When I found out I was pregnant with a little boy, Pinterest-worthy nursery ideas flooded my head. Unfortunately, along with those picture-perfect nurseries come sky-high price tags…and we weren’t prepared to spend all of our savings just decking out a room for Baby Oats. So, while I continued to browse Pinterest for inspiration, I began creating our budget nursery. Cute, practical, affordable…and actually DO-ABLE in the next four and a half months. Here’s what I came up with (it’s still a work in progress):
S L E E P I N G
We’re fortunate that Little Oats is going to be old enough (we hope) to transition to a big girl bed in the months before Baby Oats arrives. This way, we can reuse her crib for the baby, and save a boatload of money. If reusing a crib isn’t an option, there are many affordable options on the market. The IKEA Sundvik crib is highly rated, priced at $119, and converts to a toddler bed. This is one thing I don’t recommend going second-hand on; though, if you have a trustworthy friend willing to lend you a crib, that’s completely your judgement call. To be honest, a friend’s baby might have been a lot easier on their crib than Little Oats is on hers…
Where bedding is concerned, I made a mistake with Little Oats. I rushed out to buy the cutest, girliest, most complete crib bedding set I could find. It came with a crib skirt, two matching crib sheets, a pillow, and a fluffy, thick comforter. Here’s the thing; pillows and blankets aren’t recommended in baby’s crib for AT LEAST the first year (if not longer)…so that extra $70+ I spent making sure everything matches? Pretty useless.
To save money and remain practical, this time I’m going to pick out a few different crib sheets. They come in funky patterns, and really, they’re the only part of the crib set I actually used. Get a minimum of two; that way you’re not scrambling for laundry during middle of the night accidents.
C H A N G I N G
What about a changing table? Walk into any Babies R Us or Buy Buy Baby, and you’ll see a dozen pieces of furniture specifically dedicated to changing baby’s diaper. Here’s my money-saving (and space-saving) tip; get a dresser or bookshelf that is the right height for diaper changes, and strap a change pad on top. You’re going to need some storage space anyhow; why not get two-for-one? We used the Ikea Expedit shelf (now discontinued, but replaced with the Kallax), and added legs to the bottom for a little height. We also bought a few portable change mats to have around the house; more often than not, we just changed Little Oats on the floor or couch wherever we were.
D E COR A T I O N S
Nursery decorations are another option that gets pricey quickly. If it were entirely up to me, Baby Oats would have the $200 mobile of felted whales from Etsy, a hand-painted mural donning the wall above the crib, and every monogrammed and personalized item I stumbled across. Instead, we chose to go with strategically placed pops of colour and fun. We purchased these fish decals from Lowe’s (a total steal at $40 including shipping), this alphabet print from Ikea (with a $10 poster frame to go with it!), and there are several great options for other prints available online. Etsy has a ton of inexpensive printables; put some cardstock in your printer, download the file, and print away. There are also options for free nursery printables, and artists who put up one or two prints daily that you can download for free.
N U R S I N G & R O C K I N G
I would love a cushy upholstered rocker-glider combo. I drool over funky fabrics and am sure I’d curl up and nap in one well before baby was here. But these gliders tend to come with a hefty price tag; expect to spend a minimum of $300 (full price). However, a glider isn’t the be-all end-all of nursery seating. We have a wooden rocking chair, handed down from Mr. O’s mom, that we have refinished a few times. A solid, wooden chair can take several layers of paint, sanding and lacquer; currently, our chair is spray painted purple, and I have plans to refinish it again in a bright blue or green for Baby Oats. Check your local thrift shops, garage sales, and ask your friends and neighbours; those old rockers are extremely comfortable and are often sitting in a basement, unwanted. Look around your house as well; it’s amazing what you may be able to repurpose without spending a dime.
N O I S E
Many people swear by a noise machine, and when I purchased the Sleep Sheep for Little Oats, I was pretty sure I’d be one of those people. But, believe it or not, the noise she grew accustomed to and slept better with was the hum of her cool-mist humidifier. In our case, saving money by purchasing a humidifier instead of a humidifier PLUS a noise machine proved to be a winning combo. I plan to buy a second Honeywell humidifier ($30 at Canadian Tire!) for Baby Oats’ room.
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What are your cost-cutting tips for setting up a nursery (provided you HAVE a nursery! Pro tip: save money by NOT HAVING a nursery!)?
pea / 8 posts
We are currently living abroad and didn’t want to ship a ton of furniture home for our newborn. Our stroller came with a bassinet, so that’s wher she sleeps. We put it on the stroller, in our room and it’s the perfect height to peek in on her while she sleeps. We bought some crib sheets and just tucked in the extra material under the bassinet mat.
I also bought material to make my own baby wearing wrap and since I had to cut the width in half, I used the extra cloth to make a buffer when I lay her down to sleep (in the bassinet, couch, etc.)
kiwi / 511 posts
I was looking for stuff to put on the wall for my little guy and all I could find was girl girl girl stuff, uggg. It was all very lovely but not what I wanted for my boy
I ended up getting flor tiles in various blues for the rug, then went to Michael’s (aka craft store) and bought some die cuts for scrap-booking of the Winnie the Pooh characters because I love them, 5 frames, a wooden initial and a shelf. I painted the frames, and shelf in a high gloss white which was leftover from a different project (the initial was already a matte white I left it like that). I arraigned the die cuts between the 5 frames and put them on a solid color piece of paper (2 white 3 blue).
I did buy a two hook thing which I mounted on the initial to hang his pjs on (one side) and clothes for the next day on the other side. Now that he dresses himself it is just on the wall and he gets his own clothes from a basket on the bottom shelf of the changing table (my Dad built it) which I still use for diaper changes for the youngest but I am hoping that he will be potty trained soon..
The shelf is above the dressing table and I have two baskets of diapers (one daytime and one night time) and the diaper cream, lotions and the air filter. The wipes live on the changing table.
pomelo / 5132 posts
I think being TG for LO #1 made it easy, since I wanted to create a neutral nursery that would continue to work no matter which kid was in there. I also made some of the artwork, and we put a changing pad on top of the dresser.
kiwi / 558 posts
I always refer back to this list by Mrs. Bee of over 60 free printables!! Put some in frames you already have or just up with washi tape and you are good to go!!
http://www.hellobee.com/2014/03/20/60-free-wall-art-printables-for-kids-rooms/
I wish we wouldn’t have gotten a crib at all since LO co slept with us until 18 months and then we switched to toddler mattress so no really point of have one. Plus over spending on all the crib matching and extras was really not needed like you mentioned!
coconut / 8279 posts
We didn’t have a nursery – we started with putting LO’s crib in the nook of the master bedroom. There was a little corner dedicated to his crib, a rocker, and changing station. We had a bedskirt for the crib and under the bed boxes with his clothes.
When he transitioned to a toddler bed, we officially made what was once the office, his room.