Rockin' rocker: Nursing Rhymes

When I was pregnant I was told to purchase a glider, which is basically the love-child of a club chair and and laz-y boy. Maybe a bloated rocking chair on it's best day. Waddling around my big box baby store, I couldn't stomach it. Both too ugly, bulky, pastel-y and matronly, if furniture can read as such, both my design sense and my one-bedroom-apartment told me no. The This Old House'er in me martyr-nursed in an old rocking chair with the charm of an upstate farm house and the comfort of a pitch-fork. My husband loved to tell me how chic and rustic it looked with five pillows on it. Ugly gliders aren't good news for the design-preferenced nursing mother. Let me tell you - you log a lot of hours sitting, nursing, holding that baby and there is a real need for a comfortable, soft, roomy place for all of the above. And when you're not sitting in it you're likely looking at it - peripherally, but logging hours around it nonetheless changing diapers, folding tiny pants, etc. As my son turns 13 months old, I still find myself parking it in the rocking chair sometimes three times a day for story time and nap time. I think there simply must be a better option....You have your refusal to compromise ideals for safety, President Obama, I reject the notion that I have to surrender to something ugly to take care of my child in comfort.

Modern nursery designers have been sprouting daily it seems - across all price points and I'm thrilled. Often family-inspired entrepreneurs who are bringing really beautiful streamlined pieces to market. I am going to go out on a limb and say that the glider is not really the piece to go for clean lines. We need soft and nurturing, womb-like here. Not stark. Not stripped down to essentials, devoid of ornamentation. We need a little extra on the arms to hold that baby, a little extra in the tush. Thank goodness good design solves all. As a nonconvetional modern exception, the egg chair, although wholly unconventional is great example of clean lines, extended, to be comodious and although I haven't tried it as a nursing chair - next time I will. The real winner in my book however is the Empire Rocker from NurseryWorks. Oh my goodness. Ok, I admit it - I am a sucker for modern references to traditional furniture. But it happens to be one of the most comfortable chairs I've ever sat in. The Empire Rocker is a wink and a nod to an old tufted smoking chair, which was ironically neither intended for a woman, nor to be comfortable - but this version is - both comfortable and intended for nursing, reading, night-nuzzling and all the other delights of bedtime. And the ultimate sniff test: I'd put this in my living room -it doesn't read nursery or kids room, in rich eggplant-hued velvet - score one for nursing moms driving design!

Mid-Winter's Resolution - Double Duty

How can it be almost February? I am just getting to my New Year's resolutions. One was to get the job to design the Obama White House (see below). I did not get the job, and so my list is now back to what it was before - work out more, be nicer to my husband, buy things with double duty.

To explain...I was recently inspired by an NPR story on design - the whole notion of democratic design, actually, and the fact the people are asking for better design, and for things to do more than just sit there. Perhaps Obama will get credit for this too, as a movement of sorts - regardless, I am game. So, with that, I got inspired to get on my own soap box about the notion of double duty design. Don’t buy anything unless it makes you rich or thin.

OK, OK, a bit of an new year’s inspired hyperbole, along the lines of “wake up every day at 5am and workout” – but you get the point. Don’t buy something unless it serves at least two purposes. This goes for furniture, accessories, objets, etc. This is now abundantly possible. Whether space is a constraint or not – this is just good design for the home. Living in Manhattan was like double-duty boot camp for this kind of procurement. For something to occupy space in my one-bedroom apartment, large as it was, it had to offer two uses, be attractive in the middle of a room, or backed into a corner, and I had to absolutely love it. If not, I’d have been swallowed by my lovely oversized, singular-function pieces – like my antique sewing machine. I certainly loved it – but it had all the function of a grain of rice with my name etched onto it.

The story on NPR discussed double-duty design as a significant trend in industrial and furniture design as well as architecture. Of course this annoys me just a tad because it’s not a new concept, and emerged through the arts and crafts movement mot likely, but now it is likely reactionary to people having to flee in droves from their real or idealized McMansions as a function of the economy. People have not the option to up and leave their starter house rancher anymore for a variety of reasons – smaller and better has to work. By the way, I am right their with you.

A few ideas for you on this one. Naturally I am coming to this from the parental vantage point. When I think about furniture, I am thinking about what it can do now that my son is 12 month old– hopefully more than one thing -- but also what can it do in a few months or years – that’s another way to get your second duty. (Sounds awful – but you get my point.) The Expedit Bookcase from Ikea functions one way laterally – on the floor – it makes a great open toddler-height book and toy storage, as well as a reading bench for younger children. I can sit on it, but I worry about it holding my weight – and that’s not because I’m not in my skinny jeans again yet. Vertically, it makes great, slender storage for an entry way, laundry room, or just about anywhere you need or want variable height, attractive, open shelving. You can also make a trifecta – two verticals, one horizontal for a book nook for a child’s room. And it can also make a great coffee table in the middle of the room. Speaking of alternative coffee tables - when did they get so big and out of control? It's a coffee table, not a buffet people! Anyway, in thinking about slender, space efficient ways to have your coffee in front of your tv...I am a big fan of benches for small living rooms – they can function as coffee tables –and sometimes – slender as they are – they function better than traditional coffee tables. Some even have support "beams" across the spanning across the legs which are great for storing magazines, or books. The small surface area means you are unlikely to use a bench-as-coffee table arrangement as a repository for crap. I like this Asian-inspired bench from Overstock.com. And when additional people are in your space (if you are one of the lucky ones to have a social life - what was that like again?) then the coffee table becomes additional seating, and it makes scarce more easily than a coffee table when you want to open the room up.