Setting up the playroom for your little one – that’s the dream for any parent. Every single aspect of a nursery involves lots of planning, care, and love. But despite all of it, you cannot stop the inevitable: children grow up. As they grow up, things that were bought for them find itself useless and discarded.

But what if that wasn’t the case? What if your furniture, once past its original purpose, could somehow reincarnate into something else? That’s what convertible furniture is all about. Basically, they are furniture that could be transformed or simultaneously used for multiple purposes. Let’s know a little bit more about convertible furniture for kids.

Benefits of Convertible Furniture

• Space-efficiency: The biggest USP of buying convertible furniture is how much space you save. Since you are getting one piece of furniture that could multi-function, you no longer have the need to buy multiple, separate furniture. This is a huge benefit, particularly if your home is low on free space. For example, the same furniture that works as crib or bed, or a playroom wall storage that leaves the floor space. Keep in mind that nurseries have to be clutter-free, so less furniture means more space for the toddler to crawl around.
• Money Saver: Convertible playroom furniture eliminates the need to buy multiple pieces of furniture. The less furniture you have to buy, the less money you have to spend. Even accounting for the higher cost of convertible furniture, it is still a money-saving option.
• Passive Uses: The second biggest reason to buy convertible furniture is its passive utility. You might buy a storage unit or a toddler bed for your kid with great love. But in a few years, inevitably, your kid would grow up and no longer require them. Convertible furniture comes with a secondary utility that allows you to continue using them instead of having to discard them.For instance, toddler bed no longer in use become a playroom couch.
• Portability: Imagine you have to shift to a new house someday. Now imagine the sheer hassle of having to pack and move every single piece of furniture in your child’s nursery. Convertible furniture enables you to have less furniture, and hence more portability.
• Aesthetics: Perhaps a minor point, but convertible furniture comes with great aesthetics. Designers spend a lot of time ensuring that a convertible bed or sofa doesn’t look odd in a room. So, you can be sure to have the latest home décor style in your nursery.

Key Considerations Before Buying

• Objective

Before you buy convertible play room furniture, you should be clear about what purpose it would serve. A model that could function as five different pieces of furniture would ultimately be of no use if you don’t have the need for any of those five pieces of furniture. Look around, think of everything your nursery and home would need in the long run, and look for convertible furniture that could satisfy those needs.

• Material

Material is an important consideration when buying any furniture, convertible or not. Wooden and metallic furniture are both useful and function well, but which one would serve you better? Which one would suit the aesthetic of your nursery? Is the material that is suitable for a crib also work well when it gets converted into a playroom sofa? These are some questions about material you should answer beforehand.

• Durability

A convertible furniture model is built with a (more) complex mechanism that allows it to transform into one or more types. Naturally, these would involve a lot of joints and moving parts. It also means that there are higher chances of wear and tear. While buying a model, you need to be absolutely sure of its build quality. Buying convertible playroom storage furniture to solve 10 years of your furniture needs won’t matter if it breaks down a long time before that.

• Safety

Anything that goes in a nursery must satisfy safety standards. Convertible furniture is more susceptible to scrutiny because of all the moving parts it involves. More importantly, while trying to be multi-functional, manufacturers sometimes compromise on some key features of the furniture. For instance, entirely removable guard rails in a crib (to convert it into a toddler bed) leave it with no safety rails at all. You need to ensure that the convertible satisfies every safety regulation for nurseries.

• Cost

Let’s be honest: we only buy something if the price is right. Due to their unique design, the market hype, and their genuine complexity, it is understandable that convertible furniture is priced considerably higher than most other furniture works. First, you have to ask yourself: Are you willing to pay this amount of money for this furniture? Second, ask yourself: Is this cheaper than if you had bought the individual furniture, separately?

Most Popular Convertible Furniture Options For Nursery

1. Convertible Cribs

Cribs are perhaps the first thing parents want to buy when setting up the nursery for their little one. But the little ones grow up really fast! Usually, infants transition from cribs to toddler beds within two or three years. Buying a larger crib might delay it for another 1-2 years, but that’s all. Cribs are also a significant investment from nursery standards, especially if you go with a high-quality wood option.

Convertible cribs are quickly emerging as a popular alternative for parents. The most common option is the 2-in-1 convertible crib, where you can simply remove the guard rails of the crib and convert it into a daybed. The 3-in-1 cribs come with additional, smaller guard rails, so you can convert it into either a toddler bed or a day bed. There are also 4-in-1 and 5-in-1 convertibles with additional features like headrest and footrest, or option to convert into playroom sofa bed. There is no harm in picking the most sophisticated option, but most parents choose the simpler option of 2-in-1 convertibles which saves them the trouble of buying a new bed for at least 10 years.

2. Multi-Functional Storage Solutions

If you were to listen to ‘experts’, it would seem like every item is like a jigsaw puzzle that needs its own dedicated playroom storage cabinets. So you have a different storage unit for toys, another for diaper essentials, yet another for clothes, and so on. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Storage is storage; being smart with it might allow you to store everything in one place.

Multi-functional storage solutions come with removable and adjustable features that allow them to function as different solutions for different problems. For instance, a removable dressing pad allows you to use them as a changing station when needed, and remove the pad once your toddler no longer wears diapers. Removable/adjustable partitions inside the playroom cabinets also allow you to modify the space of inner compartments for whatever you want to store.

3. Adjustable Desks & Tables

As your toddler grows up, the time will arrive to give them their first desk, table, and chair. But the time would pass away as quickly as it arrived. Unlike beds, where you can buy larger ones to accommodate for the future, desks and chairs are not that flexible. A small chair would be cramped, while a large chair would not allow your toddler to utilize the arms and back for support. There is also the question of height: too high won’t make it useable, while too low would leave them useless once your kid outgrows them.

Adjustable desks and chairs are essentially future-proof. They are height-adjustable, so you can make them as high or low as suits your toddler. Just with the option of adjustable height, a set of tables & chairs might last for more than 10 years (as opposed to the usual 3-4 years).

Conclusion

Parenting is increasingly becoming a more expensive prospect, while houses are becoming smaller. In such times, parents have to think out of the box and look for innovative solutions that ease their problems without compromising on the needs of their kids. Convertible furniture is one such solution. It allows you to save space and money, and re-use the same furniture for a longer time. From convertible cribs and adjustable chairs to multi-function closets and adaptable playroom seating – there is a long list of options. All you need to do is go out and choose the ones that perfectly meet your long-term needs.