Before you can play with baby, you get to play with all of futurebaby’s stuff, and before you start playing with futurebaby’s stuff, you have to pick it out. Window shopping is particularly satisfying when you have a bun in the oven, as it’s not all that often that one has a chance to buy a whole new set of furniture. Here’s what I am looking at today:

The Argington Sahara Crib converts to a toddler bed and a twin bed without missing a beat. As an added incentive, the birch wood in this crib is harvested from birch wood from sustainable managed forests.

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Getting knocked up means a lot of things. It means buying a whole lot of those plastic outlet covers. A future of furtive nookie reminiscent of one’s high school days. Learning to tolerate the smell of strained peas. It also means no more thinking seriously about buying a Smart Car convertible.

But wait — It’s not all spit up and self-sacrifice! Here’s a convertible that parents-to-be can get excited about. Okay, maybe not. But it sure beats buying a crib, a toddler bed, a big-kid bed, and a guest bed to replace that old twin bed your kid will take to his or her first studio apartment.

Headboards made headlines in a recent issue of Cookie — which appears to be a magazine for mommies with money — in an article about shared bedroom solutions. How does one ensure that both kiddies are represented when you’re designing that perfect child sanctuary? By installing some easy mismatched headboards, of course. Just so you know, the instructions featured in both the magazine and in their blog can easily be modified to accommodate a grownup sized headboard.

I’m going to reprint those instructions here — don’t sue me, please — just in case Cookie changes its blog format in the future:

1. Lay your fabric out on the floor with the front facing down and lay the headboard on top of it, also face down.

2. Trim the fabric so that it extends 10-12 inches beyond the headboard on all sides.

3. Starting at the middle of the top edge, pull the fabric over to the back of the headboard and staple down using your staple gun. Repeat at the middle of the bottom edge, pulling fabric so it’s taut but not stretched.

4. Do the same for the side edges, stapling the fabric at the center point.

5. Working out from the center toward the corners, staple the fabric to the back of the headboard every 6-8 inches along all four sides.

6. At the corners, fold the fabric as though you are wrapping a present, then staple down creating one folded seam at each corner of the headboard.

It doesn’t get much easier than that! I know for a fact that it’s doable because an aunt of mine rocked the cloth headboard in her guestroom back in the 80s and her whole setup was out of this world. She actually upholstered various parts of the bed itself and made a matching duvet cover, so the whole thing was a crazy mass of black and white. It was a very chic and playful piece of furniture in an otherwise somber and serious room, making it all the more charming.

I’m always a little wary of spending any sort of real money on children for anything other than health, safety, nutrition, and enrichment. I watched my six younger siblings grow out of clothes, get bored with toys mere minutes after receiving them, and ding the heck out of all of their furniture….that is, when they weren’t accidentally painting on it or carving their initials into it.

I understand that one must drop enough cash on things like carseats and cribs to ensure that they won’t suddenly turn into a fiery ring of snakes or devour the baby in the dead of night, but the thought of dropping a phat wad on a single purpose changing table because it will instill junior with an early aesthetic sense makes me cringe.

That’s not to say I don’t like looking at kiddie rockers inspired by the Galapagos Islands or a high chair whose design was based on the fabled hanging gardens of Babylon. So while it’s unlikely I’ll ever be purchasing any furniture from Arlington Modern Children’s Furniture, I do like to have a gander at what’s on offer on the web site and imagine the day I’ll be able to stock my home with expensive furniture that will be pooped on, scratched, and forgotten without giving it a second thought.

Plus, is it just me, or do both of the pieces above look darned uncomfortable?

It’s no big secret that The Beard and I are trying for a baby, which means that I get to spend all sorts of money on sewing supplies and all sorts of time browsing the Intertubes for totally sweet baby stuff. Personally, I’m all about the convertibles. If a crib can become a toddler bed, it’ll still be there when the next baby comes along and the first one is ready to give a big boy/girl bed a go.

Right now, Target has some rad furniture for teeny beans, but that isn’t what this post is about. I just wanted to mention it in case you’re in the market because the prices are right. If it just so happens you’re looking to spend a bit more, then head on over to Modern Tots, a shop catering to the hippest and most modern babies (and their parents).

Er, you might want to round out this furniture from the Ola collection with a few accessories…maybe some lighting and possibly a toy or two, but I’m really digging on the bare brick thing.

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