Nursery Decor
Buy and sell nursery decor in Panama.
Most Panamanian homes are built of concrete block, so every framed print or shelf in a nursery means a masonry bit and a wall plug, and in a rented apartment the landlord may want to hear about it first. That is why so much nursery decor here sticks on, stands on its own or clips to the crib: vinyl and fabric decals, a mobile clamped to the rail, a star projector on the dresser. Blackout curtains for daytime naps and name signs made for one child sit alongside them, new and pre-owned. Most of it hangs for a year or two and comes down looking almost new.
A block wall decides how nursery decor goes up:
vinyl decals go onto smooth paint in minutes and come off in one piece if the paint is good, but on cheap or fresh paint they can lift a strip with them, and once peeled they rarely stick again. Fabric wall stickers cost a little more and can be moved several times, which suits a rental. Framed prints and wooden or MDF name signs look finished, but each one needs a drilled hole and a plug, so decide where they go before the crib is in place, and keep the heavy ones over the dresser rather than above where the baby sleeps. Shelves for books and soft toys sit somewhere between decor and nursery furniture; the floating kind on hidden brackets needs the firmest fixing of all. A themed room often starts from the crib bedding: choose the print first and let the walls follow, or keep the walls plain and let the quilt carry the colour.
Mobiles clamp onto the crib, night lights stand on the dresser:
with a mobile, the clamp is the part to check, because some wooden cribs have rails too wide for the clamp of a plastic mobile, so look at the rail of your crib before you choose one. Wind-up mobiles play a music box and turn slowly with no batteries; electric ones add lights, a projector or a remote and play for longer. Star projectors and night lights are judged on two things: a warm, dim setting for night feeds, and a timer that switches them off. Blackout curtains matter more than they look, because the sun is up early all year and daytime naps happen in full tropical light. A blackout lining, or a blind behind the pretty curtain, does the job; a printed curtain without one only tints the light.
Where a used print, mobile or blackout curtain shows its age:
decor wears quietly, so look closely. Compare the mount of a print with the edge that sat hidden under the frame: if the exposed part is paler, the sun has had it. Brown spots on the mount or the backing board mean the frame was stored somewhere damp. On a mobile, wind it or switch it on and let it run a whole tune, listen for a motor that grinds, check the arm and the clamp for hairline cracks, and look for dust worked into the plush of the hanging toys. A projector should turn smoothly without a rattle, and the remote should come with it. Hold a blackout curtain up to a window: pinpricks of light mean the coating has cracked in hot washes. Used vinyl decals are only worth having as untouched sheets still on their backing paper. Rugs show their age in flattened pile and in a smell that shampoo never quite reaches.
A nursery taken down piece by piece:
photograph the room once while it is still up, so a buyer can see the prints, the mobile and the curtains working together, then shoot each piece on its own against a plain wall. Give the frame size, the window width a curtain covers and how thick a rail the mobile clamp takes. Say whether batteries or an adapter are included and whether the remote works. A sign with a child’s name on it has a short list of buyers, while loose letters or a sign with just a moon or an animal travel much further, so mention it if the name can be painted over. Matching pieces are worth offering together, because someone decorating a whole room would rather do it in one trip. Bag the screws and wall plugs from each frame with it, and leave the mobile wound so the buyer who drives over from El Dorado hears its tune before it goes into the car.