4 Nursery Furniture Swaps You Can Make to Save You Money
You don't have to stick to the baby furniture aisle to build your dream nursery.
By Latifah Miles | Fact Checked by Shannon Vestal Robson
The furniture you choose for your baby’s nursery is one of the more important designing choices you’ll make. While your mind likely will jump to nursery-specific items, according to Little Crown Interiors nursery interior designer Naomi Coe, more parents-to-be are reaching for standard furniture—think a dresser or bookcase you’d use for your own bedroom over pieces designed for babies to “get the most versatility out of the items they purchase.”
Opting for furniture that can either be used in your child’s space as they get older or repurposed in another part of your home can save you money in the long run. Even with endless creativity, there are only a handful of uses for a changing table. Plus, from an aesthetic point of view, there are far more styles, colors and overall options to choose from among standard furniture pieces.
One thing to keep in mind: there are baby-specific furniture pieces that you shouldn’t swap out, like a crib or bassinet (which is essential for safe sleep) and a nursery glider, which might be worth sticking with, according to Coe, because “gliders have some specific features that can come in really handy, like a full swivel, motorized recliner or USB plug-in.”
You can sprinkle in a few standard furniture pieces into your nursery or nix the baby-specific pieces altogether. Even if you decide to fill their room with adult furniture, don’t worry about it not feeling like a baby’s room. Their space will still have the cozy, nursery feel that you want. We talked to Coe, along with my insights as the commerce editor and mom of two, to help map out the furniture trades you can make.
Instead of a Changing Table, Use a Dresser
Changing tables or dressers with a changing pad attached have a limited lifespan in your baby’s space. Once your baby is out of diapers or have outgrown the small changing space, the topper part becomes a useless piece that you have to store or toss. The dresser part of a changing table is often on the smaller side, so by the time your baby hits preschool, it’ll be time to upgrade to something larger to house their clothes.
Coe, who says she always recommends going for a larger dresser in your nursery, says, “If you can purchase a quality dresser, it can last the entire lifetime of the child in the home.” Not only will it have plenty of space for your baby’s clothes, but you can also transform it into a short-term changing table by adding a changing pad (I’ve used the Skip Hop Changing Pad for the last 11 months on top of a dresser and it’s worked flawlessly). And if you want to give your nursery dresser a more babyish feel, you can swap out the pull knobs for ones that match the theme of the room. Here are some dressers we’re eyeing:
Instead of a Nursery Rug, Use a Standard Rug
Nursery rugs can be very cutesy, so you can skip this part if that’s your style—which no judgement if it is. But, when we talked to Coe about 2024 nursery trends, she predicted a spike in adultification in nursery style choices (read: less cutesy, more mature). While you aren’t likely to find that aesthetic in the baby section of your favorite furniture store, the options are virtually endless with standard rugs. As of late, nursery interior design trends have flowed more and more with parents’ personal style, so skipping an obvious baby rug makes sense.
If you choose a home rug, Coes says that they may be made of “materials like wool or jute that aren’t very soft for children”—so we suggest choosing materials your baby will be able to crawl across and play on in the future. My daughter’s nursery has a rug that matches the peachy, dainty vibe I was going for but that would be suitable for a school-aged kiddo too. Its medium pile, so not super thin or so plush that it is difficult to keep clean, and very soft. If you do stumble upon a thinner, low pile rug that you can’t part with, you can layer it with a fluffier rug (like the faux fur one) . Here are some we like:
Instead of Kids’ Lighting, Use Standard Lighting
Whether you’re going for floor lamps, overhead lighting or a single tabletop lamp, you can skip the nursery-specific options, which are likely to be a little pricier and have babyish shapes and pastel colors. Instead, you can go for a lighting choice you’d choose for your own space for many more options and price ranges. In my daughter’s nursery, we used a small white ceramic lamp from Target with a red light bulb, which made our night feeding easier. And when night feeds are over, we can repurpose it in another room and it won’t look like I recycled it from my baby’s room. Here are some we love:
Instead of Nursery Decor, Use a Variety of Decor
Decor, like mirrors, wall art and bookshelves, can tie together the style of your baby’s room, giving it a cohesive feel. While we can’t deny that there are a ton of very adorable baby-centric options out there, we also love the clean lines and simplistic designs of standard decor. From stylish mirrors to those faux olive trees you’ve seen in nursery inspo pics, here are a few of my favorites:
Latifah Miles
Senior Commerce Editor
Latifah Miles is the Senior Commerce Editor at Babylist.
