitchen, but it works. people are always commenting on my hutch, especially when i change it for the seasons (i'm less able to do that now, but it feels great when i do! )

[Happy 2B mommy]

We're pretty cheap when it comes to furniture. We just got a regular crib that closely matched the finish of a nice 2nd-hand solid maple dresser. A used glider and changing table make up the nursery. So about $550 total.

DD's big girl room is a redone $40 twin bed from Goodwill. Her dresser is from Target. Her nightstand was salvaged from a relative's attic and painted to match the bed and dresser. I scored a dollhouse bookcase from Target that was also at Goodwill. Altogether the furniture was about $300 including paint for the bed and nightstand.

While I like the room in general, I'm not all that happy with the dresser. It's solid, looks nice, is sturdy and will last several years -but it STINKS of paint and particle board. Seriously, I purchased it in May, we put it together in June and let it sit in the garage until last week to air it out. I opened the drawers today and WHEW! I can't put her clothes in it! I wish DH wasn't so cheap about the dresser. I wanted one from JC Penny's that would have been 3 times as much with shipping and DH thought it was too much money. However, he and I are using our childhood sets right now and he felt that we should upgrade our stuff before sinking any significant $ into kids stuff.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I have 2 IKEA dressers (Lesvik and Hemnes) and both are doing well. The Lesvik is 7.5 years old and still looks good. The Hemnes is 3 years old and even better. Ds1's bed is an IKEA hand me down that might not be what I would have bought but it works for us. Huh, except for a bookshelf all of ds1's furniture is IKEA. It's all doing well and I expect it to last for him. Is it as nice as the furniture in my room? No. But, it looks good and is holding up well.

Beth

[AnnieW625]

We did not have to buy a crib because we used the one that I used, as well as my siblings, and my uncle and dad, yes it is 59 years old. It has been restained so no lead paint, and my mom measured the slats and they are within 1/10th of an inch of the required standards today. It has a matching chifferobe. The chifferobe can be used forever, I used it until I was 10 when my sister was born.

Now for DD's twin bed we bought a $300 bed/w underbed storage (hardwood with veneer tops) from a local children's store. It was within $20 of the Ikea bed IIRC, and I think the Ikea one was more. I kind of wish I would spent more money and gotten something from Stanley Young America or Ethan Allen (they had a crummy selection last summer, now they have lots of nice stuff!), but I wasn't thinking then. Overall it's a nice bed but I know I probably could've spent a little more money, and gotten much better quality. It will last years until she is at least 10 or more.

The only thing we have bought from Ikea for DD's room was the Trofast storage cubby shelf. We love it. It's a great piece of furniture. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80063673

Our china cabinet is from Ikea too and I like it because from far away it doesn't look like Ikea, but when you get really close to it you can tell it's not top of the line. I probably wouldn't buy it again. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40102515

[kozachka]

We like good furniture. We've had cheaper guest bedroom in our first house. We've used the dresser from the guest bedroom set in DS nursery but it was sort of wobbly after the move. We chose to get rid of it when we moved again. There is no way it would have survived the move. Our bedroom and dining room set is upper medium quality and did much better through all the moves. Now that DS is almost 6 years old, we got him a nice twin bed by Young America. It was ~50% off retail but still ~$600. I can easily see him using for the next 10 years and YA furniture has decent resale value. We also got a bedside table by YA, which was an emotional decision, it's not worth it. The rest of his room is furnished from Ikea. He also has a walk in closet so that's where we keep his clothes.

If I were to do it all over again, I would seriously consider a convertible crib.

[kijip]

We bought inexpensive stuff for T and it has held up just fine, it's about 3 and 1/2 years old now.

We have 2 IKEA Hemmes dressers (one tall, one long and low) and 2 Hemmes night stands in our room and they are just perfect. Not fancy, but they look nice and get the job done and have held up fine.

[C99]

Did you choose furniture to grow with your kids? Where did you buy it? If you bought Ikea furniture for your nursery/kids rooms has it held up? What types of clothes storage are you using? Also do your kids share rooms? How do you make that work?

