Argington won Inhabitat’s BKLYN Designs ‘Best Kids Design’ Award in May and it hasn’t slowed down since. Argington has just announced the launch of its Bam Collection, a 10-piece nursery furniture line designed by husband and wife team Jenny Argie and Andrew Thornton to embody the grace of the art nouveau movement. Made from solid birch and birch ply wood (for ebony and white finishes), or solid bamboo wood, and certified to be free of formaldehyde emissions, the Bam Collection includes everything you need to outfit your bambino’s suite, including a bassinet, crib, changing table, wardrobe, and dresser.
To keep up with your baby’s growth spurts—and save some cash for the college fund—you can also purchase additional conversion kits that transform your bassinet into a crib, and your crib into a toddler bed. If you love a bargain (and who doesn’t?), Argington is offering its bassinet, crib conversion kit, and changing table for $984. Available for pre-order, the Bam Collection will begin shipping in November.
+ Bam Collection $19.50-$1,349
I want to love this company, but I can’t. I ordered their Ayers bed for my son last year. After waiting over 7 months for the bed (because it was being shipped from China and was held up during the Olympics – so much for eco-friendly, all the effort that goes into making the bed free of certain chemicals gets canceled out when you are shipping the product overseas to be made and then bringing it back to sell and hey, why are we paying mega bucks for this seemingly wholesome made, eco, USA (not) product to get made for pennies in China??? hmmm) Ok, so the bed arrives, hubby assembles it, then we notice the gloss and stain is chipping off along the frame AND there are pressure “wrinkles” all over the headboard. Pissed. Return it, thinking it must be a fluke. Receive new one. Same thing. Not sure how this brand is so popular. Do consumers not care? Did I have bad luck? Do you sacrifice durability on children’s furniture for aesthetic? Anyhow, the new line LOOKS beautiful. Be careful of what you actually get though. And regarding the made-in-China bit, that really pisses me off. I felt like I was duped thinking Argington was this cute husband/wife, eco-friendly, design oriented, American made company when all the while I could have gone to Ikea. oh well
Thanks for sharing your concerns, jjbenitez. I think it’s a difficult challenge and hard to reach balance in today’s economy for designers to be able to offer eco-friendly, sustainably designed wares that aren’t outsourced to China for less expensive manufacturing. Obviously, you’re right that made in the USA would be better… and we are pretty convinced that your bad experience was the exception, not the rule with regard to Argington furniture. We hope that eventually, sustainable wares will be affordable for all, made in the US and high quality… hence the mission of Inhabitots, to bring green living to the forefront so it becomes mainstream and the concept of supply and demand that facilitates business will take hold.
Hi, this is Andrew from Argington. Co-owner and co-designer of the bed mentioned above.
Regarding the bed that was received by the customer above, we have worked hard to make our brand synonymous with quality, affordability, and style. While most all of our customers are totally satisfied, there will always exist exceptional situations such as the one mentioned above. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you have experienced, and our customer service team is always ready to assist any one of our customers with any problem they may have experienced. We stand behind our products and remain committed to make sure Argington products meet the standard we have established. Please feel free to contact us directly at info@argington.com
It is not clear from your comments why you assumed that our production was based in the USA? As designers, we live, work, and design in NYC with our three children, and our company is also run from our offices here in the USA, but we have always been open regarding our overseas production, so we apologize that you feel duped, but it isn’t the result of any information or advertising that my company has put forth.
Going back to our creation in 2003, we produced all of our furniture locally. All materials, hardware, eco-friendly finishes, etc. were all purchased locally and all production, finishing, and packaging were also done in one location here in the USA. After running this way for 3+ years, as many companies realize, we found that customers were not willing (on the whole) to pay the prices needed to sustain the higher cost of manufacturing here in the US.
So, after considering approximately 10 other countries for our own manufacturing hub (including Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Eastern Europe, India, and others), we then established our own manufacturing center located in China. We retained total control of the process, materials, paints, etc (producing the same way as we have previously in the USA), however it gave us the ability to bring our designs to the market for a better price and greener than before due to enhanced efficiencies in production. With the development of the new BAM Collection, we have pushed our company to new levels of being able to offering excellent quality for an excellent price.
