As all of you know, the nursery necessity that can really blow your budget is the Glider.

I have to laugh a little when writing that because I can remember asking my friend Dawn a few years ago what the hell a glider was when I heard her talking about it with a pregnant friend!

For anyone reading who may not be schooled in pregnancy speak, a glider is a chair that instead of rocking back and forth glides parallel to the floor in a sort of front to back motion and is supposed to be ideal for nursing. Most often they are purchased with an accompanying ottoman.

A glider & ottoman combo from the preeminent glider manufacturer Dutalier can easily run you in the range of $700-$800 depending on the model and options (does it also swivel, does it recline etc).

The crazy thing is, for the most part they are pretty fugly. At least I think so..They look like overgrown wooden porch rockers wrapped in batting. To me, gliders are the ceiling fans of the baby worlds, an unfortunate but necessary evil. Most look something like this:

Unless of course you get the slipcovered upholstered armchair versions like this one from Land of Nod (*swoon!*):

And believe me, if I a) had the money (it’s $1198 BEFORE shipping for this combo) and b) had the space, I would snap that baby up in a second..

But, I don’t. So I was unbelievably excited when I saw a glider at a group consignment sale near me last weekend.. it wasn’t the upholstered kind I lust after, but it was the perfect color (natural wood with ivory cushions) and it was one of Dutailier’s higher end models.. the kind that reclines and the cushions come completely off for cleaning (most of the cheaper ones at BRU don’t, so if you get white I can’t imagine how you keep them clean!) and it even came with a slip cover which is really really rare. Unfortunately, the slip cover was pink.. and the price tag was $250.

Now $250 is obviously better than the $800 or so that model would run me new, but you can also get really low end Dutailier models from target.com for about $170 so I wasn’t totally convinced.

But then I learned that in the evening of the last day of the show, anything that was left over and didn’t have a red star on it would be half price. For $125 it was a complete no brainer. The catch of course was that it might not still be there by then….

So I left it up to fate.

If the glider was still there when I returned the next night I would buy it. If not, I would continue searching and figure it wasn’t meant to be.

It was there! And that is the rather long story of how I scored this perfect condition Dutailier “Comfort Plus Sleigh Back Glider” reclining glider for about 1/10th of what it is worth:

My consignment sale score.. Dutailier glider & ottoman for $125!

If I had not stumbled upon this consignment sale by accident (you can check this website for seasonal consignment sales in your state) my next choice would have been one of these Upholstered Dutailier armchair gliders from babycenter.com:

(About $374 for the glider & $204 for the ottoman with free shipping.).

And looking at them, I sort of still pine after that upholstered look… but still, $125 was just too good to pass up!

What have you all decided on for gliders?

Filed under: 2nd trimester, furniture, nursery by ariana
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