How To Pick Perfect Children’s Furniture

Let’s say you just moved into a new house or your toddler son has finally outgrown his crib. Now you are faced with a seemingly monumental task of planning and implementing a new room for your child. Believe it or not, the process for picking perfect children’s furniture can be a lot easier than you think – assuming that you start off on the right foot with the end goal in mind.

Planning the New Room

The first and most important step to any good process is the planning phase and with designing the perfect child’s room, the process is no different. Just like a chef would plan the ingredients before beginning to cook and an artist would measure her canvas before ever touching the brush to paint, you need to understand the characteristics of the room.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to diagram the room and measure the width and depth. Write down where the doorway is located, the closet and any windows. A little time spent here will save you loads of headaches down the road.

The second step to the planning phase is having an idea of the theme you are going to implement. A theme can be as dramatic as a princess castle or as simple as a color scheme of pastels. Either way you need to brainstorm some ideas with no thought given to your preconceived notions of how hard it will be to implement. An obvious but often overlooked facet of planning the right theme is to take your child’s personality into consideration. What are his or her likes and interests? What are her favorite activities, colors, or TV shows. Remember that you want the room to be aesthetically pleasing, functional, and a place that your child absolutely loves.

Using what you have learned, you need to pick the furniture pieces that are going to work in the room. Are you going to buy a toddler cot, bunk beds, or a double bed? Its best to start off with the bed because this is typically the largest piece of furniture in the bedroom and everything else will work around it. Next what types of furniture are you going to buy to compliment the type of bed? Certainly a dresser is an obvious and critical piece but you might also want to consider a rocking chair or a child desk. Third, consider the toy storage area. A toy box is a great and simple tool that looks great in kids’ rooms. Lastly, what types of accessories and lighting will compliment your room theme?

Once you have successfully mapped out your idea, you are ready for the next part – time to go shopping.

Picking the Perfect Furniture

To start, you need to get online and start searching. It is probable that the theme room you picked is already manufactured and sold by someone. Find it by conducting an exhaustive search online. Believe me, it will not take you long to get a good idea of the products that are on the market that match your ideas and layouts. Make sure you write down the website you found them, the product number, dimensions and manufacturer.

Next start calling local furniture stores and asking them if they carry the furniture pieces you have selected. If you are having trouble funding them you might want to use the manufacturer’s website as a tool as they often have a "locate retailer" section on their site. The reason you want to call before you visit is because furniture shopping can be exhaustive and very time consuming. There are so many furniture stores and if you are looking for something unique you can spend an entire day looking and visiting stores only to be frustrated. Once you have found the store(s) go there and see it for yourself. Feel the item’s quality and other physical characteristics and write down the price. Make sure it is the item you want.

Now go back online and do some price comparisons. Find retailers online with lower prices than you found at the stores. Make sure you factor in shipping costs. Furniture stores have such a high price markup because of their tremendous overhead that even with shipping costs included it is likely that you will save significant money by buying online. Once you found what you are looking for buy your new children’s furniture online.

Implement Your Theme Room

Chances are you will have some time while waiting for your new furniture pieces to arrive. This is the perfect time to plan the room’s color scheme. Get some color swatches from your local paint store to match against your new furniture and make sure they compliment. You can also use those same swatches to pick out curtains and bed linens. This will ensure that everything you picked out will compliment each other nicely.

Once your new furniture arrives open the boxes and thoroughly check all the pieces for completeness and for any defects as soon as possible. Reputable online furniture retailers will let you replace items or obtain new parts provided you let them know in a timely manner.

Once you get your room painted, curtains hung and new furniture and accessories in place you are ready to celebrate your success. Whether you are a professional designer or novice you can still create just the look you are hoping for with your child’s new room. Your child will certainly be ecstatic with all your work and effort. Congratulations!