droolicious : cribs + bassinets

7 Days of Cribs: Modern BabyMiro Mercer

Erin Behan — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:34:00 GMT

In today's nursery the crib is the status symbol of the room, sort of like the car in your driveway if you live anywhere but the biggest of cities. Is it eco-friendly? Does it look more tea-time or night at the contemporary art museum? Oh, and did you pay more than $1,000 for it? Yep, it's easy to spend a bundle buying a crib even if you head to of-the-people dealers like Babies 'R Us. Given all that, I think this crib, which comes in just under the $400 mark, is a good value for the money.

The Modern BabyMiro Mercer by DaVinci has four-height adjustable bed positioning, is convertible to a toddler bed and a day bed (with no need to purchase anything extra to make that happen) and has a bottom drawer to take advantage of the under-the-crib storage space. Plus, its simple, pleasing lines mimic a higher-end look.

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: 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.