We choose furniture that is somewhere 'twixt the two. Our children's furniture does grow with them, but only to a certain point. I had had my childhood bedroom furniture up until about a year ago and it grew with me, but after 14+ years of looking at it, I was so sick to death of it! It was difficult to tell myself that it was OK to get rid of the solid cherry stuff to buy IKEA/modern, but I finally won that argument. ;-)

IKEA gets a bum rap, but I've found that everything but the cheapest pieces to be of good quality and a good value for the money. It's easy to assemble and has held up well. My daughter's bed is a HEMNES white daybed - we actually got it used and it has been totally fine through transport, basement storage and 2+ years of use. My sons' bed is a KURA and has held up equally well. Our SNIGLAR crib has been through many configurations and set-up/pull-down, moves around the house, etc. since we bought it in 2004 and it has survived them all incredibly well. We actually got rid of our Sorelle Toscana Italian-made crib and kept the SNIGLAR instead. The only pieces I've had that have not held up as well are the ROBIN twin bed and the HEMNES bookshelf. I love IKEA and will keep buying it - for me, for common rooms, for the kids' rooms. The prices are low enough that I can justify changing things out in a few years when our needs change, and I find that I can usually sell whatever I'm done with for 1/3 to 1/2 of what I paid, which I think is more than fair.

When I have gone higher end on pieces, I am rarely happy with what I've got -- as in the case of my Bernhardt sofa (which we had for 18 months before we dumped). Most of our furniture comes from either IKEA or the 2nd-hand store. Plus, for whatever it is worth, there is the thrill of buying a $5 table at a garage sale and turning it into something beautiful with $20 worth of paint and some sweat equity.

[1964pandora]

I like good, expensive furniture too, but I am deliriously happy with my Ikea Ektorp sofa and chair. We have the ones with white slipcovers and they have held up beautifully for 5 years. We just wash the slipcovers when needed and they come out beautifully. We also have an Ikea bookshelf and we've had no problems with it.

[WatchingThemGrow]

We got Stanley Young America to grow with them. Wonderful stuff. Their rooms are put together and everything is bolted down, ready to grow with them. I like that we did the homework, made our decisions and don;t have to spend time thinking/ wishing/working on it any more. ILs paid for nursery stuff, so we wanted it to be used for a looooong time. The boys could use a little more clothes storage, but I can probably make more space in their closet.

[Tondi G]

Our boys share a room. We bought a Pali crib when DS1 was born. It has been used my our 2 children as well as DH's best friends 3rd child. It is still in my hallway waiting to find a storage spot! It has been a terrific crib! We got a Rumble tuff dresser and hutch that matched the pali crib nicely. It is still going strong although one of the drawers was used as a step ladder and doesn't move as nicely as it should now (can thank my DS for that one)!

When DS1 moved to a big boy bed we bought a Hemnes bed from Ikea. It was a great bed and we have it stored in case the boys get their own rooms one day and we can leave the bunk beds in one room and re-introduce the Ikea bed. The bunk beds we own are from Pottery Barn Kids and they are great. Couldn't be happier with that purchase either... we;ve had them for around 2 years.

The second dresser is a hand me down from my sister. She bought new furniture and passed it on to my boys. It is solid pine. Their room now has one finish (pbk bunkbed), A natural light finish (rumble tuff dresser and hutch), and a oil rubbed pine finished dresser. It is kind of a miss mosh at this point but if we do move at some point (crossing fingers that it will happen one day) I think the only thing that may go is the rumble tuff. I can probably make the pine dresser work (could probably use a sanding and re finish with some minwax) with the Ikea bed well and we might buy a new dresser with the same finish as the pbk bunk beds. I wouldn't hesitate to go with a dresser from PBK since our experience with the beds has been good!

I don't know... maybe I am just easy to please. While Ikea stuff doesn't usually look like super high quality furniture it has always lasted pretty well for us. Like others said I would be hesitant to buy super high quality stuff for my kids since they will likely get sick of their stuff and want a change down the line.