The Nursery Diaries: Chapter 3

In case you missed my previous chapters, here are the links: Chapter 1, Chapter 2. This chapter is all about furniture. I recently posted this picture (for the rockaRoo giveaway!) on Instagram and had some inquires about the dresser.. and I'm here to tell you about it!

I know you shouldn't love inanimate things like furniture, but I'm sorry, I LOVE this piece of furniture. I came across it at Slate Interiors right before Thanksgiving and snapped this pic:

You can't read the tag in the picture, but it says HOLD. I was so bummed.... but I took a picture anyway and told the girls at Slate to let me know if it's still available. We then went to Texas for Thanksgiving, and I couldn't stop thinking about this dresser. I figured, if it's available after our trip then it's meant to be and I had to get it!

Sure enough... it was still available!!

I honestly thought this was a vintage piece, but I was so happy to find out that it's a somewhat new piece from Vanguard and has soft closing drawers. You know the kind that they use in kitchens? We plan on keeping diaper changing materials in the top drawer, so that soft closing feature will really come in handy. (Note: I tried searching for the chest on the Vanguard site, but I don't think they make it anymore. Also, I can tell the dressers have been hand painted.. I have no idea what color they originally were.)

This piece was both a splurge and a steal. It was a steal at $600 for a Vanguard piece, but $600 was a lot for me to spend on a dresser for the nursery. But it was so, so, so worth it... this is a piece that will not only grow with our little guy, but I could even use it anywhere in any future homes if needed.

This brings up a point I want to make... JUST SAY NO to "kid" and "nursery" furniture. There is no reason to buy something specifically designed for babies and kids.. (unless of course it's the crib.. will get to that below). Buy something YOU love and that is good quality and you'll have it forever!

(And here is some more unsolicited advice... if you are on a very tight budget, buy something old/vintage and paint it!)

Here is the dresser in the nursery:

Please excuse the messy room shot!

This room is TEENY TINY... and the dresser (along with the changing pad that will be on top of it) has to be in front of the window. I know, some moms would NEVER do this. Honestly - I'm never going to have the window open and the baby unattended, so I'm not worried about it.

Moving on to the next major piece of furniture in a nursery.. the crib! It's funny, I spent WAY less on the crib then I did on the dresser. That large box in the picture above is the crib... and this is the crib I chose:

Jenny Lind Crib in Ebony

Classic, simple, inexpensive. I know I just got done preaching that you should buy high quality, non-babyish furniture for nurseries... but when it comes to buying pieces that HAVE to be baby related (like cribs) - keep it simple and budget friendly. During the holiday sales, we paid around $175 for this crib, and it will easily last us through more than one baby and more than one nursery design. There are so many nurseries that feature this crib, and rightfully so! It goes with EVERYTHING!

You may also have noticed the small black bookshelf in the corner of the picture above... Erin (who owns Isabella) gave this piece to me and it's so perfect for the space! I'll be using it to hold fun things like stuffed animals and my husband's vintage cars and some not so fun things like the humidifier and sound machine.

For the past couple weeks, we've been tackling paint colors... that's next up on the Nursery Diaries! I finally was able to find the perfect shade of dark green, but it took a million samples. Here is a picture with some samples up on the wall, and a better shot of my beloved dresser!

ps- If you are getting sick of my baby & nursery related posts, stop by Isabella Studio where I'm blogging about an awesome new product we've been loving and I'm also posting an amazing home tour this week!