Crib Notes
February 19, 2006
Why is furniture overdesigned?
When we lived in Dublin, Ireland, there was a furniture story on Mary Street where they changed the window display on a regular basis; week after week it was more horrifying, with more complex furniture. One week there was a living room suite with whitewashed Louis XIV details and pearlized beige upholstery. This was not inexpensive furniture.
In search of a coffee table
When we came back to the US we found a similar problem with American coffee table design. We just wanted something simple. What we found were coffee tables with distressed edging, pop-up tv trays, Mexican nailheads, Queen Anne legs, multiple wood species, smoked beveled glass and metal pulls. All in the same table! And these, amazingly, were not inexpensive!We could have bought an IKEA table, and believe me, we have a lot of IKEA furniture, but we really wanted something more permanent, that we could have for a long time. Something not made of fiberboard with wood veneer.
We eventually had to have a table custom made (cheaper than the tables we saw at Mor Furniture for Less). I describe the style as Hip Asian Restaurant.
In search of a crib
I was really worried we wouldn’t be able to find a crib. After a trip to a baby superstore an hour from our house and careful internet search, we found that most cribs looked like rejects from Sleeping Beauty’s castle; way too complex for my taste. We decided they were guilt-cribs for parents who felt like they couldn’t give their children enough.
There are a lot of cool cribs out there (check out some of the models on the giggle website) but we didn’t want to spend $750 and up for a piece of furniture we’d only use for a few years.
My favorite inexpensive crib
We finally found a relatively plain crib from Pali. The model is called April, and although it’s not as spare in design as I’d prefer, after we removed the gold-colored casters (sacrificing convenience for aesthetics), I really like the look.
The crib does not convert from a crib into a toddler bed into a child’s bed and then into a dog house and later a wet bar. But it’s very sturdy, basic and unadorned, and under $350.
