Child’s Name: Hazel
Child’s Age: 3.5 months
Location: South Carolina

What was your inspiration for the room?
I really wanted something bright and fun that wasn’t too girly.

Describe your decorating style.
My house is full of neutral walls with lots of bright, distressed wood furniture. I want it to feel comfortable and not have to worry about things getting dinged up. Refinishing thrift store furniture also allows me to update colors as my tastes change and our needs evolve. Working on a tight budget has become a game for me and allows me to splurge on the focal pieces.

Favorite Items:
The rug. It was my starting point for the room and is now our favorite place to play.

Advice for other mamas-to-be designing a nursery on a budget?
If you can’t find exactly what you want at the price that you want — make it! It gives your room a more custom look for a fraction of the price. When shopping for furniture pieces for the room, look for the size and shape that you need and then paint with colors that you love.

Room Resources:

Crib: IKEA
Rug: Dash and Albert {Click to buy}
Fabric accents (quilt, curtains, mobile, bumper): Handmade with Amy Butler Soul Blossoms fabric
Wall Decals: NouWall from etsy
Crib sheet and changing pad cover: Target
Curtains and breathable bumper: Updated with Amy Butler fabric.
Dresser and lamp: Repainted thrift store finds.
Name frames, mobile and bookshelves: DIY.

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Here are the design board details:

1 – Oilo Pendant Lighting Modern Berries Spring Green Cylinder Double {available in several colors}. Available for $199.99.

2 – Malm 6-drawer dresser in birch from Ikea {$179}. This dresser will also be used as a changing station by simply adding a changing pad.

3 – Oilo Furniture Glider Gus available from Layle Grayce {$1,299}. This is my super luxury item in this design and a bulk of the budget is just for this. But if you think about how much time you spend on a glider feeding and bonding with your baby, it seems TOTALLY worth it!

4 – Guliver Crib from Ikea {$139}.

5 - Flokati rug from Ikea {$79.99}. My sister’s floors are all tile. This rug would be placed under the crib to soften the room a bit.

6 - Oilo Crib Bedding Crib Bumper Modern Berries Spring Green {$249.99} and Oilo Crib Bedding Crib Sheet Stripes Spring Green {$49.99}.

This is the first of many design boards that I’ll be putting together for my nephew. I’m hoping my big sister will let me decorate the nursery!

Child’s Name: Sofia Evoli de Souza

Child’s Age: Almost 2 months old

Location: Pompano Beach, Florida

What was your inspiration for the room?

I wanted to create a space for Sofia that was going to be serene and calming but beautiful at the same time. Something not too girly that could grow with her easily. I am very drawn to natural elements and Asian pieces that have some kind of meaning. It all began with a small little blue elephant and the subtle nature/animal theme evolved from there.

Describe your decorating style.

My style is very eclectic and varies with the situations, spaces & people. I love minimal design and contemporary design, but can also fall in love with a style like beachy, cottage chic.  I believe any room can look expensive & sophisticated without the expensive and sophisticated budget!

Give us all the details about your room! Don’t forget to share with us any money saving tips you might have learned along the way.

Custom Bedding: From Etsy store BabyDarling ($196). The first thing I purchased was the crib bedding. Since I couldn’t find anything I liked at local stores, I had it custom made (prices vary from store to store on ETSY).

Paint: The FreshAire Choice – nontoxic paint in Organic Garden. ($37)

Dresser, Crib and Storage: I knew I wanted all the large pieces of furniture to be white, simple and clean-lined. All from IKEA! Expedit Storage shelf: ($159); Hemnes 8 Drawer Dresser ($278) Replaced original pulls with some clear pulls from Wal-Mart. Looks 20 times better!; Gulliver Crib ($99) – This is the best deal ever!

Chair: Poang Chair ($149 chair, $70 footstool) Fabric – Tuna light blue-grey. I don’t love the look of the traditional poofy (& extremely expensive!) gliders and rocking chairs so I purchased a great chair from IKEA.

Rug: Hampen Rug from IKEA in white ($50)

Mirror: From Bombay Company. Original price was $350 but I bought it for $50 from a retail store that was going out of business.

Storage bins: By RiverRidge available at Target {$9.99 for a 2-pack}.

Chandelier: Capiz Chandelier from World Market (on sale $55)

Lamps: Re-used from our master bedroom, originally from JcPenney’s.

Name display: A small DIY project. Essentially, it’s white wooden letters, foam butterflies and laser cut paper backing.

Favorite Items.
My favorite item in the room is the mobile above the crib. I, unsuccessfully, searched and searched for a mobile until I finally gave up and made one myself! I spent about $25 on it. The butterflies were bought from a little boutique in St. Augustine, Forida while we were on a babymoon for $19. The white branches were from a centerpiece in our wedding reception.

Advice.

- Take your time. Start early. I gave myself about 3-4 months.

- Search for good deals.

- Use it as quality time with your partner/spouse (mine was a dream, he put together all the furniture and we made ALL decisions together!)

- If you can’t find something you like, don’t settle. MAKE IT YOURSELF! Be creative.

To learn more about Francisca de Souza, you can visit her website or her blog.

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That’s why I was so excited to find these cute and affordable drawer organizers and storage stools on my latest trip to The Container Store.

These drawer organizers are available in two sizes (small and large) and fit into deep dresser drawers or on shelves. The small organizer retails for $2.99, the large for $3.99. Can you believe it? I thought nothing sold for under $5 these days!

