Nursery Furniture

A changing dresser, a changing table or a wardrobe beside the closet:

most Panamanian bedrooms already have a closet built into the wall, so the freestanding wardrobe that fills catalogue nurseries is often the piece a family here can skip. Hanging space for tiny clothes is rarely the problem; drawer space at changing height is. That is why the changing dresser does most of the work: a chest of drawers with a changing tray screwed to the top, which comes off once diapers are over and leaves a plain dresser that follows the child into one of the toddler beds and beyond. A stand-alone changing table with open shelves underneath is lighter and cheaper, but it has no second life. A small freestanding wardrobe still earns its place where the room’s closet is shallow or shared with the parents.

Gliders, wooden rocking chairs and the seat for night feeds:

an upholstered glider sways on a track or on swing arms, so it moves without creeping across the tiles, and many also swivel or recline and come with a footstool that glides too. The wooden rocking chair found in so many Panamanian homes rocks on curved runners, needs clear floor in front and behind, and wants a cushion to stay comfortable through a long feed. Look for arms at the height your elbow rests while you hold the baby, a back tall enough to lean your head on, and covers that zip off, because milk and spit-up land on the arms first. Low, open shelves and toy boxes the child can reach later get more years of use than tall ones.

Particleboard, solid wood and what a nursery dresser costs:

a dresser with a changing tray runs from around $240 new in baby shops to about $600 in solid wood from a design store, and an upholstered swivel glider from the same stores can pass $1,000. Used, a sound changing dresser changes hands for around $100 to $200, and the material decides where in that range it lands. Solid wood can be sanded and repainted; white particleboard loses most of its value the moment a drawer front chips or the edging starts to peel, because there is nothing underneath to repair.

Drawer runners, the changing tray and a glider that knocks:

pull every drawer all the way out and push it back. Metal runners on ball bearings should glide and close softly; plain wooden runners should slide without grinding or letting the drawer drop at the front. Look underneath each one: a thin bottom panel that sags or has slipped out of its groove was overloaded and will go again. Check that the changing tray comes with its fixing screws and that a contoured changing pad sits inside it without riding over the lip. Sit in a glider and use it: a knock or squeak at each end of the swing means worn bushings in the arms, a swivel base should turn without wobbling, and a recliner should lock and release cleanly. Press the seat cushion; if it stays flat, the foam is finished. Rock a wooden rocker on a level floor to see that both runners touch evenly, and twist the arms to find loose joints.

A changing dresser on its way out of the nursery:

give the width, depth and height, the number of drawers and whether the tray is included, and photograph it with the drawers open as well as shut. For a glider, a short video of it gliding and swivelling says more than any photo. Say whether it is solid wood or particleboard and whether it arrived flat-packed: flat-pack furniture is best moved assembled, because the cam fittings loosen every time it comes apart. If you still have the matching crib, mention it, since a family furnishing a whole room would rather buy the set. For the journey, take the drawers out so the frame is light enough for two people, and number each one on a strip of masking tape so the buyer who comes from Chame can slide them back onto the right runners at home.