Nursery Furniture Set

A nursery furniture set, it seems, is now the "in" way to furnish your nursery – everything matching, contemporary and stylish. If you are considering buying a nursery furniture set, take a look at this quick guide to give you some ideas of what to look for.

Once upon a time, nursery furniture was drab, old, hand-me-downs or a motley collection of cheap, un-matching baby furniture. Now, everything has changed, and you can choose from beautiful nursery sets ranging from clean white-washed to dark solid oak and everything in between.

At the more economical end of the scale you might find a modern nursery furniture set constructed of a mixture of wooden components, MDF and wood veneer. The best of these are not just some cheap baby furniture set though, because these days wood veneer furniture can be very high quality. You do need to watch out though, because at the really cheap end of the market there is a fair bit of MDF junk around.

Solid wood nursery sets can be made of wood like pine, beech, oak or walnut. These classy baby furniture sets are every likely to keep their looks, style and value for many years to come. Solid wood can be a solid investment.

These are the pieces you will find in a typical nursery furniture set:

Cot bed

Of course this is the central piece of the nursery set. Starting out as a cot with railed sides, as your child becomes a toddler the sides can be removed and the base raised to form a toddler bed. If you have another baby, the process can be reversed. This is a great way to maximise the value you get out of your baby furniture set.

Chest of Drawers

You don't have to have a chest of drawers and many nursery sets don't include one. It's a useful addition though, as it's a natural place for those many baby clothes and all that bedding – it has to go somewhere!

Dresser

An alternative to the chest of drawers is a dresser. I particularly like this option because you can use the top of the dresser as a changing table. Just make sure that it is big enough and the right height for you before you buy, as you will probably be using it a lot! Whether you have a chest of drawers or a dresser, you get the useful storage drawers.

Wardrobe

Most two-piece nursery furniture sets have a cot bed and a wardrobe, because the wardrobe offers more storage than drawers for the same floor space – important if your nursery is in a smaller bedroom as is often the case. Look for a drawer at the bottom because then you can store heavier bedding and so on without lifting it to a high shelf. It's also very important that you fasten the wardrobe to the wall very securely so that a toddler cannot pull it over. You can buy webbed straps for this very purpose.

Whatever combination of baby furniture you choose for your nursery furniture set, my advice would be to go for quality if you can afford it, because in that way you will get a good chunk of your money back if you come to sell it later.