Carousel Designs Blog

Previously available only through better baby retail stores,  the Spa and Chocolate Gumball Collection is now available on the babybedding.com website.

This collection contains tranquil earth tones and features blue and brown colors perfect for a baby boy nursery.  The Spa and Chocolate Fabric has branches of brown that bloom with blue and green gumballs.  Paired with Robin’s Egg Blue and Chocolate Brown, this collection combines charm with elegance.

The crib comforter front features the Spa and Gumball fabric and is backed in solid Robin’s Egg Blue and is trimmed in Chocolate Suede.  The crib bumper also shares this configuration with the outside in Spa and Gumball, the inside in Robin’s Egg Blue.  The bumper trim is in Chocolate Suede fabric.

The crib skirt combines blue and brown by utilizing the Robin’s Egg Blue fabric for the skirt body and the Chocolate Suede fabric for a 4″ trim.  The four piece crib set comes with a Solid Chocolate crib sheet but a Robin’s Egg Blue crib sheet matches perfectly as well.

This beautiful collection has been a staff favorite for some time and we are pleased to make it more widely available online.

Has it been 21 years already? 

We’re actually a little late on the celebrating (we’ve been busy!).  The true establishment date of Carousel Designs was February of 1988.  But that’s a minor detail…break out the cake and candles, we’re 21 years old and counting!

When I was first preparing to write this post, I thought it might be nice to go back and share some pictures of old website designs.  But that would only get as far back as our teenage years – and who likes to go back and look at pictures from the teen years?  Given the nature of our business, it would certainly be more fitting to see the infant years of Carousel Designs in pictures.  Maybe we can visit the wayback machine in another post.  And hopefully by then I can dig up some of the pictures from the 80’s to share.

In taking a look back, I noted that only 8 years ago we had less than 1/2 of the products we currently offer today.  We still carry a large assortment of solid colors, ginghams and toile patterns.  But now we have lots of modern prints, animal patterns, bold dots and stripes and super soft minky fabrics.  We even released an organic line of baby bedding recently.  And the custom baby bedding design studio is an amazing product that just keeps growing in popularity.  We are continuing to expand but our fundamentals really have not changed much. 

Styles have certainly evolved since our early years.  But one thing that has not been altered is quality and attention to detail.  If you have ever purchased any of our baby bedding items then you know that the quality of our products is immediately apparent.  And we still make everything here in Douglasville, Georgia.  Nothing gets outsourced overseas.

I have only been with the company for little more than a year and I remember bringing home a pink paisley crib comforter for our daughter last year.  My wife said, “Wow!  This is really nice.  Do they make these for adults?”  Actually, we don’t make adult size comforters.  Everything we make is for babies or toddlers, with the exception of rocking chair pads.  But that doesn’t seem keep my wife from occassionally curling up under the crib comfoter to enjoy a movie.

We’re looking forward to another 21 years and more in the baby bedding industry.  And we have the right team to make it happen.  Our CEO Jonathan Hartley was practically raised in the factory (his parents were the original founders) and it is doubtful whether anyone understands this business as well as he does.  And we couldn’t ask for a better customer service team.  If you have spoken with them, you know.  Our IT team is is top notch and has a diverse set of talents (even if they all seem to have the same name).   Our designer is simply amazing.  And the wealth of talent we have in the sewing and inspection teams is staggering.

So Happy Birthday Carousel Designs!  Now, where is that cake?

John

It looks like we’re going to be heading into another baby shower season very soon.  We have two sets of friends who are expecting their first child in the beginning of April.  (When did men start getting invited to these events anyway?)  I used to try to find a way out of these events but now I realize it’s a perfect time to catch up with good friends before they enter the world of new parenthood where they will disappear for a few months.

I remember the struggle of putting together invitations and gathering names and addresses for our invitations – email just won’t do for a well planned shower.  There are a lot of companies that now make this process a lot easier and one that I recently noticed is Scribetime.com.  They have a large selection of baby shower invitations and they provide a simple web interface for customization.

Another good site that I noticed for both birth announcements and baby shower invitations is InvitingSmiles.com.  They have a large variety of unique baby shower invitations and baby gifts.

And once you have you invitations in hand, don’t forget to sign up for our baby gift registry so you’ll be able to add baby bedding to your gift list.

When we were decorating for our baby girl’s nursery, my wife and I kicked around the idea of having a mural painted in the baby’s room.  But one of our reservations was that a mural would be permanent and may not be appropriate as our child grew into a toddler.  We also got busy with other family projects and eventually dropped the mural idea.

