The idea of investing in a baby crib and changing table set is to make your life easier as a parent. There are plenty of ways that a nursery furniture set like this could make your life easier. It can scale with you, making it easier for you to bring new children into the home. A well chosen set can match with the overall design scheme in your home. A set can potentially give you more room for storage. A set will even save you money - if you do your shopping right- because you won’t need to buy more baby furniture down the line.

However, convenience isn’t just built in. You need to be judicious when you are looking for nursery furniture sets. We sell some of the best models on the market. Here’s what to be on the lookout for - and if you have any questions, call us!

1.Certification of non-toxic finishes and components

Non-toxic certification of the furniture you will place in your nursery is one of the most important things you can possibly look for. Safety comes at a premium, and it’s worth any cost. Many of our baby crib and changing tables sets, along with our other nursery furniture sets, are not just “made from and finished with non-toxic materials” - they actually carry a variety of prestigious certifications.

While you’ll have to investigate the actual product listings themselves to see what products carry which guarantees, many of them come with components that possess the coveted Greenguard Gold Certification for emissions. This particular standard requires testing for over 10,000 chemical pollutants and requires compliance with stringent emissions guidelines.

In addition to certification, various other entries to our collection of crib and changing table sets possess certifications from the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM International) and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. With us, you’re in good hands, but it still helps to know what you’re working with; you’ll find additional information on each product page.

2.Convertibility of the crib or other components

One of the reasons that parents get nursery furniture sets is because they will help with resource planning and scaling the furniture in the household. For example, having a crib on hand will have expecting parents as ready as can be when the second child comes along.

However, that’s not the only way that a crib set can help you plan for the future or grow with your family. There has been a big trend in baby’s furniture and children’s furniture to create convertible designs. These are useful for parents who might not even be planning on having a second or third child.

For example, some cribs convert to a toddler bed and a daybed. Some even convert from a toddler bed to a full-sized bed, down the line. The best part is that many of these cribs come with the conversion kits necessary; get one and you could be set for the next several years to come.

3.Made with high-quality components like solid wood

An unsettling trend in many consumer products and furniture today is towards making them with low quality components to expand processes or cut costs. We don’t believe this is acceptable in any arena, and much less so in the furniture that we sell for families. That’s why all of the furniture we sell on our website is made from the highest quality materials possible.

Not everything is made from solid wood, but many of our items are. In our collection of crib and dresser sets, and elsewhere on our website, you’ll find many fine examples of furniture that are made from solid pine or solid poplar.

Solid wood construction is some of the best there is, at least in furniture, and when you purchase solid wood furniture it will last for many years. Actually, with proper care, it will last for generations. There is wood furniture out there, still in use, that is hundreds of years old.

The best part about some of these pieces of furniture is that they are made with sustainability in mind. It’s great enough that you get the benefit of excellent construction, but many of these pieces are made with sustainably sourced wood stock.

4.Construction featuring few - or no - moving parts

Certification against the release of emissions or for the use of non-toxic materials and finishes is only one component of safety. It’s a big one, too, but there are others that the furniture in our collection addresses.

For example, many of the cribs in our collection are not only made featuring solid wood construction, but they are also made with a minimum of moving parts. The fewer moving parts a piece of furniture in a nursery has, the better, and if it has none at all, that’s the best possible scenario.

Naturally, items like dressers need to have moving parts because that is inherent to their design, but the fewer moving parts, the better. That’s just one less opportunity for a pinching hazard to present itself.

5.If there are moving parts, all hardware should be hidden

It’s not possible, sometimes, for a piece of furniture to be completely free of moving parts. For example, as we stated up above, a dresser of drawers must, by its design, have moving parts. It’s just not practical to be made entirely without moving parts.

However, there are things that can be done about this. For one thing, designers can obviously cut back on the number of moving parts that a design contains. This is something that you will see repeated in many of the designs we sell here at Kids N Cribs.

Still, if a piece of furniture must have moving parts, it’s important that the hardware that joins all of them is completely hidden. This helps to prevent injuries to little children (and sometimes, no doubt, to adults) because exposed hardware often has sharp edges. Even where it doesn’t, getting caught in the hardware presents a pinching or scratching hazard.

