My experience with convertible crib.

PinkPiano

I thought that our experience with a convertible crib may be helpful to those of you on here trying to decide on a crib. 

Our oldest is 5 years old and we bought her a convertible crib (converts to toddler & full bed) and a matching dresser.  We bought both pieces at JCPenney but the company that manufactures the crib/dresser has since gone out of business.

Anyhow, our 2nd dd also used the same crib and we are just now finally ready to convert it to the full bed.  We bought a full bed/mattress 2 years ago for our guest room that was meant to be paired with the headboard when the time came.  Well for some reason, the headboard is wider than the full bed we purchased...so it doesn't fit with any of the existing hardware.  Dh can fix it but that is obviously going to take more work/money, and the manufacturer can offer no help since they no longer exist.  Also, there are pretty good sized holes in the headboard from the crib.  Dh thinks there were plugs that came with the crib but somehow they got lost in our move.  Basically it's a disaster.

Nevermind the fact that both kids hated the toddler bed conversion and wouldn't sleep in it.  It was like they were terrified that one wall of the crib was missing.

If I had to do it over again, I would not get a convertible crib.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, but in the end it's not at all helpful or money saving or convenient. 

 

ericanandy

Thank you!  I searched high and low for a "regular" crib and finally found one I liked.  I am excited to go "big girl/boy" shopping eventually with my kiddo to find their permanent stuff!

maurisa74

Thank you for the information. I have been struggling with this decision. It seems that the convertible cribs are so much more expensive and then buying the conversion tip on top of it gets costly. I am glad to hear a story that confirms my thoughts. 

qtpa2t

Your experience is exactly what the Baby Bargains books says.  Thanks for confirming.

swanstdl

I'm sorry it didn't work out.  I'm not a fan of how the convertible cribs look and think they also limit furniture placement.  I like the look of the crib angled out from a corner or even in the middle of a space.

Brooke208

We won't ever convert ours to a full bed either.  We couldn't find the conversion set anywhere and when we finally found a way to order it they wanted 3 months and over $200.  For a $350 crib.  NO way.  We will use the crib as is for DD's room and after that it's gone.  DS is getting a new bed (he has a full right now on the floor, just no headboard yet) and then when DD is big enough she will get a new bed too.

heyitsme

We bought a convertible crib for our DD and when the time came to buy the conversion kit for it to become a full-sized bed, the company was out of business, too! I feel like we wasted our $$. I won't be getting one the next time around.

char-char

We purchased a convertible crib with our first son and actually went ahead and purchased the conversion crib rails during the initial purchase to avoid the possibility of not being able to find them later. In any case, we did convert it to a full-size bed and everything fit well as far as the mattress and stuff goes and it looked very nice, but we did decide once we found out we were having another boy to change it back to a crib and reuse this set for the baby since it does look a bit more baby-ish. We purchased our DS a new set of "big-boy" furniture that while it was by no means inexpensive, it cost far less than the nursery set we had previously purchased him from Munire. So, basically we had a decent experience with purchasing a convertible crib, but ultimately once the new baby gets older, we may or may not continue to use this set and may instead buy something else more age appropriate.