droolicious : 14 days of nursery

Mom! There's A Giant Panda On My Bed!

Sarah Verdone — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 13:07:00 GMT

See? It looks great in this spare and stylish Finnish room. 100% cotton and $109 at kiitos marimekko.

Speaking of Marimekko, Moms, the Finnish textile legend happens to be licensing their designs to H&M for spring/summer 2008, so look for great patterns from the retail giant.

For other fun Finnish nursery decor, furnishings, etc. see these sites:

finnish gifts

finn style

Q Collection Junior Nursery Furniture

Chris Ford — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 12:07:00 GMT

I recently discovered this line of children's furniture, and I have to say it looks really beautiful. Q Collection Junior has all the typical pieces, changing tables, cribs and chests, but there are also some really interesting stools and storage pieces too.

The furniture has modern clean lines without looking clinical or sterile. Everything is also apparently made of wood from responsibly managed forests, and the cribs are also the "first in the world to receive Greenguard's 'Children & Schools' indoor air quality certification". Of course it's not cheap, but if "green" products matter to you, you could do a lot worse.

And according to their web site, Gwyneth Paltrow also loves them. Not that you should buy your baby furniture based on the recommendation of Academy Award Winners necessarily, but they're just saying.

Q Collection Junior, $1,220.00 for the Solare Crib (pictured).

14 Days Of Nursery: Leciel Frankfurt's "Little Guys"

Leigh-Ann Jackson — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:00:00 GMT

They'll have to face the horrors of midnight gas bouts, diaper rashes and that unsightly cradle cap. So, give your newbie a little good luck with a Maneki-neko.

This version of the ubiquitous souvenir shop cat statue (which is believed to bestow good fortune) is silk-screened by hand in Japan. It has a more organic, crafty appeal than and can be collected along with a crew of friends (whose magical qualities are dubious). How diminutively darling they'd be huddled together on a floating wall shelf or a nightstand.

$18 each, Candy Store Collective.

14 Days of Nursery: Alphabet Poster

Erin Behan — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:15:00 GMT

What nursery would be complete without an ode to the alphabet? This one, by Binth, happens to be in one of my favorite retro-leaning (and gender-neutrel) color combinations--orange and light blue. The screenprinted poster can be ordered framed ($375) or unframed ($85). The framed poster has a sheet of plexiglass and a metal frame. Want a money-saving tip?

Frame it yourself! Find a Plexiglas supplier in your area (usually a company that cuts and sells glass also deals with Plexiglas) and have it cut to size. You'll also want a piece of foam core cut to size and a piece of archival paper to sandwich between the foam core and the print to protect it. Or, if you like, you can Spray Mount the poster directly to the foam core (or have a framing shop do it for you). Then buy your own cut-to-order metal frame online from a retailer like Dick Blick. Putting a metal frame together yourself is one of the simplest home projects you can do, and your minimal labor time saves big bucks.

There's also another nice option for wall decorating from this pattern from Binth. The single-letter prints let you choose one of the animal-themed letters on its own (see the "e," $24.95), or buy them in a series to spell the child's name. Happy alphabet hunting!

14 Days of Nursery: Diaper Dekor Plus

Erin Behan — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:08:00 GMT

Not everything that happens in the nursery is all bubbles and beautiful smelling babies. Hence the importance of an attractive yet functional diaper disposal system. By far the most sleek and elegant is the Vipp, which we've reported on before, but it runs between $225 and $300, a high price to pay for luxurious diaper disposal. What's a modern diaper-disposing parent to do?

The Diaper Dekor Plus ($39.99 at Target) works as a viable alternative between the ubiquitous Diaper Genie and the high-priced Vipp (although, like the Genie, it loses points for requiring its own bags). Now, if only they sold something that automatically wiped stinky rear-ends.

14 Days of Nusery: Chalkboard Wall Animals

Erin Behan — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:07:00 GMT

I've never been ready to commit to an entire wall of chalkboard paint (especially living in a rental), but I love the idea of letting kids get creative on the nursery wall with minimal damage to personal property. For other noncommittal renters out there who want their kids to get creative, these reusable, chalkboard stickers from Wall Candy Art ($56) are the perfect solution. The kit comes with six animals--two elephants, two giraffes and two rhinoceroses. Chalk and erasers, extra.

14 Days of Nursery: Fiberglass Arm Shell Rocker

Chris Ford — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:03:00 GMT

Face it. Every nursery needs a decent rocking chair and (as evidenced by this photo of the nursery in my house) this one is my absolute favorite. Modern furniture company Modernica makes an extremely legitimate Arm Shell Rocker.

These chairs were originally made by Charles and Ray Eames, but Modernica can't use the Eames name as you can buy similar "official" chairs from Herman Miller. The big difference is the Herman Miller chairs are made of plastic and not fiberglass as the originals were. Modernica somehow obtained the original molds, talked to the original craftsmen, and they now make them in sixteen gloriously translucent colors.