These cute little stools are the perfect storage solution for any parent. They have a padded lid for comfortable seating and plenty of storage space inside. You can keep a few at grandmas and keep her home clutter free by storing all of baby’s stuff inside. They are also a fantastic addition to a playroom or play area. These animal storage stools retail for $9.99 each. I got the Kitty storage stool for Sophia. It comes folded flat and takes seconds to put together.

Child’s Name: “Baby Boy P” for now.

Child’s Age: Due March 17, 2010

Location: San Francisco, CA

What was your inspiration for the room?
The Amy Ruppel small bird artwork on wood (on the frame wall below) had been sitting on the desk in my home office for years. I have always loved it, but have never had the perfect place to hang it. When we found out we were expecting a baby, I took the piece into the future nursery and leaned it against a bookshelf. A lot of the colors in the room are pulled from this painting and more importantly the overall mood of the room was inspired by Amy’s art. I wanted something modern, but still warm, fun for a baby without being too cutesy and neutral enough to work for a boy or a girl.

Describe your decorating style.
I am an anti-hoarder in all areas of my life and my decorating style tends to reflect my love of all things orderly. I embrace minimalism, but also like being surrounded by a few special pieces of art and accessories that make me happy. I try to keep all furniture neutral and accent with my favorite colors.  I love greens, yellows and oranges and tried to create a space that will both grow with our son and fit into the style of the rest of the house.

Give us all the details about your room! Don’t forget to share with us any money saving tips you might have learned along the way.

Paint Color: Benjamin Moore “Gray Horse”. It was hard to find a gray that didn’t seem cold or clash with our already grayish carpet. We went with the low VOC Aura line of paint and it went on so easily, it almost made painting fun!

Crib: Oeuf Sparrow, purchased on Amazon.com (free shipping/delivery and no sales tax!) This was our one splurge, but I made sure to shop around for a good deal online.

Crib Bedding: The crib skirt is from Target‘s DwellStudio which is very reasonably priced. The fitted sheet was purchased on sale at a local baby store.

Lighting: IKEA. The green lamp on the dresser has a beautiful soft glow when it’s lit and the gray and white glass front wall light is bright enough to light most of the room without being too harsh.

Pillows: Gray and orange pillows are from IKEA, Bird pillow from Urban Outfitters, kelly green pillow from Target’s DwellStudio (on sale from a few seasons ago).

Rug: Coqo Floral Rug from Anthropologie. This would have been another splurge, but I have a very nice boss who gave us each $200 gift cards as bonuses this year and I used mine for the rug.

Shelving on window seat: IKEA Expedit. I love the versatility, price and durability of the Expedit. Our windows have a really deep “seat” area that is too high for actually sitting but makes a great area to store all of the frequently used baby supplies (diapers, burp clothes, blankets, toys) as well as being the perfect height for diaper changes.

Dresser: Also IKEA Expedit shelving. This is the 2×2 Expedit and drawer inserts with IKEA Capita legs,  and drawer knobs from Anthropologie. The yellow dairy crates on the bottom (to be used as hampers) are from The Container Store. I was looking for a small modern dresser and couldn’t find anything that was both the right size and a decent price. The total cost of “making” this dresser was $150 and I love the final result.

Wall Decal: From Blik. There are hundreds of wall decals out there (Etsy.com is a good resource) but the quality of the Blik decals is top notch and almost everyone thinks that the design was painted onto the gray wall which is great!

Artwork: Small bird piece inside of blank frame is amyruppel.com. Animal collage is petitcollage.com. Decorative papers in other frames from Paper Source. Large collage on canvas was inspired by the petitcollage piece and I created it for $25. A lot of art stores have canvas sales so I waited for the sale at Pearl Art and picked up this large canvas for a great price. I already had the paints and used an old Anthropologie catalog for the collage “bits”. I try to save my favorite catalogs for projects like this. The print on the dresser was downloaded (for free) and printed on thick card stock then mounted using photo corners.

Accessories: Vases, bowls and other accessories are all pieces I’ve had for years. I frequently walk around my house and move accessories from one room to another both to just freshen up the look and to keep me constantly thinking about new ways to arrange things. It’s a fun exercise and ends up saving me money when I’m having moments of feeling bored with any given room.

Favorite Items:

Aluminum Elephant. When we first found out we were going to be parents this summer, we were on an East Coast trip and while in DC we visited the Eastern Market and I saw a family selling animals made from recycled aluminum cans. My husband and I both love elephants and when I see this in the room I remember how exciting those first weeks of pregnancy were when it was just our little secret.

Ganesha Print: A Christmas gift from my sister-in-law. My husband is Indian and I love that we have something that both represents his culture and is fun and appropriate for a baby’s room. Print from gheehappy.com

Design Advice.

Before you start shopping, look around your house for furniture, art, accessories you aren’t really using or might want to try in a new space. If your decorating style is consistent for each room it’s usually easy to find at least a few things to re-purpose. I saved a lot of money by doing this and created more open space in the common areas which I’m sure will be useful once our baby is mobile.

Spray paint is your friend! Try to look at the shape of an item and not the color. The frames on my frame wall were all purchased very cheaply at Ross and then disassembled and spray painted. I’ve “saved” many an item with a few coats of spray paint.

It’s important that a nursery be functional for the baby, but that doesn’t mean the design needs to be overly childish. We will be spending a lot of time in the room also and I want to love it as much as the rest of the house.

Don’t get mentally trapped into using only blues for boys and pinks for girls unless you already love those colors. There are so many other options out there and try to stick to colors you really like and that will grow with your child.

A big thank you to Mindy for sharing all of her nursery design secrets with us! You can find Mindy online at minDIY.com and afterParis.com.

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