Nursery Design on a Dime

I love that HGTV show "Design on a Dime" where the hosts redecorate a room on a budget.  It's inspiring.  So, since I'm staying home and we're losing a significant amount of income, I have had to do my own "Design on a Dime"--I'll give you my tips.

1. With the crib, skip the crib bumpers and fancy (i.e. expensive) crib sets.  The bumpers should be used anyway (see my post on "Things I Didn't Know About S.I.D.S.").  Instead, I registered for a cheap crib skirt from Carter's ($15) and bought coordinating sheets ($10 each) and changing pad covers ($15).

2. We were blessed to have in-laws who purchased our nursery furniture as a gift.  Go ahead and ask for it!  I also was able to get the glider on sale for 20% off at Babies R Us.  They are constantly running sales, so just wait for the right time to buy.

3. Use stick-on wall art instead of framed art.  I got this whole set of letters and animals from Amazon.com for $14.  It decorates three of the four walls.  What a deal!  And, it's completely removable so you can change it around or get rid of it all together when you want to.











4. Find stuff that's already in your house to decorate the room.  The shelves were in our basement!  We had intended to put them up somewhere else and changed our mind.  They look great here.  Everything on the shelves was either a gift or something I had around the house already.  The lamps were ones we also had around and hadn't used since our move.




5. I bought an extra crib skirt, deconstructed it, and made it into a valance.  I only used half of it for the valance and had enough leftover to piece into a dresser scarf to protect the top of the dresser from the scratchy lamp and basket.  For lining on the dresser scarf, I used a twin-size sheet I found for $5.  Not bad!






With a savvy registry and a little creativity, you can have a cute, functional nursery without breaking the bank!