6.Compatibility with other components or accessories

In addition to growing with your child through conversions, there are lots of other ways that a baby crib and changing table set can scale with your family’s growing or changing needs. Another way this is practical is with compatibility with other components or accessories.

For example, some of our changing tables that come as a part of sets do not actually come with the changing table top. However, many of them are compatible with one or more topper and a variety of other accessories. Many of them even come with value added accessories that help to prevent spills and stains, like waterproof pads.

Check each product page to learn a little more about some of the different designs, what products and accessories they are compatible with, and how it can make a difference in planning for you!

7.Anti-tip kits are a must for some designs

Another critical safety feature of many furniture items that are designed for use in a nursery comes in the form of an anti-tip kit. Sometimes this presents itself in the form of expressly or purposely designed anti-tip features.

At any rate, any piece of furniture that is not inherently designed to resist tipping should include the option of an anti-tip kit, anti-tip restraints or some form of anti-tip hardware. As children grow and learn, their curiosity will lend them to bump and pull on furniture; more enterprising little ones might even try to climb a crib or a dresser.

Understandably, it’s critical that these pieces of furniture are designed in such a fashion that the risk of tips and falls has been minimized as much as possible.

8.Look for pieces that feature soft corners and other similar thoughtful designs

Here’s another safety feature that you might not have noticed before, but once you do see it, you’ll be seeing it all over the place and you won’t be able to unsee it. Many furniture designers that make furniture destined for nurseries throughout the country intentionally blunt the corners of their designs. They also intentionally abstain from including sharp edges or prominences in their designs.

The reasons for this are obvious, but they’re included for the same basic reasons as all of the other safety features mentioned so far. They just take one more step to ensure the safety and security of the members of your family.

Even conscientious youths will explore the nursery around them and will incautiously jostle or bump into furniture from time to time. It’s best to stay one step ahead of the curve here and bump-proof the furniture.

Luckily, it’s basically a staple of design for plenty of nursery furniture, but it’s no fault if you expressly look for it. Cross your t’s and dot your i’s, so to speak.

9.Adjustability of drawers or other components

Another thing to look out for is the adjustability of the components that come with the furniture set. For example, many of the sets of dressers that come as a part of crib and dresser sets and sometimes as a part of baby crib and changing table sets have adjustable drawers.

It’s important to remember that while you might be something that you need today, tomorrow or next year or in five years you might not need it any longer. That’s why the best investment today is one that you’ll need forever, or at least for a long time. Where forever falls short, adjustability picks up the slack.

10.Look for drawers with soft-gliding, soft-closing and stop mechanisms to enhance practicality and safety

Soft gliding drawers that have soft-closure and stop mechanisms can be seen as the safer of two options, but even putting safety to the side for a rare moment, they’re just made better and more pleasant to keep around than drawers that stick, grate, and slam open and shut.

Also, drawers that can’t be slammed definitely are safer, especially when there are little kids around. Pair up with that design one that hides its joints and hardware and you have an inherently superior design.

11.Look for pieces of furniture sets that come fully assembled

One more thing to keep in mind here is the value of your time. So you’re planning for a family and have a baby on the way, or you have another baby on the way and you’re trying to figure out what else you need that you don’t already have and can’t make-do without.

Now is not the time for you to be fumbling around with instruction manuals and trying to put together complex and cumbersome pieces of furniture. Now is the time for you to be planning for important things that will be coming in your future!

Lucky for you, many of the designs in our online catalog ship already assembled and are ready for you to set up in your nursery alongside your other necessities. Not all of them ship assembled; some will require work, but you can learn more on the product pages about what ships assembled and what doesn’t. That, or just give us a call!

12.Bonus: if you can find it, get a set that strikes your fancy

Finally, if you have room or time to look for one more thing, then look for a design in a baby crib and changing table set that matches the rest of your interior design scheme and compliments your vision for your home. Due to the nature of their use, these are not sets that can be easily switched out or replaced. You’ll probably have them for a few years at least, and you could have some of them for a lifetime or even longer.

That’s why you should get what you want the first time around, and if you have any questions, you shouldn’t hesitate to ask. It’s true that we pride ourselves on the quality of the furniture and other accessories that we offer, but we’re equally proud of our level of customer service.

Give us a call at 925-778-2229 any time you want to learn more about anything we sell and we would be more than happy to help you.