Customer Reviews

Babyletto Modo 3 in 1 Crib with Toddler Rail, Espresso

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My wife bought this crib for our second baby recently, even though we were both a little skeptical about buying a crib online "sight unseen". As with most parents, the first baby crib buying experience is filled with countless hours of research, visits to Babys'R'Us and other specialty baby furniture stores, and highlighting through the latest Baby Bargains book. With the second baby, however, its all about convenience of shopping. Since the high reviews of this crib, we decided to give this a try.

The crib arrived in 1 flat carton, a little larger in size than a baby mattress. Upon opening the carton, the contents were well packaged. Most of the pieces (side panels, base) are pre assembled. The finish is a nice dark Espresso in a pleasing tone. As with similarly priced items though, the finish is a little easy to get dinged, so have to be a little careful in the assembly. The assembly instructions are a little sparse but since there are few pieces to assemble, it's easily doable.

Assembly requires attaching the 4 bottom posts to the base using 1 dowel and 1 screw each. Next attach some metal strips to the side walls for the mattress base spring. Each side panel is then attached to the base with 3 dowels and 2 screws and to the adjacent panels with 2 screws. The mattress rest (wire spring base on which the mattress rests) attaches to the walls with 4 screws. That's it, you're done.

The mattress height adjustment has 3 (or maybe 4, can't recall) height levels to progress from infant to toddler stages. The included toddler bed front panel is a great must have to extend the use of this crib.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Take heed that the words "convertible" for cribs can mean one of 3 things. It can either mean that a crib can be modified to have a lower/half front rail for the toddler stages OR that the crib can be converted to a full size bed using the two long sides of the crib OR both options are available. This crib ONLY HAS the first option available of a half height/half length front rail. IT CANNOT BE CONVERTED TO A FULL SIZE BED. Just so you know.

Overall construction/finish is good. Assembly is easy. And the convertible aspect earns this crib a 5 star (bang for the buck) rating in my book.

I was set to get the Sleigh Crib from PBK. But then when we moved into our new house, I realized that crib would be way to large for the baby's room. It would not fit a changing table, the crib and a rocker/glider. Therefore, I needed to somehow compromise. I started researching again and by accident came across this crib. I fell in love w/ it as soon as I saw it, but I was skeptical about buying it, because so many reviews said they had received damaged products. I wished I could go into a store and see it first. That was not possible, so I still went ahead and bought the crib (emotional/impulse buying I guess). The crib arrived after 4-5 days of ordering it and the box was a little damaged on the outside. I panicked thinking that it was going to be damaged inside as well. I am 8 months pregnant and this box is huge when it comes...and very heavy....I did not touch it myself, I had the carrier leave it at my door and when my husband came home, he moved it inside the house.

Two weeks later, my husband found the time to actually put the crib together. He assembled it within 1 hour by himself. I was taking pictures for the baby book while he was doing that. As he was putting it together we were both so impressed with the quality of the paint...Just gorgeous...I have to say that it is a bit larger than I had anticipated and way, way more beautiful than I had imagined. I would buy this again in a heartbeat. As my husband was saying when putting it together: "we don't need to leave it inheritance to our grandchildren; it just needs to serve a purpose for the next 2 years". We are so pleased w/ how it looks in our baby's room...Please, don't get discouraged by the reviews about damaged boxes. We bought both the crib and changing table and none were damaged and they were so well packed inside...When you put them together, they look amazing! We painted the baby's room light blue and we're planning on getting a white/light blue rocker to go with the room.

To give you an idea of the quality of things I bought for our son: the Stokee Stroller, Britax car seat and many other quality brands. I don't just buy for the looks of things. But fortunately for us, this crib set seems to be a mixture of both quality, looks and convenience. I will have to take pics and upload them when I am done with the room.

UPDATE as of 05/22/11

We've had this crib for 11 months (our baby is now 10 months old). We still love it and it is in perfect shape. Nothing was scratched, nothing was damaged in any way. The paint is intact and it looks like we bought it yesterday. Our baby is very big ( at 10 months wears clothes for 18 months olds) and due to his length, we have decided to buy him a toddler bed in a couple of months (maybe when he's 16 months). The crib seems to be a tad narrower and shorter than regular cribs. So if you know you have tall people in your family, keep that in mind. Luckily for us, we have decided to start trying for baby #2 soon, so this crib, the dresser and the changing table that go with it will all remain into place for baby no #2 and we will move baby #1 in another room where we will purchase new toddler furniture. I would say that this set has served its purpose and now I am very glad I did not splurge on the Sleigh crib by Pottery Barn or the Oeuf. I cannot imagine what else parents need from this crib than to be sturdy and look beautiful. It has served its purpose well and we could not be more happy with this purchase.

I loved this crib from the first time I saw it put together in my son's nursery. However, now that he is almost nine months old, the wear and tear that this crib is showing is a little outrageous. There are scratches on the front, presumably from pants buttons as we bend over the crib to get our son out, and the side and front panel are starting to gap away from eachother. We have the three drawer changer as well and it has several chips and scratches also even though we respect our furniture, our eight month old is our only child and we don't have any pets. I still love how these pieces look - until you look up close. I just figured that for $900 worth of furniture it would hold up a little better.

