Carousel Designs Blog

Okay, this is as close as you are going to get to wholesale crib bedding. We have designed, manufactured, and sold our bedding to upscale baby specialty stores for years. Starting about 9 years ago we decided to offer our products directly to the consumer. We’ve really worked hard and leveraged being the manufacturer on a few select collections to bring you the same very high quality craftmanship and fabrics but at much lower prices. We hope you like them!

I know that in the past when I have been looking for a particular product and I am exploring an unfamiliar industry like a lot of other people I’ll check and see what is the most expensive. It’s human nature to associate price with quality–especially when you simply just don’t know much about the particular products for which you are shopping.

With baby bedding you may start out a searching for “high end baby bedding” or “luxury baby bedding”. You may find baby bedding sold at a particular store and sort by price high-to-low just to see what’s “the best” out there. Being in the crib bedding and juvenile products industry for many years I have seen too often that high prices does not necessarily mean “high end”. In fact, sometimes I am shocked to find a particular bedding collection or crib set that is priced so high (sometimes over $1,000) when the quality of fabrics and workmanship is no better than what we offer.

Factors such as the cost of making the bedding, the number or times the bedding must change hands from manufacturer to store to customer, as well as the brand name, will dictate the price–often it’s not the quality!

At Carousel Designs, we use only the finest fabrics coupled with superior quality standards to manufacture our baby bedding and nursery décor. We’ve been doing this for over 21 years and thoroughly inspect every product that we make before it leaves our shop located in Douglasville, Georgia. Everything is made right here in the USA so it is very easy for us to ensure that every step of the process maintains our strict quality standards.

Since we sell direct to the consumer on our website babybedding.com we are able to pass the savings of having no traditional retail markup along to our customers. Back in the 90’s when we only sold our products to the better baby specialty stores it was typical to find our 4-piece crib bedding sets sold as high as $500-$700. Since then, we have actually continued to improve our quality standards while selling our products at much lower prices. Our current 4-piece crib sets are usually between $200-$300 and as sometimes as low as $99! Check out our outlet section to see many first-quality crib sets offered at deeply discounted prices.

In an era where you’ll find the terms “factory direct” or “direct to the consumer” overused and not always accurate know that you are truly buying directly from the factory with us.

If you have the opportunity, please read some of our customer testimonials. You’ll find several messages submitted by actual customers consistently praising the quality of our bedding and many more saying how they were very “surprised” or “shocked” with the quality. These are real examples where people have traditionally associated price with quality. That’s why you simply can’t measure our quality by comparing prices at Carousel Designs to the prices of baby bedding offered by the competition. It’s apples and oranges.

Jonathan

I was visiting a new parent forum the other day and noticed a mother-to-be discussing how much she should pay for toddler bedding.  It was an interesting read because she was strictly concerned with price, at first.  And then some other people chimed in with recommendations regarding quality.  It made me consider how we use the word “cheap” and how that term relates to “quality.”

Cheap reminds me of the low-cost pots and pans I bought when I first graduated from college and moved into my own apartment.  (Ok, we all did that, right?)  I didn’t pay much initially, but within several months, the pot handles were falling off and I eventually had to replace all of my cookware.  Lesson learned.  Not only did cheap not satisfy my needs, I had to make a second purchase of cookware because I did not consider quality during my first purchase.

Quality is the relative measure of excellence – the relationship of cost verses value.  The highest quality product is almost never the one that costs the least and it is often not the most expensive either.  I am a big fan of research, especially before buying a big ticket item, and I have found that quality can be a mix of objective testing (How well does it hold up in the wash?) and highly subjective factors (How good did it look?).

One thing that has been a persistent focus at Carousel Designs is quality.  At the same time, we are also able to offer inexpensive baby bedding because there is no middleman to inflate prices.  We design and manufacture everything here in our Douglasville, Georgia facility and that makes us uniquely positioned to offer high quality at lower prices.

I took a look at some of our customer testimonials and thought I would share some of the recent comments.  One word that I didn’t see was “cheap”.
There were several references to “great prices”, “reasonably priced” and “fair prices”.
And the word that I found repeated more than any other was “quality”.  It was mentioned dozens of times.

