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I am not very skilled at decorating, but there are several practical things that I’ve done with my children’s nursery that I think make it fabulous. Plus these things were affordable for our low budget.
10 Practical Tips for a Fabulous and Affordable Nursery
1) Gender Neutral Theme – Waiting to finding out gender of my first baby saved me so much money. It is my number one money saving tip for new parents. Plus, sometimes the ultra sound technicians are wrong. They were with Noah! Why not play it safe and go with a neutral theme?
2) Organic Bedding – We spend more time on our beds than anywhere else. Sadly, conventional mattresses have some nasty chemicals in them. I wish we could have afforded an organic mattress for our little one, but they are too expensive for our budget. We did the next best thing and registered for an organic bedding set and a few extra sets of organic sheets. We own the Bunny Meadow set sold exclusively at Babies R Us. It is very similar to the Willow set sold on Amazon.
3) Organize Out-Grown Clothes – Babies grow too fast!!!!! Before you know it, you are drowning in out-grown baby clothes. I put an end to that by using a toy box for clothes instead of toys. I have room for 3 boxes or bags and I labeled so I can sort out the clothes by size right away.
4) Wall Decal Above Crib – My mom gave me this beautiful vinyl wall decal. The saying is adorable and I love that there is no chance of it falling off the wall into the crib.
5) Room Darkening Shade – I tried to avoid using any unnecessary music or lights to help my babies to sleep. I didn’t want to make them dependent on something if I didn’t need to. This worked really well until Grace started waking up insanely early as a toddler. I searched everywhere for something to make her room darker, but blackout curtains seemed too pricey. Finally I went with this room darkening shade. It didn’t make the room pitch black, which I liked. It didn’t require any hardware, which was nice since I was already using some hardware on the little valance. Plus it was less than $15.
6) Dry Sink Converted to a Changing Table – I found our changing table at a used furniture store. I took a changing table pad with me to the store and plopped it down on top of tons of dressers to see if I could find the perfect fit for our nursery. I love our dry sink. I spent around $150 on it, but it is something I can use somewhere else in my house when the diaper years are behind us.
7) Extra Changing Table Cloth – I keep an extra little water absorbing cloth on top of my changing table pad. It catches messes so I don’t have to wash the changing pad cover as often. I keep one in my diaper bag and I have extra large ones under the crib sheet. The official name of these are waterproof lap pads, but I’ve never used one on my lap.
8 ) CFL Light Bulbs – CFL light bulbs warm up slower than traditional bulbs. This is perfect for those moments in the middle of the night when you want to turn on a light, but you really don’t even want to open your eyes because you want to be sleeping and oh my goodness why isn’t my baby sleeping?!?!? Can I get an amen?
9) Homemade Night Light with Dimmer Switch – This an easy and cheap DIY night light. Take some Christmas lights. Wrap them around something cool or hang them from the ceiling. I found this wicker piece at a huge discount at Ten Thousand Villages because it is slightly wonky. Attach a dimmer switch converter for less than $8. POW! You’ve got an awesome adjustable light that is perfect for middle of the night feedings or quick checks on the baby. I have my dimmer switch pad on the floor so I can activate it with my foot when my hands are full holding my little one.
10) TV Tray Tables – I wanted a small table to use for our baby monitor, but I didn’t want to spend much money on it. I looked around my house and realized that our wooden TV tray tables would be perfect! We received these as a wedding gift, so it didn’t cost a thing. However, it might be worth the investment to buy them anyway since you can use the other tables in the set throughout your house.
What are your tips for a fabulous and affordable nursery?
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I live in an apt and dont have a kitchen table so these tv tray tables were a must have and they hold up to constant use.
These are great tips. I especially like the dimmer switch Christmas lights idea! Thanks for writing these up!