DIY Project - Affordable Nursery Room Decor: Tips and Ideas

By Jaya Pandey on Dec 27, 2013

Decorating a nursery should be fun and affordable. I recently decorated my daughter’s nursery with a target of doing it on a budget. Efforts that I put in to get an elegant and beautiful space, made me realize how easy it is to get desired decor with DIY projects, without spending a lot . See how I implemented some easy tips to get a dream room for my daughter.

DIY Project – DIY Nursery decoration on a budget

How to do affordable Nursery decoration?

Things that I bought for decoration were a brown polka dots gift wrap, gift tissues of color same as the gift wrap (pink and brown), alphabet border, a mirror and pom pom. I bought all the stuff from Dollar tree. I used storage box from one of my previous DIY project. Check it out to make your own inexpensive storage box. The floor mat used under the crib is also from Dollar tree.

1. Try some shapes on wall. Cut out different size circles from the gift tissues. See the pic below to know how to cut many circles at one time. Keep the circles aside for now. And yes I used a big bowl, a small bowl, salt sprinkler’s cap and butt to draw and cut four different sizes.

Cut circle of different size, out of the gift tissue paper.

Cut circles of different sizes, out of the gift tissue paper.

2. Cut some 5″ wide stripes out of the gift wrap. Use some wall pins to put these stripes on nursery wall in a straight line, at a height you want. Once you get the line straight, glue it to the wall and remove the wall pins. Paste the circles above this line randomly.

Paste the gift wrap stripes in a straight line on the wall and paste circle shapes above it.

3. Put some alphabets or numbers or animal pics in the baby’s room. Cut out alphabet ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ out of alphabet border. Cut out some big pieces of yarn, double them and paste them at the back of these alphabet with tape. Hang them in any order you want. I chose to do so in a vertical line. You can also use them to put baby’s name on the wall.

Alphabets make good decor piece for nursery

4. When it comes to wall decors, don’t stick to one layout, especially in a child’s room. They need variety. By layout I mean the way you put wall decoration pieces together in a group i.e. in a square, in a line, randomly or in zigzag fashion. Also choose the right layout for the right space, for example choose square or zigzag layout for open space. I tried vertical layout for alphabets, in a thin space between closet and crib and used the open space above crib to put photo frames and mirror.

Use different layouts for wall decor pieces

5. Photo frames are common and so are big mirrors in Nurseries .Try to mix mirrors and photo frames as the main wall decor. Also give a background to highlight them. I used the gift wrap background for mirror and pink gift tissue for photo frames. Notice that the frame color of mirror is in contrast to the background used for it. Same was done for photo frames. This background trick enhances the frame and mirror and adds a touch of elegance.

DIY Projects – Try mirror with photo frames in nursery

6. You definitely need some storage box to store N number of things. Try some chic storage boxes than the plain ones. Check this DIY project for making a storage box out of a diaper box and a magic cover.

DIY Project – DIY storage box

7. This point is about choosing right furniture for Nursery and using them for decor as well. I will explain it in two steps -

Try to use furniture of different heights. It will add more dimension to the space. I used a waist height closet to put lamp on it. I used a long steel rack to put toys on it.
What can be cuter than a baby’s dress? Put a dress on display! Hang it on wall or on a rack, using a wall pin and a hanger. Keep replacing these dresses or use one which doesn’t fit your baby anymore.

Try furniture of different height to add some dimension to the nursery

8. Try some unique, simple table pieces to balance the decor quotient of the room. I filled in the pom poms in an empty glass cheese jar and put them on the closet for display. I picked up some dry twigs and pasted red gift tissue to them, tied them together with an orange beads necklace and put them in a glass. The closet top can also be used as storage space.

Easy chic decoration table pieces

9. Try some chic colors in nursery as well. The key to use chic colored stuff is to use them in a contained manner. I used florescent color pom poms, bright colored alphabets and a chic yellow small cushion in the crib.

Chic yellow cushion used with neutral color pillow in crib

10. Avoid overdoing the decoration. Choose what you want on nursery wall and stick to it. Don’t try to put everything up there.

11. Surf internet or stores to get a clear idea about what kind of decor you want in your child’s room.

12. Don’t be afraid to mix ideas from different nursery decorations. I have seen bi-color decor, bright colored decor, lots of photo frames or big mirrors on nursery wall. I loved them all. So I picked the features I liked the most, from all the above decor types and mixed them. And I am satisfied with the result.

My daughter surely looks happy and excited about the new nursery decoration. The best way to decorate any place is to use whatever you have, in a smart way. Enjoy the gallery below.