“I would have paid the same amount for a much lesser quality in a national retail store…”
“Thank you for the speedy delivery, and the outstanding quality of your product…”
“It is so rare, these days, to find such high quality items made in this country. I will recommend babybedding.com/Carousel Designs to all of my friends. Thanks!”

John

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

Have you ever stopped and wondered where the cute little Sock Monkey originated? Well, curiosity got the better of me and I decided to do a little research. (OK, it wasn’t that hard as there is a lot of information out there about this little guy with the big red smile).

The history of the Sock Monkey goes back to when the stuffed animal craze swept across Europe and the United States during the Great Depression. Money was scarce and people could not afford “luxury” items such as stuffed animals. So the American Mom, being creative and resourceful, started making stuffed monkey dolls out of socks, filling them with whatever was available in the house – paper, rice, even old pantyhose.

In 1932, the Nelson Knitting Company in Rockford, IL invented a work sock with a trademarked red heel. These socks became known as “Rockfords.” Not only were they the most popular work sock of their time, they became the basis for one of the most popular and long-lasting toys. When made into a doll, the red sock heel created a distinctive red mouth.

The Nelson Knitting Company soon became aware that their socks were being used to create this extremely popular stuffed toy. They decided to patent the pattern for the Sock Monkey doll and use it in their advertising and promotional campaigns. They even included the Sock Monkey pattern with each pair of “Rockford”socks sold!

In 1992, Fox River Mills acquired the Nelson Knitting Company. And while the Rockford sock is still in production today, the red heel design has undergone a noteworthy change. The red heel pattern that gave the Sock Monkey its famous smile has been replaced by a more oval pattern.

The Sock Monkey theme has seen a new growth in popularity in the 21th Century. While it has taken on many new forms and faces, the original remains steadfast. A yearly Sock Monkey Festival is held in Rockford, IL where visitors can also enjoy a museum honoring this wonderful fuzzy fella that brought smiles to so many faces for over 100 years.

Rose

One of the hottest items right now is the Shabby Chic bedding collection. Who wouldn’t look at it and just have to have it for their little one? The textures are incredible….the design features not only the ever-popular cotton chenille dot fabric but also the newest softest minky fabric available. And it’s topped off with the beautiful flowing sheer voile ruffle and skirt. The array of different fabrics is one of the things that makes this set so unique. It is a journey into time with the soft pastel floral print comforter and sheer pale pink voile ruffle which brings the design into the present.

This one is a “must have!”

Rose

So, you’ve landed on the Carousel Designs baby bedding website, and have fallen in love with THE perfect crib set that will help to create the nursery you’ve always envisioned. You excitedly pick out your items, place them in your virtual shopping cart, fill out all the necessary information, and hit the “Submit Order” button. Now what? Well, let’s go through a day in the life of an order, shall we?

When you hit that submit button, a team of trained carrier pigeons flies your order to our plant in Douglasville, GA. Okay, not really. But, through the power of the internet, your order does arrive with lightning speed to the Customer Service email inbox. Once that order comes in, it is downloaded into our system and we begin the process of filling your order. After some initial administrative steps, your order is printed out and taken onto the plant floor.

A little known fact is that, unlike many stores, we don’t really keep a lot of backstock. This means that because most products are not made until an order is placed, your order really is being made just for you and your baby!

Once your order hits the floor, our amazing team of seamstresses begins the process of cutting, piecing, sewing, inspecting, and packaging the items. The utmost care is given in making a high-quality product, and we take pride in being able to get your orders produced and shipped in typically 2-3 business days.

This post would be remiss in not mentioning the hard work of our Customer Service department, who oversees orders from start to finish. Not only do they keep a close watch on your order, they are also available during regular office hours to answer any questions or to make changes to your order. Yes, a real, live (and helpful) person will answer the phone! In today’s society, that can be a rare commodity indeed.

Once your items have been produced, one final check is made by Customer Service to ensure that the order is ready to be sent. The last steps are taken to ready the shipment for UPS pick-up and then your order is off! And you get to check one more thing off your list of things to do before the baby comes. Congratulations!

Andrea