Baby Tafel
When our son was born we had a Jenny Lind changing table (search for ASIN B000FTD1HA, the oak color) that had been given to us fully assembled but unused by the original owners. It wasn't bad, but never impressed me as being very sturdy. Our son is a big kid (born 10 lbs 12.2oz!) and changing him sometimes turns into a wrestling match, until finally a few weeks ago the entire top shelf of the changing table collapsed! Wood split and splintered, no way to repair, utter disaster. Looked like the Titanic, after hitting the bottom of the Atlantic.
So, after a lot of research, visits to every store that carried anything that could even be adapted for use as a changing table, we finally found and settled on this particular one on Amazon. We needed something that could be used after he outgrew the need for a changing table, not to mention something sturdy enough to hold up to some wear and tear while he's still being changed on it. But most of all, we had a very tight budget to work with. Most dresser-type changing tables seem to run well north of $200, pretty well out of our limited reach. Granted, this one isn't quite a full dresser configuration, what with the pockets above the drawers, but it still seemed sturdy enough to fit the bill for today, and practical enough for his use when he gets older (we also have a full size separate dresser for his clothes).
As someone else pointed out, the packaging this is delivered in was pretty substantial and seemed well designed to protect it from having corners and ends crushed in shipping. And as someone else noted, there *are* a lot of parts in that box once you get it open. But the wooden parts are all numbered and marked, and the small parts (screws and nails and such) are pretty distinct and obvious in the instructions. The first few steps of assembly were a little time consuming finding various parts and pieces where I'd sorted them to, but after a little bit things started coming together nicely. I'm no expert at this stuff, but a little hammer and screwdriver work and some patience was all it took to follow the instructions to completion.
Fully assembled this is a very nice piece of furniture. It looks nice, the drawers (although small) track smoothly -unlike drawers for most dressers and such in this price range- and the height is great for tallish folks like my wife and I. My only worry, and the only real reason I took off a star, is that there's a lot of particleboard here, which is worrisome for long-term durability. The top board seems to be solid wood though, and I'll post updates here if the situation changes.
Overall though, this is a nice looking, easy to build, and practical changing table. You may be able to find better tables out there, but if you have a limited budget this seems to be the best deal around for your dollars.
Updated 4/02/10:
It's been over a year since we got this changing table, and our son is now into potty training so it isn't seeing nearly as much use as it was back then. It's still in great shape though- the drawers still track smooth and true, the particleboard hasn't split or shown any other signs of damage, and the paint is even still in good shape. Overall it's held up excellently, and if we have another kid I expect it will continue to serve us well. My one and only complaint is that those pockets between the drawers and the table top make for really good footholds for our son to climb up, but honestly our kid is part mountain goat anyways, so I think he'd find something to work with regardless. All in all, this is still an excellent buy and absolutely worth a score upgrade to 5 stars.
view it in amazone.com
