Finding a Chair for the Nursery - Part 1: Shopping and Testing

Three Bears Revisited print available at SarahJanestudios on ETSY

I recently accompanied my friend Sunshine on the hunt for a the perfect chair for the nursery for her soon to be arriving little boy.  Notebook in hand and photographer by my side (thanks Devin), I still was not quite prepared for the onslaught of information that we were to be bombarded with during our outing.
There are chairs that rock, chairs that glide, ones that swivel and ones that recline.  Some do all of those things some can only perform one of those functions at a time.  Then there are ottomans that match, some also glide, some do not.  There are big chairs, little chairs, high chairs low chairs.  Expensive chairs and cheap chairs ... well, actually most of the chairs we looked at were pretty expensive. 

So You need a Glider for the Nursery, Where do you Start?

Any blog will tell you (and I will not dispute this advice) Step one: Go out and try some chairs yourself.  This is one item you do not want to order online.

Our first stop was at The Rocking Chair Store on LaBrea.  They had a little bit of everything  and we got a crash course on what to look for in a good chair for the nursery. They were super helpful and nice, and we learned the importance of a high back for neck support, solid arms for elbow support, and I how if the chair has too much glide it can make you really feel motion sick (blech). The big problem was that none of their chairs really matched the decor style of Sunshine's nursery.  And lets be real.  These chairs are not cheap and ideally you want something that looks good enough that can last to have a life outside of the nursery. 

On we went to high end stores, low end stores and everything in between.  By the end of the day Sunshine had a pretty good idea of what she wanted (and didn't want/or need) in a chair.

The problem now is deciding which one to get which really comes down to how much to spend.  How important is it in your nursery decor? Is it worth spending a little (or a LOT) more money for something you like the look of? Which features are most important? Do you really need to recline and swivel? How did YOU choose your Nursery Chair?