Celebrate your child's love of learning

© Wondertime

Instead of buying nursery accessories that would end up at a yard sale, this couple sought things they'd keep using post-babydom.

If there's an overarching philosophy being expressed in 18-month-old Augie's room, beyond flexibility and practicality, it's an artistically personal aesthetic. "By including things that were designed for different purposes, we were able to create a space that's interesting," his mother, product designer Shoshannah Wineburg, explains. "I think children are informed by their surroundings, no matter how young they are," she says. "We want Augie to have things in his room that hold meaning for my husband and me, things from when we were growing up. And we don't want his room to have the typical children's colors: garishly bright or pastel. The colors we normally desire and live with aren't offered to children. And there's no reason they shouldn't be."

Night Vision
Funky Candeloos — "a gift from a cousin," says Shoshannah — may just be the perfect night-light. Their soft glow keeps the nursery from getting too scary for its sleepy inhabitant yet offers enough light for checking in on him late at night. They're also cordless and rechargeable ($49 for two at vesselinc.com, shown top left).

History of Rock
When Augie is ready to rock, he can find comfort in the fact that his kid-sized rocking chair used to soothe his mom when she was a little girl. (No heirloom furniture in your family? Target.com has a simple child rocker for $55.) A kid rocker also is a good place for an older sibling to bide time while baby is nursing.





It's the Little Things
Colorful wooden blocks ($2 for 15 at craftparts.com, shown left) spell out his name... or whatever word his mom thinks he'd be interested in seeing. And vintage ceramic planters — cheap finds at flea markets — hold cotton swabs. In the Bag
You can turn every room in the house into a diaper-changing station when everything you need is in a handy tote. Diaper bags can be pricy — why not get something that you'll actually want to carry once the nappies are history? (Shoshannah loves the design of this Lotta Jansdotter tote, $58 at jansdotter.com, shown left; the door hook is $11 at umbra.com, shown left). Diaper Genius
Opposite page: A stainless-steel foot-pedal trash can does the job of a diaper pail and does it stylishly. (An 8-gallon round step-on can is $59 at containerstore.com, shown left.) And who has time to read magazines (other than this one) when there's a baby to change? You can use your idle magazine caddy ($10 at ikea.com) as a diaper holder. When baby graduates to undies, start piling up the reading material again.

Footloose
It occurred to Shoshannah that the CD tower (left; $50 for similar ones at ikea.com, shown left) down in the study — the one she and her husband never got around to filling with music — might be a handy place to store the baby's expanding collection of footwear. "It was the perfect solution," she says, "to keep the pairs from getting jumbled up and in our way." And that vintage mailbox on the top shelf? "When Augie's older, I'll send him a letter every night, so when he checks the mail he'll have a note waiting for him."