apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I just bought the Malm brown/black dresser at IKEA and love it. It goes perfectly with my 2-tone Baby Italia crib and doubles as a changing table. Is also very cheap but does not look or feel that way at all!

Is IKEA quality better than 10 years ago? I bought a dresser there about that long ago and all the drawers fell apart. It was a real piece of crap. Since then I am rather hesitant.

just buy a lower dresser and use the top for a changing table. Buying a changing table is a waste of money and has limited use. We bought an old dresser and painted it.

My husband and I have quite a bit of ikea furniture, specifically the Malm collection, and they are holding up great. We have a bedroom set, our previous one, upstairs that has now been used by my brother and our newest roommate. All of the pieces still look great. We have both the black brown for our bedroom b/c it matched our CB2 bed perfectly and then the medium brown in our guest bedroom.

For my first two kids I got a new kitchen table and I fitted drawers under them - that way they could grow into the furniture and they have a desk when they are older... Later I found a wide chest of drawers and this has worked down the line of kids... the drawers are so nice that I don't think "baby furniture" every time I look at them. If you want to have a look at them check out a picture of them here:

http://www.se7en.org.za/2008/11/16/saturday-spot-on-my-desk

You could consider forgoing a traditional changing table/dresser altogether and save a lot of space and money.

Try an UBI Changing Table that you use on the floor. Much safer for baby and has a great modern design with intergated diaper storage. The Farrow Sherbert color would look great in your nursery. Only $119.
http://www.tinydecor.com/furniture-80/changing-tables-85/oeuf-classic-collection-changing-station-591.html

The Oeuf Changing Station fits onto most standard width cribs and comes in two finishes for $230. Small size makes it easy to store for the next baby. It could also be used on a dresser or table.
http://www.tinydecor.com/furniture-80/changing-tables-85/oeuf-classic-collection-changing-station-591.html

Sorry the link to UBI changing table is:
http://www.tinydecor.com/furniture-80/changing-tables-85/ubi-changing-table-373.html

Yes, yes, yes - skip the dedicated changing table! We have a mat for diaper-changes downstairs and a countertop-height Ikea dresser in our daughter's nursery. The changing pad has nylon straps to screw it to the back of the dresser, so we don't have any safety concerns. Plus, when she's bigger, we can unscrew the pad and still have a useful piece of furniture for her room.

We had a changing table, and it was too stressful to use it--everything out of reach and baby about to fall off--not to mention the toxic off-gassing of the particleboard and vinyl and foam pads. What works much better is to use the bottom drawer of the clothes dresser and fill it with diapers and a wipes warmer (with the cord coming out the back), and then just put a soft little washable cotton rug in front and change baby on that on the floor. Once babies are a few months old, they enter a phase where they really start wrestling with you when changing diapers, so why waste money and space on a piece of furniture that is dangerous and can only be used a few weeks. You could recreate this animal drawer knob dresser from Germany, which I posted on my blog, and I think would look really cute with your decor.
http://museumofhappiness.blogspot.com/2008/04/animal-drawer-knobs.html

The above link shows the photo of the dresser, and here is the link if you want to buy the little wood animals to make the knobs yourself.

http://museumofhappiness.blogspot.com/2008/04/wood-animal-figures.html

We took the smaller IKEA Expedit, laid it on its side, and screwed a changing pad into the wall. We have storage bins underneath for diapers and wipes, which works well. When our son is a toddler it'll be the perfect height for Montessori style play and storage :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v406/mariahb/nursery1-2.jpg

To each his/her own. I can't imagine changing a baby on the floor -- seems horribly uncomfortable to me. But certainly lots of people find that's a good way to go.

I had a cheapo changing table last time around and I used the heck out of it. Once my boy was potty-trained we sold it on Craiglist.

In our new house, I think we are going to change the baby on the bathroom counter. You don't necessarily need an expensive piece of furniture, you just need a flat surface and a place to store things. (Preferably not in a drawer, but in something open that you can grab with one hand.) The bog-standard changing table really is a pretty good design, in my opinion. They just leave a little (OK, a lot) to be desired on the aesthetic front.

We did exactly the same as honeyhaze - IKEA Antilop on its side a change pad. I have a little woven basket full of nappy-changing accoutrements next to the pad. Works brilliantly.

why not search ebay and craigslist for a used one? I've seen some great deals on Netto changing tables, and others.

We had the carpenter who was making our kitchen cabinets knock-off a Netto change table to our dimensions -- we wanted to put it in a nook in the nursery, and so made it a bit longer. We cloth diapered our children, and found it indespensible -- all the diapers are stacked ready to go, the wipe warmer is full of cloth wipes with wipe liquid (when we made it longer, we made sure to make a little compartment for it). It works like a charm.

What I find particularly useful about the table is that it is the right height -- no way could either of us change on the floor (damaged knee ligaments from years of inline skating and skiing), and chests of drawers are not always the right height (many are too short).

This particular piece of furniture can grow with the kids, or we can sell it if we decide to. If you plan on having more children, you'll be grateful for a good diaper set up (well, we are).

We love the Stokke changing table. Facing our little girl during changing time really does facilitate bonding. And although she is now a wriggly and feisty one year old, she still relaxes on the changing table for diaper changes ~ maybe because the table is comfortable for her too?

The storage on the changing table is great, with handy side compartments as well as shelves underneath. To keep things neat on the shelves underneath, we use the IKEA Komplement boxes, which fit perfectly.

The table apparently converts to a desk later on.

http://www.stokkeusa.com/care.htm

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90050590

Hope this is helpful!

We ran into a similar situation where we wanted a modern dresser that would double as a changing table while our son was small.

We ended up going with the Topolino Double Dresser from Wal-Mart. Very affordable and so far it has held up very well. (We've had it for close to a year now) room for the changing pad on one side and a lap on the other. the three drawers are roomy enough to hold all of our 2 year olds clothes and we use the side cainet to hold bins full of his shoes and hats.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=9920021

ok, we have a set from wal mart and everyone thinks it is the oeuf. and the quality is great! changing table isnt really necessary but i know for you first baby you get so excited and want to buy everything as a way to feel prepared. here are two cute ones:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8592560

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5983291

Hi Lauren, We have the Aerial crib for our son as well. We ended up buying the 10 drawer Ikea Hemnes dresser in white, which doubles as our changing table. The dresser's finish is the EXACT finish as the white MDF part of the Aerial. It's incredibly sturdy and solid. The drawer pulls that come with it are nice, but we bought different ones which really made the piece look nice. It's definitely a piece of furniture that will grow with your child. And if I can be TMI for a sec, the glossy finish doesn't get damaged when our son pees all over it when we take off his diaper!

One thing about the Aerial crib-- we love it. It's beautiful and so solid. However, the mechanism for the drop side is pretty delicate. We were probably too rough on it in the beginning and the drop side broke and we had to order new parts (for free of course). This also just happened to a good friend of mine, so I just wanted to let you know that if you don't feel the dropside catch at first, don't yank it like we did. In all honesty, I hope they change the mechanism one day, but since getting the new part, we haven't had any problems.

Congratulations and have fun decorating your nursery,