If you can't get an original, then an Arm Shell Rocker from Modernica is the next best thing.

$349.00, Modernica.net

14 Days of Nursery: Growing Crib for Changing Spaces

Aaron Burgess — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:01:00 GMT

I'll be the first to admit there's something off-putting about this Stokke Sleepi Crib (pictured here in its "Mini" version), and that's not just the $1,150 price tag. But if you're strapped for space and also need a bed that's going to grow with your baby through the big-kid years, maybe you wouldn't mind sacrificing warm-fuzzy design for functional minimalism. Plus, you know, the thing does come with a drapery rod, so you can hang a piece of fabric over it and re-enact your own final scene in Rosemary's Baby, only with Ray and Charles Eames in place of Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes, or, you know, whatever.

As your little one grows, so does the Sleepi: The adjustable mattress position (four heights in total), expandable frame and removable center railing accommodate sizes ranging from baby to toddler to junior kiddo, and it even has a life beyond that, as you can separate it into chairs when it's officially time to invest in a bigger bed. All of which kind of puts that price tag into better perspective, as you're looking at roughly $287.50 per growth stage -- probably not far from what you'd spend at IKEA when you factor in all the stage-by-stage purchases and inevitable breakage. (Or maybe it's just my kids who snap IKEA furniture like so many Bruce Lee practice boards.)

Stage two: bigger baby:

Stage three -- toddler:

Stage four -- one chair to seat them all:

14 Days of Nursery: A Peaceful Pillow

Leigh-Ann Jackson — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:00:00 GMT

This is Eve, dubbed "A Peaceful Dove." With her hand-embroidered features and vintage John Kaldor fabric, she'd give a blast of retro color to a rocker or glider.

Here's the back. Each Eve is one-of-a-kind. For more unique throw-back decor, check out designer Fock Space's cat and guitar pillows.

$15, Indie Fixx Shop.

14 Days Of Nursery: Hand-crafted Animal Bookends

Leigh-Ann Jackson — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:00:00 GMT

You've got the kid lit canon checklist all completed — from Richard Scarry and Margaret Wise Brown to Taro Gomi and Mo Willems. Now, how to keep all those books on the straight and narrow? These weighted, faux-leather bookends bring order to busy, busy shelves. The animal menagerie comes in a range of vibrant colors to suit most nursery palettes.

Each one is filled with natural cotton and comes in a keepsake box.

$45, Karma Kiss.

14 Days of Nursery: Moses Basket

Erin Behan — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:52:00 GMT

The idea of a Moses basket struck me as a little odd when I first heart about it. "Really, put my baby in a basket? ... Is it waterproof?" But the more I thought about it, the more it grew on me. A small, portable baby bed that would be just as content next to my bed as it would sitting next to the couch, or even, in the nursery. I had to look long and hard for the stylish but not babyish Moses basket that I found at Modern Tots ($160), which comes with a bumper and linens/mattress pad in either blue or green.

In my search, however, I found a few truly hideous Moses baskets out there, like the one below from Jolly Jumper (really--how could anyone make a basket this ugly?).

Once we got the basket home, we discovered that a Moses basket could very easily be renamed the cat basket.

14 Days of Nursery: Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Erin Behan — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:56:00 GMT

We mentioned Pixel Organics nursery sets back in June on Babble, but as the bedding company is one my favorites, it seems appropriate to bring them back for our nursery feature. Besides having totally adorable designs (like the Lions, TIgers, Bears one for $390, above), the company is committed to organic, green bedding. That means the cotton is organic and the filling is made from recycled PET. Design is really where Pixel soars, though, whether it's with the retrolicious jungle-themed set above or the Scary Fish bedding ($150) after the jump.

14 Days of Nursery: Loom Crib

Erin Behan — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:50:00 GMT

Every parent splurges on something for their nursery. For us, it was the crib. Oh, we went to Ikea and looked at the $100 Gulliver crib. We walked through Babies 'R Us and Buy Buy Baby and did our best to find the couple hundred-dollar crib that wasn't butt ugly. We searched Craigslist but just never got lucky. And then, we stumbled upon the Loom Crib by Nuseryworks. Available in all white ($590), with light-colored slats or dark-colored slats ($650), the crib has three adjustable mattress heights, a fixed rail and an optional toddler bed conversion kit (additional $180). I think what we liked best about it was the oddly spaced and sized slats. So much modern kids furniture is even to an extreme, but this felt just off kilter enough to belong in a room with our soon-to-be crazy, wailing offspring. Of course, half the parents I talk to, when I even bring up the word "crib" just giggle and say, "Oh, you think your baby will sleep in a crib!" And then they laugh.