Creating a Beautiful Nursery on a Budget

We all do it; we all spend entirely too much money creating a nursery for our new baby. The good news is that most of us only do this one time. Subsequent times around are a lot less expensive. My husband and I did it with our first; we spent thousands of dollars creating the picture perfect nursery for our little girl by buying just about everything that Pottery Barn Kids and Restoration Hardware had to offer. And we quickly realized it was a giant waste of money. By the time our second child was born (and then our twins) we decided we could make the nursery just as chic and stylish without spending nearly the same amount of money, and guess what? We did. We spent less than a quarter of the price on the next three babies than we did on our first alone. And people still think we spent too much because the nurseries all looked as if we did. And here is how we did it.

Buy a Quality Crib

The good news is that you can reuse furniture. A good quality crib is going to get you through numerous kids, which makes it less expensive from the start. Our first crib was used for our second baby, too. And now it’s being used by a nephew. We did splurge and buy two new cribs for the twins so they’d match.

Skip the Expensive Bedding

Want to know a secret? That $750 bedding ensemble you just purchased isn’t even going to be used. The first year of baby’s life, you’re going to have to remove all that from the crib so that the baby doesn’t smother him or herself at night. By the time it’s time to put that stuff in there, you’re not going to want to since baby will just throw it out every single day. Go less expensive with this and just by pretty sheets and artwork.

A Changing Table is Not Necessary

We still have the same changing table we had when our first daughter was born, so it was worth the price. However, we never used it for changing. It’s for storing diapers and pajamas and using that adorable Pottery Barn table cover.

Buy Prints from the Internet

Instead of spending a ton of money personalizing everything on the walls, go to Esty online and order personalized prints you can frame and hang up in the nursery in the colors and designs that you like. They’re usually anywhere from $5 to $20, and that’s far less than you’d pay in person.

Photo by Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images