How to Redecorate a Child’s Room on a Budget: Nursery Theme
Step Number One: Choose a Color Palette
The first step to any decorating project is to select a color palette that you want to work with. If you know if you are going to have a boy or a girl then you can choose tradition colors for each sex, or you can decide to go for a neutral palette. You will want to select one base color and two or three accent colors. If you don’t know what colors work together then you can use a color wheel, which are usually available free of charge in a paint department or paint store. If you are still undecided about what colors to use then here are a few places where you can look for ideas.
1. Baby themed wrapping paper sample
2. Nursery rhyme picture books.
3. Baby quilts and bedding sets.
After finding a palette that you want to use you will need to purchase paint for the walls, trim, and baby furniture. Remember if you will be using the paint for baby furniture that will be coming into contact with your baby you will want to make sure that it is non-toxic. There is a special baby-friendly paint that is available at most paint stores and department stores that offer a paint department. To find the best prices on paint look online or at department stores like Wal-mart, where you can find a gallon of paint for about $10.
Step Number Two: Customize the Furniture
If your budget does not allow you to buy designer baby furniture than there are many ways in which you can customize older pieces of furniture, or lower cost furniture, to reflect a custom collection. One way to save money is to buy new furniture that has not been finished yet. These pieces are a lot cheaper than furniture that has already been painted or stained. The second advantage of this type of furniture is that you can select the color and finish that the furniture will have, making it easier to customize.
There are several ways to customize a piece of furniture. To make the piece fit in with your nursery theme you will want to make sure that you use your accent colors. For example if you are painting a dresser, you can use one accent color for the case part of the dresser, while using a second accent color for the drawers, and perhaps even a third accent color or the main color for the pulls.
You can further customer your furniture by making, or buying designer pulls for drawers. The pre-made pulls will have a screw already attached to the pull. They often times come in shapes like baseballs, cars, boats, dolls, etc. The price on these items will usually be between $5 and $10 per set of two pulls. If this is not in your budget then you can make your own pulls using toys, wood cutouts, hot glue, and screws. A good place to find a potential pull is at a craft store. Craft stores often times carry unfinished wood cutouts in various shapes and sizes for less than $1 a piece. If you have painting skills than you can paint these pieces and glue several together, or glue the decorative piece on top of a small block of wood and then attach the pull to the drawer with hot glue or a screw.
Decoupage is another technique that can be used to create a personalized pull for very little money. For this you will need enough small blocks of wood to provide one or two pulls per drawer. Second you will wrapping paper, cutouts from magazines, stickers, etc. and decoupage clear paste. After assembling your materials you will need to either cutout or situate your pictures on the blocks. After you are satisfied with your creation you will need to use the decoupage paste to adhere the papers to the block. Make sure that the block is completely covered with the paste. This will help to preserve the integrity of the wood in case of a spill, it will help make it easy to clean, and it will ensure that the papers you glued to the block will remain attached to the block.
Step Number Three: Bedding
Finding bedding for a nursery is one of the more expensive undertakings when designing a nursery. However, if you know where to look, you will be able to find bedding at very reasonable prices. The first place to look is in the clearance aisles at department stores. You can often times find a complete bedding set for 5%0 to 75% off. If you are unable to find a nursery themed set, then look for a plain comforter in a color that is either your nursery’s base color, or that matches one of your accent colors. To make this comforter more baby friendly you can always sew on, or appliquÃ?© on, patches, quilt squares with character designs, etc. These things can be found for very little money at most craft stores and craft departments in a department store.
