(Photo: Courtesy of Giggle)

• Giggle

  120 Wooster St., 212-334-5817
  1033 Lexington Ave., 212-249-4249

  No cheesy quasi-Victoriana here: Giggle’s selection of cribs and dressers is edited with the design-conscious parent in mind and includes inventive works from David Netto, Oeuf, ducduc, and Nurseryworks. Space-starved Manhattanites will appreciate Stokke’s shape-shifting “Sleepi System,” a piece of furniture ($1,029) that can be configured into a bassinet, a crib, a toddler bed, a youth bed, and two chairs. Both Giggle shops have plenty of room to try out a small but well-chosen selection of strollers. Or just kick back in a rocker while test-driving tunes at the iPod listening station. Parents who don’t want to set up a nursery until after the little one’s arrival can call the shop on their way to the hospital; for a flat fee of $375, the store will have the furniture delivered and set up by the time everyone comes home.

From the 2006 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine