NURSERY: Mothercare Carnaby Cot Bed Review

Deciding on which cot to get is not as easy as I was expecting. So many questions - do we get a cot? Or cot bed? Should it be wood? Or metal? What is our budget? What will fit in the nursery? Will it be sturdy enough? How long will it last our child? etc. When we started looking at cots we were overwhelmed by the options and the cost of them! The cost was the main reason we decided to get a cot bed, rather than a cot. If you're unsure of the difference, a cot bed can be converted from a cot into a bed and therefore will last your child for a lot longer. A cot lasts up until your child is around 2 years old, while a cot bed lasts until they are around 4 years old. Therefore I thought that cot beds would be even more expensive than cots, which of course in some instances they are, but generally the price is similar.

So the search for a suitable cot bed began; we looked in magazines, on the internet, in high street shops and there was one that had stood out for us - the Mothercare Carnaby Cot Bed. We first saw it in a baby magazine and its bright turquoise colour really stood out from the usual wooden or white cot beds. We were originally planning on getting a white cot bed because the nursery is all very pale, so it would have fitted in nicely. But there was something about the style of the Carnaby cot bed that we thought would work really well, as a pop of colour in an otherwise pale room. 

The price of the Carnaby cot bed was the thing that was initially putting us off buying it straight away, so we looked into buying a nursery furniture set. Then after checking Mothercare app almost daily I saw that the Carnaby cot bed had been reduced by 23%, from £299 to £229. Still a lot of money but much nearer to what we were expecting to spend. Whenever anything goes on sale I'm always so tempted to make the purchase there and then (in case the sale ends), but with this cot bed being expensive still I didn't want to be hasty. I tweeted Mothercare to ask how long the promotion would be running for and after a couple of days they were able to tell me it's on promotion until mid April 2015. I'd recommend using Twitter as a way of finding out information about a product you like because, in my experience, the response is quicker and more informative. 

At the moment this cot bed is reduced from £299 to £254, so it seems to be reduced quite often - definitely worth keeping an eye on if you like it!

The cot bed came in one very heavy box, not that I was lifting it anyway as I was pregnant! I was amazed at how easy it was to set up, we made it up in about 20 minutes. I say 'we', it was mostly my husband - I was chief 'hand things to him' person. The cot bed is so sturdy, unlike many of the wooden ones we looked at in shops. We love the look of the cot bed, even though I was a bit concerned it would look like a cage with all those bars! 

You have to purchase a mattress seperately, which I thought would be another big expenditure. As this is a cot bed it takes a 140x70cm mattress, which is bigger than a regular cot mattress. I found a mattress with good reviews (#1 best seller on amazon) and the relevant safety features for only £36.77 - check it out here. I also bought a couple of cot bed sheets for only £6.79 (see here), that again is a #1 best seller on amazon.

Yesterday on social media I saw that Mothercare had their Autumn/Winter 2015 press event, where they we're showcasing some of their new products. Bright colours were prominent in the collections and there looked like there was a wooden cot in the same turquoise as this one.

Overall, we love the pop of colour the Mothercare Carnaby cot bed adds to our daughters nursery. The nursery is finished and ready for her when she's older :)

How did you decide on your cot/cot bed?

Feel free to leave me a comment :)

Helen x