We sincerely thank you for all your comments and we look forward to the opportunity to assist you in the future.
Sincerely,
Andrew
After our ordeal with the BAM crib, I was searching all over the internet about Argington (where they make their cribs, etc.) and I found your blog and I couldn’t help but add my comments – jjbenitez comments and experience above are not the exception when it comes to their cribs, since we went through the same disappointing experience except we returned the furniture BAM – touted by the owner as the “offering excellent quality for an excellent price” furniture line – from the store Giggle here in MD and went with Oeuf instead which proudly displays where they manufacture their products. When our friends realized how much the crib cost and how poorly made – we bought the bamboo line – they said the exact same thing “you should have just gone to Ikea!” I have to admit that coming from China does make it cheaper, but come on, Argington needs to have a better quality control of their products.
I wanted to publish below what I wrote as a review of the product on the Giggle website that they have yet to publish. The store wanted us to hold on to it so the company would send us a new but we declined:
We fell for the design, simplicity and the fact that it is made of bamboo that this is going to be tough. However, when we brought it home, the guard rails comes off with the slightest nudge, push or pull, right out of the box. The rails are barely glued on the frame, and can easily break off. Ultimately the crib felt very cheap and not safe at all. Great design and concept but very poorly made. The product doesn’t tell you where the crib is made either – not indicated anywhere on the box, literature, etc., not even in the Argington website, which we found very odd. Until they make a better one, it would be a mistake to purchase this crib. I have emailed Giggle the picture of the broken crib.
Like jjbenitez, we too really wanted to like/love this company but it has yet to deliver. Mr. Andrew Thornton, I still have pictures of the broken crib if you would like to see them.
We as well bought Argington Bam Crib in Bamboo finish from Giggle just a few days ago and this morning my 6 month old daughter broke one of the slats right out – she was standing holding onto the opposite side and fell backwards (we have a bumper but it doesn’t cover the rails all the way to the top)
So I have a question – why is Bamboo finish discontinued less than a year after it started shipping? Is there something inherently wrong with it? Have a lot of people had bad experiences specifically with Bam Crib made of Bamboo?
As a new mom to be, I am looking for the best crib that I can purchase for my baby. I feel that if a manufacturer/designer is proud of their product (and are willing to stand behind their product), they should be honest with the public and state where they manufacture it. I would have had much more respect for this company, had they displayed where their products come from instead of being secretive and misleading.
I love this bassinet. I love how it looks. It is great if you have a small room. It’s ready to be converted to a crib and is super easy to set up. My husband put it together by himself in less than an hour. I was a little concerned because of what previous reviewers said about it and the company. That they are both not good but I have had no issues with that so far and everyone thinks my nursery looks incredible.
I’m currently looking for a safe and flexible (convertible) bassinet option for my newborn. The bam bassinet looked to fill all of those needs, but when I went looking for reviews I found this page. My main concern is safety, although sustainably designed and simple are bonuses. Are there others who have been happy with the product? Seems like mostly negative experiences.
I can’t even begin to describe the added stress that owning this crib set has caused us. When we first tried to order this set, we got an email a week before it was due to ship that the crib “could not be located.” After canceling the first order and ordering the Bam Complete through another distributor, that order too was delayed… by more than a month! We came to learn that Argington cannot seem to appropriately stock its merchandise. We managed to get the crib set just in the nick of time before our daughter was born. But I wish I could say the problems ended there. Now that our daughter is 4-months-old, she has outgrown the bassinet. My husband started the process of converting it to the full-sized crib, but was stopped in his tracks when he discovered that Argington sent us an incorrect part for the conversion–two of the same sided crib support rails instead of one for each side. That was on December 28th. It is now January 17th and we still have no resolution! Last week Argington sent me an email that they could not ship the replacement part because the Bam Bam Complete was on back order–SHOCKER! But lo and behold, the 16th rolled around and no word from Argington on whether the part arrived or has been sent. When I tried to call today, all of their customer service calls go into a voicemail box which was FULL! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Our daughter has been sleeping in her car seat because she’s too big for the bassinet. After paying $500… this is inexcusable! I have filed a complaint with the BBB, but do yourself a favor and AVOID ARGINGTON AT ALL COSTS!