When preparing to welcome a baby into your life, you’re often faced with an ever-expanding to-do list that multiplies as you get closer to the big day. Here, you’ll find tips to help bring calm to chaos, especially when it comes to setting up your first nursery.
There are tons of unique nursery room ideas that can provide inspiration as you design the baby room of your dreams. Redecorating can be expensive, so we’re here with our best DIY tips and baby room ideas to help guide you through the process without breaking the bank.
From cool effects or murals you can paint on the wall, to easy ways to get the storage you need in adorable baby room furniture, the options are endless. We help you sort through all the great baby room ideas so you can visualize the perfect nursery room for you and your baby; all while giving you the tips you need to keep the project within your budget.
Not sure how you’re going to pay for it? We give you estimates for how much everything will cost and suggestions for how to pay for all that baby room furniture and those cute DIY accents.
Use Paint to Make the Biggest Impact
Paint is cheap compared to high-end baby room furniture. So, buy less expensive furniture and make your statement with color.
You could pick a fun shade to paint all four walls or you could decide to create an accent wall or to use color blocking to make a real statement. For example, you might decide to paint one wall a slightly darker or brighter shade of the same color or paint it a complementary color. You could also choose to paint stripes, a chevron effect, or clouds on the ceiling.
If you’re really artistic, you could add a mural with animals or popular cartoon characters. Do your painting skills leave something to be desired? You can buy murals to put up on the walls instead.
Price tag: $100 to $200
Get a Soft Rug
If you have hardwood floors, a rug won’t just help your feet stay warm when you come in for late-night feedings. You’ll also want a cozy surface for your baby to play, and later, learn to crawl. You can get a rug at a local hardware or furniture store that can bring out some of the colors in your decor and provide a soft buffer between your child and the hardwood.
Price tag: $50 to $300
Create Your Own Art
Blank walls are boring, but art can be expensive to buy. So, why not make it? Get jumbo letters from the local craft store that spell out your baby’s name and hang them on the wall. Figure out the theme of the room to help you come up with other ideas.
For example, you can go to the zoo with a camera and then print out pictures of animals for an animal themed room. Or become inspired by the night sky and put up sparkly stars and a moon on the walls. You can also find cool fabric and tack it onto a canvas for a fabric panel .
Price tag: $50 to $100
Help Baby Sleep
Every baby is different—some cry more and some start walking much earlier. But the thing that you can expect with almost any newborn, is that they’ll wake up throughout the night. Make sure that your nursery is an oasis designed to help your baby sleep. To do that, make or buy blackout curtains to ensure that the sun coming in the blinds won’t interrupt a good nap. Making blackout curtains is easy with a quick trip to the fabric store.
You might also want to buy a noise machine that will help soothe your baby to sleep or make a mobile that will keep them entranced until their eyes start closing. Mobiles are easy to make with a quick trip to the craft store.
You should also consider getting a video or audio monitor so that you can keep an eye (or ear) on your baby while they’re sleeping.
Price: $50 to $100
Store Everything Safely and Neatly
Babies require a lot of new purchases—clothes, toys, clean diapers, and backup clothes for when the diaper malfunctions and your baby needs to be changed. Make sure that you have all the necessary furniture and storage you need so that you can easily tidy up the room so you don’t trip over a toy and can always find the rash cream.
Storage systems don’t have to be expensive. You can get used dresser drawers on Craigslist or at a garage sale that you can refinish and paint to fit the room. You can also get inexpensive storage systems for toys at local discount furniture stores. Want to add your own spin to things? Luckily, there are a lot of great IKEA hacks for baby room furniture. Sometimes you can even buy things like an unfinished wooden trunk and paint it to match your nursery.
Just remember, it’s important to fasten all the furniture to your wall so that when your baby starts pulling themselves up and walking nothing topples over on them.
Price: $150 to $300
How Do You Pay for It?
Once you’ve decided on a theme and color scheme and you’re ready to get DIY-ing with all these great nursery room ideas, you’ll just need figure out how to pay for it. One challenge that comes with having a baby is the number of expenses that come at the same time. You have to buy all sorts of clothes, toys, carriers, and gadgets to make sure your newborn stays safe and looks cute in all the pictures you’ll be taking. In addition, there are medical expenses and maternity clothing.
Rather than worry about how you’ll pay for it all or tap into your emergency fund, you might consider getting personal loans to help you pay for some of the baby expenses — including decorating the nursery. Interest rates are relatively low, which means that you can likely get a loan at a low rate compared to a credit card. For that reason, it might be a much better idea than putting the expenses on a credit card, which typically have high interest rates.
In addition, with a personal loan, you typically choose a term length of anywhere from one to 10 years. Extending your repayment over multiple years could reduce your monthly payments. The longer the term length, the more you’ll pay in interest over the life of your loan.
When looking for a loan, you may want to look into securing a fixed interest rate so that you can lock in your low rate over the life of your loan.
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