When my kids were little, we used the nets hanging from the ceiling to pile in the stuffed animals.  However THIS idea is so much better. It’s creative, beautiful, and FUN for kids.  Way to go bloesem kids,

Love!

With sad, unnecessary deaths caused by drop-side cribs, safety standards are now more rigorous to protect infants.  Malfunctions of these cribs have caused 32 infant suffocation deaths since 2000.

According to CNN.com,

The new federal safety requirements ban drop-side cribs, where a side rail can be raised and lowered. They can no longer be manufactured or sold. Hardware, mattress support durability, and slat strength will all undergo tougher testing from the commission.

What a relief this must be for parents who have lost their babies.

Photo by Dennis Yang via flickr creative commons.

From PopFi.

My job today has been to pack and clean Annie’s room now that she’s living in a dorm.  She’s moving downtstairs and 14-year old Erin is moving up to the BIG room.  Do you know how much fun my day has been?  Not much, that’s for sure.  However there have been some highlights … running across one or two of her baby pictures and then discovering an old diary where she’d started a short story.  On the back inside cover was the notation “My REAL diary is under my mattress!”  Ha.

I’ll be happy to finish this big project, for sure.

Erin plans to decorate with a pink zebra stripe bedspread.  We have a new mirror and lamp that will dress her new space up.  Bedspread picture here from Beyond Bedding.com.

Seems they have downsized just about everything for kids these days. They even have their own tiny carts at the supermarket! So it makes total sense that kids should be able to be just as stylish as mom and dad in the chair department. Furniture companies are making pint-sized versions of just about every style of chair, but many of them cost a pretty penny. I’m sorry, but I refuse to pay three figures for a chair that they will outgrow just as fast as those tiny shoes I bought just a week ago.

There is good news, though! It IS possible to find absolutely adorable chairs for your little ones that won’t cost you a months worth of preschool tuition!

You can get these colorful and very mod-shaped chairs at the Container Store. Not only do they look super cool, I also noticed they don’t have one sharp corner. So they’ll be safe for your little ones, too. And get this! They are only $7.99!!! Nope, I didn’t miss a zero or move the decimal point. They are really only $7.99.

Doesn’t this red chair look like and illustration out of a great kid’s book? I love the almost cone shaped legs. At many high end stores, you may pay upwards of $70 or even $80 for this piece of kiddy furniture. But at IKEA, it’s only $14.99! It also comes in blue. 

Worried these may not be quite snazzy enough for your little one’s style? Want something a little more artsy or personalized? Try letting your little one be the designer! You can pick up a plain wooden stool like this one at almost any arts and crafts store for about $7.99. Grab a few bucks worth of paints and brushes and let Junior go to town. I did this with a little bench my son received for Christmas one year and we love the result. Splashes of red, blue and green finger paint with a layer of clear coat on top gave our bench so much character.

I must say, this is a beautiful and clever piece of furniture for a kid. I get so tired of having to store my daughters millions of McDonald land toys in  plastic storage chests.

The tottoman, designed by a mom that just wanted a prettier way to store items for her daughters, is a fabulous alternative to those bulky plastic chests that break when you sit on them.

Now, the online store to order these is not quite ready but we will tell you when they are up and running. For now you can go to the Storm Interiors website and contact Lara directly and order one. You can choose the fabric, color, size and shape even have your child’s name embroidered on the top. They all come on casters which makes it easy to move around and the soft lids won’t pinch fingers.

The round tottoman is my favorite and I would love to replace my daughters junky, plastic storage chest with this. She does have a birthday coming up…….

Can you imagine what it would be like to actually make furniture for your kids? I mean, once you knew what kinds of toys they were in too and what their personalities were like, think how nice it would be to buy some wood and nails and start building.  I would love to be able to do this. Unfortunately, I have minimal amounts of creative bones in my body so I have to shop for the right kind of furniture for my kids’ stuff. Usually, to find anything affordable means it is low quality and hardly fashionable.  Mod Mom Furniture is one mom’s unique flare for building children’s furniture in the comfort of her own garage.

Kiersten Hathcock, grew up in Ohio and developed a love for woodworking after her dad introduced her to table saws and jig saws when she was a teenager. As Kiersten grew up she set aside her love for woodworking to become a marketing exec and eventually start a family. As the need grew for her kids to have places to store their toys and the refusal to pay retail on children’s furniture, Kiersten was able to rekindle her love of woodworking and build some modern toy boxes for her kids’ stuff.  Her friends and family were thrilled with her work and started ordering more storage units for their kids’ stuff. 

Now, Kiersten builds all kinds of Modern Kids Toy Boxes in her garage workshop and some of the things she has come up with…..well, let’s just say… you aren’t going to find this kind of function and quality anywhere else! Her pieces are totally affordable, functional and most of all modern at the same time. I just wish I knew how to do this kind of thing but Kiersten assures me that "if you think you can do it, you can!" Maybe I’ll give it a try.

Design Milk just posted about this really cool Crossword Puzzle Art Piece from Posh Tots. I think this is just fantastic for the trend in today’s modern kids decor. Kind of like wall Scrabble. I love the little pictures in the corners of each tile, it coordinates with the letter. Cool!

"Play.
Laugh. Games. Dream. These words pretty much sum up childhood! Artfully
assembled into a crossword, each letter is accompanied by an equally
playful symbol of an object that starts with the letter shown. Natural
furniture grade satin wood finish. Made of maple." Extraordinary!

It seems like many parents nowadays are turning toward more contemporary designs for their baby and baby’s room. The days of Disney and Noah’s Ark bedding have been replaced with geometric shapes and simple, chic designs. So step into the 21st century nursery and check out some of our greatest modern baby finds.

One of our favorite stores, Dwell, has taken some of their super cool geometric designs and incorporated them into baby’s bedding and accessories and during the month of December the bloggers at coochicoos were giving away this crib set and pillow. I love the forest design and the outdoor feeling that is created is so mod. The colors are soft yet stimulating and leave room for other modern accessories.   

What goes better with a modern crib for baby than a hand crafted mobile for baby to gaze upon. We found a wooden floating fish mobile that would go great with Dwell’s many animal and geometric designs. Check out other modern mobiles at Sparkability.

Now, tie this all together with a beautiful crib from Modern Nursery and you’ve got it made. Today’s modern cribs offer not only offer a trendy style to your baby’s room but boast functionality on so many levels.  We recommend the Oeuf Crib not only because it is a fantastic looking crib but because it can be converted into a toddler bed when baby is ready and this Crib comes with many matching pieces to give baby’s whole room a very modern look.

If you haven’t noticed already, from some of my other blogs, one of my very favorite stores is Room and Board. Their modern pieces and contemporary looks make my heart go pitter-pat and many parents are feelin’ the love too with Room & Board’s new line of kid’s furniture called Moda.

This nursery collection is crafted of solid maple with white lacquered fiberboard. The Moda line is all about multitasking at a functional level. For example, the changing table is designed to fit both a crib and dresser and the crib converts to a toddler bed when baby is ready. 

The bloggers at Babygadget are diggin’ the architecture:

"The design is clean and no fuss – sharp, geometric lines with minimal
hardware showcase the contrast of the white and solid maple materials."

I’ve mentioned before that contrast is so "in" right now and parents wanting a more modern look in their homes are turning toward modern kids furniture. I like the idea of simplicity for baby’s room because there’s already so much going on when you bring a new baby home that the room should evoke a sense of peace and harmony.  Even though a durable, designer room for baby does come with a price tag, at least we know with Room & Board you get what you pay for. Now that’s love.