Here's my list:
- Relatively small - You know by now that I live in an small, one bedroom, NYC apartment. The crib was going to (and now is) sharing the minimal square footage of the one bedroom. I didn't want a true mini crib because I intended to use it in the future, in bigger spaces and with younger siblings. Rather, I wanted a standard size crib that would fit a standard size mattress, but otherwise small (minimal thickness and height). Some cribs are pretty bulky. I wanted to steer clear of those cribs, however gorgeous they might be.
- Made of wood - Wood is better than pressed board (aka MDF) for a couple reasons. First, it lasts longer. Second, it's natural. Pressed board contains some gnarly chemicals and while I wasn't going to be obsessive about off-gassing concerns (Google it), choosing a wood crib versus a non-wood crib seemed easy enough.
- Non-toxic finish - There are so many cribs with non-toxic finishes nowadays that it was simple to go with the safer option.
- Light finish - This was purely aesthetic, but I preferred a light finish (white, birch, etc.) versus a dark finish (cherry, expresso, etc.). I work with the theory that light and bright colors help open up small spaces.
- Simple style - I'm not into ornate things, cribs included.
- No drawers on bottom - At first I absolutely, positively wanted drawers on the bottom of the crib. I figured the added storage was what every one bedroom apartment with a newborn needs. But I changed my mind. I realized that an open bottom crib gave me options. I could use the open space for more versatile storage like baskets or plastic bins. Or, I could just leave it open for storing playmats and other randomly shaped baby stuff.
- Convertible into a toddler bed - Stretching the usability of the crib just made sense to me, especially because I wanted to purchase a high quality crib that I believed would last into (and beyond) toddler years.
And now my choice - the Robin crib by Oeuf
What you see above is what you see in my bedroom, with the exception of the toddler doing yoga and the funky shaped cow rug. So far, so good. I'm very pleased with my choice. It met ALL of my must-haves and even my would-likes. I didn't have to compromise on a single thing. The price point seemed mid range ($499 without the toddler bed conversion kit) compared to other models I was considering. I had looked at everything from cribs available on Walmart.com to the Stokke Sleepi crib. I really liked a crib by Argington (here), but was ultimately dissuaded after reading a number of reviews about faulty legs that snapped and broke. The Robin crib was the right crib for the right price and I happened to love the way it looked, bonus.
How did you choose a crib? What did you ultimately settle on?