I received the crib 2 weeks after ordering, and there were no problems with shipping damage. I put it together myself in about an hour (at 8 months pregnant) except for the mattress support which needs two people to install. It looks gorgeous, especially with other two-tone furniture (look at the Babi Italia scandi changer on Amazon for a great deal) like DwellStudio from Target or Babi Italia (Scandi). If you are looking for a solid, fixed-gate, modern crib, I would definitely consider this one. I researched modern cribs extensively and while I would have liked to get a Stokke, Oeuf, or Nurseryworks I couldn't justify spending $1000 on a crib! This one is a great deal for the money, especially since it comes with a toddler conversion rail that you don't have to purchase separately.

We looked extensively at various cribs. Our criteria was that it be well constructed with clean simple lines and good looks, under $500 if possible, and preferably have a low profile. Additionally we wanted all white or white with minimal accents. This crib met all of our criteria and had the lowest overall height of any of the cribs we found (unless you spend significantly more money). Because of the low profile it does require the mattress to be lowered almost all to the floor when your baby grows older and thus eliminates any ability for a storage drawer under the crib which would have ben something we would like to have, but we were ok with this compromise.

We did have a small dent in the top rail of the crib presumably from shipping (the packaging was about at thin as it could be and be able to expect the crib would arrive undamaged). Amazon offered to replace the crib or give us a 10% discount. we opted for the discount as packing up and shipping back the crib in its entirely seemed hardly worth it. It would have been preferable if they could have sent us a replacement for the damaged rail but they said the manufacturer was not set up to do that.

This crib is gorgeous. We bought it for the sleek design and it because it looked like it would match a antique dresser given to us by my husband's great grandmother. It was easy to assemble and truly exceeded our expectations. I was surprised that the rail didn't come up and down like traditional cribs but realized because it is lower to ground that traditional cribs, you don't need a moveable rail. Just wanted to point that out in case you expect it; the crib is low enough that you bend down to pick and lay baby in crib, rather than use a moveable rail.

Note: I actully have the all-espresso one. It's sometimes called Modo 3-in-1

I bought this ~ August 2008, and used it since then. My son was born in Dec 2008, and is > 2.5 yo now. As other people said, it was easy to put together, and it's really stylish, best choice for a contemporary looking nursery at lesser than $1000/crib. We got the 5 drawer dresser too, which looks great also.

Pros:
1. Functionality of the crib: 3 heights for the mattress. I am smaller (5'3"), and I never had trouble to reach my child. As long as he was not sitting, the mattress was at its highest position. Then we put it at its middle position as the baby was sitting up (~5-6 mo). Finally, once he begun pulling up, we switched the mattress at its lowest position (~ 8-9 mo). All this makes it perfect for your infant.

2. Toddler bed: we changed the crib into toddler bed (with the half-rail included) when my son was ~22 mo, because he suddenly begun wailing in his crib, and refused to get down to sleep - while he's always been a great sleeper. He was not an "escapist", mind you :). He got really concerned seeing us beginning to partly dismantle his beloved crib, but once we put on the railing and showed him his "new" big boy bed, he was happy, and slept perfectly well ever since.

3. Space: while the crib is definitely on the bigger side - because it's a convertible - it fits fine in our tiny urban 3rd bedroom, 6'x 12', on one of the long sides (the window and door and closet are on the opposite short sides). The room also contains that Modo 5 drawer dresser, a storage bench and 2 little ottomans.

Cons:
1. Soft wood: As other said, one morning I saw all these teeth marks on the railing, very visible. I am sure I could have avoided it if I was having that silicone cover somebody mentioned - you should definitely think of getting one by the time your infant is ~6 mo.

2. Soft wood - suite: I may have misplaced the screws for installing the railing, I think, as when we did it, it seemed that the screws used for the side of the crib are too long, and as we were screwing them on, we made 2 pass right through the other side ! So now we have holes. Just be sure where you put your screws for the transition, then you should be fine.

Conclusion:
This convertible crib definitely counts in my list of "Best Buys I made for the baby". I think the ratio quality/price is very good. It did a great job as an infant's crib, and now as a Toddler's bed. As my son approaches 3 yo, I'm getting him a kid's bed (Ikea) because of the space. I hope I'll have the occasion to use the Babyletto Modo crib again for a second child.

As a designer, I was really particular about finding a non traditional crib for my son. After searching multiple sites and multiple lines, I found the babyletto crib to the most beautiful and the most affordable. It does not look too trendy, is good quality, easy to put together, and is easy to use (I am only 5'1" and my husband is 6'--we both have no issues with the height of the crib rails at all.)

It arrived a perfect condition and my 7 month old loves it. It's been a little difficult to find a crib bumper that fits this crib well because of the slats, but I am fine with that. It's a beautiful, beautiful crib that will last for years. I was hesitant at first to purchase such a major nursery item on line, but did because of the other reviews. It is the best purchase we have made for our son for his nursery.

This is a beautiful, sturdy crib. It was delivered very quickly and my husband assembled with no problems. The wood is very nice quality and was well worth the price paid. I would just recommend a cover for the rail as a baby can chew the finish off the rail. I also love that it comes with the rail to convert to a toddler bed.

I researched cribs extensively and found the Babyletto Modo crib's low-to-the-floor design the only crib that worked for me. I'm 5 feet tall, so railing height was very important to me. Since most cribs' railings can no longer be adjusted up and down--cribs are built so the mattress height can be adjusted up and down--this limitation was a problem for me. Even at the highest mattress settings, the chest-high railings made it difficult to maneuver an infant in and out of the cribs. The Babyletto Modo crib solved this problem.

Additionally, it met all my selection requirements: easy assembly (e.g., under one hour for one person), a clean design, quality materials, 3 in 1 model, and adjustable mattress height.

I am very pleased with this purchase and highly recommend it.