Since the idea of “the next child” has gotten a little more positive reception in the household lately, I started casually looking into unique art for the next possible nursery-to-be.  I found that some really great art can be printed on a removable surface for a great looking design at a much lower cost (and permanence!) than painted murals.

One company I discovered that has a nice assortment of removable, printed art is imaginativemurals.com.  They offer a variety of murals for the home but I was especially drawn to the Focal Points ™ designs that are printed on adhesive-backed wallpaper.  The Castle Windows mural is an imaginative design for a girl nursery and the Mediterranean Villas design was another personal favorite that would look nice in any nursery.

There are also many different sizes, themes and price ranges available on their website.  I will definitely consider their art when I get ready to design the next nursery.

John

We had another great month for custom baby bedding creations from customers using our custom design studio.  There were some really creative designs put together and I plan to highlight some of our favorites on a regular basis.  After looking through all of our orders for February, we have a few staff favorites to highlight. 

My personal favorite is the black minky combined with latte curly minky set.  The bumper features alternating panels of black minky and latte minky with black ties.  The crib skirt uses latte minky for the body with trim in black and the comforter has latte minky on one side and black minky on the reverse with black trim.  The picture doesn’t really do the comforter justice – that is going to be one ultra-soft comforter!  The nice twist to this set is the white minky chenille crib sheet.  I really like the subtle contrast this adds to the collection. 

The next custom crib set that got our vote is the giraffe minky print combined with solid celery green and sable.  The bumper and comforter in this custom set are created with the minky giraffe print and trimmed with solid celery.  The crib skirt features a solid sable brown and trimmed with solid celery.  And the crib sheet balances out the collection with solid celery.  This is a great design for an animal/jungle themed nursery.

The third of our favorite custom collections from February is a pink and black dot combination.  The inside of the bumper in this collection is created with solid pink minky and the outside features pink and black dot fabric and is trimmed in solid black.  The skirt matches the pink and black dot design with black trim.  The crib sheet balances these two parts with a black and pink dot fabric.  The comforter will definitely be a super soft delight for one special baby girl as it features solid pink minky on one side and black and pink dot minky on the other.

These are just a few samples of the custom collections that have been created with our custom design studio.  If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out!  But be ready to spend some time as it can be addictive

John

From the very beginning, babies are learning about their environment and absorbing knowledge faster than we can really comprehend.  Even tiny infants with their limited eyesight stare in amazement at crib mobiles – especially those that have high contrast colors (such as black and white mobiles). 

When our daughter had her first birthday, I was surprised at the sheer number of educational toys that she received.  From farm animal puzzles to fun and inventive music creation toys to the Melissa and Doug alphabet art puzzle, today’s education toy choices are vast.

Sherri over at Little Smarties (www.littlesmarties.com) has a huge selection of educational toys for children and is worth a look when searching for a great baby gift.  They have very reasonable prices and offer a solid exchange policy as well.

John

I just had a conversation with my wife last night about the need to update our rocking chair pads.  I mentioned the new Modern Fern collection and thought that pattern would go well in our living room.  But she responded by saying, “I don’t think that will match the yoga room…or do you think we should convert the office for our next baby?”

Next baby?

I thought it was funny that a little purchase like rocking chair pads would get tied to matching the next nursery theme that, at this point, is a remote possibility.  Maybe the possibility is not that remote.  At any rate, it seems like decorating the nursery doesn’t quite leave the minds of new moms.

We are not professional designers but we do like to be inventive in our household.  Our current nursery is a combination of some family pictures, animal pictures, flower and butterfly wall stickers and a combination of nature-themed decor old and new.  But given the current level of sleep deprivation in our household, we’re going to need some outside inspiration for the next nursery.  After some research, I came across a great reference for those families who take the do it yourself approach to nursery design – Project Nursery.

Their do it yourself nursery design page has lots of home grown ideas for inexpensive and creative nursery decorations.  If you want some great ideas for making your nursery unique without blowing your budget, they are an abundant resource for great ideas.

John

We are happy to announce that we have just launched our first certified organic crib bedding collection.  Certified to be grown without the use of petroleum based fertilizers or harsh chemicals, our natural organic collection is down to earth and comes in the sweet earthy shade of “raw sugar”.

The organic crib sheets are offered at the nice price of $24 and have been integrated into our new Modern Fern collection.  The organic changing pad cover is offered at $29.00.

Whether you are wishing to ensure that only the highest quality fabrics touch your baby’s skin or you want to have a completely green household, we now have a comprehensive offering of organic crib bedding, portable crib bedding, toddler bedding and nursery decor to complete your nursery.

Stay tuned for the introduction of new organic colors in the future.

John