How to decorate your nursery on a budget

Planning a new nursery for a new baby can be so much fun but also expensive, I know it very well, after all, this is my fourth baby and the fourth nursery I design.

Now, decorating your nursery can also become a bit overwhelming and of course, you can hire a designer to help you but that can be costly especially if you just don't have the budget for it.

But there is no need to stress, I have put together some tips that will help you decorate and design your nursery on a budget in a way that you will love it and cherish right along with your baby.

Tips to decorate your nursery on a budget

1 - Pick your colors

First and foremost decide on the colors that you want to decorate your nursery. This will make the process of finding furniture and decor items much easier.

For example, for all my nurseries I picked the color of the furniture and then the accent colors along with a theme. Here is an example of how I picked the colors for my four nurseries:

1st baby (Boy)

Mahagony wood furniture

Blue color

Star Theme

2nd baby (Boy)

Gray furniture

Yellow and gray color

Elephant theme

3rd baby (Girl)

White furniture

Mint green and coral with gold accent

Floral Theme

4th baby (Girl)

White furniture

Blush pink and Navy blue with gold accent

Floral theme

Deciding on a furniture color, room color and theme helped me out tremendously. I was able to focus on exactly what I wanted and deviate from what I didn't want , it also made the search much easier.

2 - Repurpose

If you already have children be sure to repurpose their old furniture as well as nursery decor if it goes along with your current design and theme. Also be sure to ask friends and family if they have anything that you may be able to reuse.

I have been able to repurpose my third child's crib and changing bed and incorporate into my fourth baby's nursery, which saved me a couple of hundred dollars. The rocking chair is from my second pregnancy which for me is such a great win because I have been able to use for three babies!

Even if you have to paint or change a few knobs and do a little bit of sanding it might be worth your time and money to repurpose furniture and other items.

3 - Find it for cheaper

Sometimes you may not have the budget to get the exact item that you want when is brand new but you may be able to find it used.

Items such as bassinets, cribs, dressers and many others can be found for way cheaper when already used.

I like to use Facebook marketplace, craigslist and offerup. I was able to get a brand new medela breast pump that costs about $299.00 for $50 on craigslist. The person who was selling it already had one and their insurance gifted them another one so they sold it for a mere $50 and like I said, it was brand new still in a box. What a win!

I was also able to get a minnie mouse stroller and car seat that usually cost $200 - $300 on amazon for a mere $70, also brand new. The person I bought it from had originally purchased to a friend for a baby shower but they already had one and they had threw the box away and couldn't return it. So it was definitely a win for me as I had been eyeing that stroller combo for a little while.

With that in mind, always check those websites and apps to see if there is anything that you can get for cheaper, sometimes you may just find brand new items for a much better price.

4 - Find it for free

I love to get things for free and if you are like me be sure to check my blog article on how to get over $2k free items for you and your baby or watch my youtube video right here.

My favorite places to get free stuff is craigslist and facebook marketplace. I was able to score a beautiful dresser for my new nursery on facebook marketplace for totally free, all I had to do was clean it and paint it. That saved me a couple of hundred dollars.

5 - Take advantage of your registry discounts

Many baby registries will give you a completion discount. Take Target, Amazon and Buy Buy Baby for example, they all give you discount on items you have left on you registry as you get closer to your due date.

I actually set up my due date on the registry a month or two before my actual due date so I can get the items that I will be purchasing myself with the completion discount.

For example, I bought the bedding set, curtains and a few other baby decor items for my fourth baby from Amazon with the 15% off completion discount. The bedding set which is usually $189 ended up being $160. It is not a huge discount but when you are trying to save money every little bit counts.

6 - Shop smart on Amazon

Amazon is one of my favorite stores to buy because I can find so many great deals and it doesn't require me leaving the house EVER.

If you don't have amazon and would like to try for free, you can get a 30 day free trial prime membership to see if you like it.

The easiest way to save big on amazon is by checking out the today's deal page where you will find lightning deals, deal of the day and best deals but my favorite ones to keep up with and check before I buy anything are actually the warehouse deals and outlet.

People usually miss those so here is a screen shot where to find those tabs

Warehouse deals are items that have been returned by customers and usually have no defects, sometimes the box in which the item comes in is damage but the product itself is in good condition. My favorite items to find it at warehouse is furniture as their price is usually significantly lower than the regular price.

Outlet offer deals on items that are usually overstocked on Amazon and I have been able to get some awesome deals, from baby items to household stuff and pretty much everything in between.

Another way to get really great discounts on amazon is by using promo codes. These are not coupons but rather promotional codes provided by the seller themselves. You can find some great promo codes on these facebook groups below:

Women's Fashion Amazon Promo Codes

Babies and toddler's Amazon Promo Codes

Home Improvement Amazon Promo Codes

7 - Use gift cards

This is a no brainer, especially if you have a baby shower and get gift cards as gifts you can certainly use them to help decorate and design your nursery.

Now, if you are like me and decided to not throw a baby shower then there are other ways you can get gift cards for totally free to help you with your nursery journey.

Apps such as Ibotta, InboxDollars, Fetch Rewards and many others, will reward you for daily completed tasks or give you cash back for items you have purchased in the form of cash or gift card. This is a great way to decorate your nursery or buy the things you need without spending your own money.

To find out all the apps I use to earn cash back and gift cards check out this blog article where I go into details about each and every app/website I use as well as a brief description on how they work and how to take full advantage of them.

8 - Do it yourself

You may not always find the exact items that you want for your nursery so sometimes the best way to get what you want is by doing it yourself. Which was the case for me when it came down to wall art for my baby's room.

I had a certain vision for it and I just couldn't find anything that matched it so I bought stencils and art canvas and painted exactly what I wanted. It turned out quite beautifully to my surprise.

I also bought a couple of frames and printed the pictures I wanted from Walgreens which I got it for free with a free coupon code. Walgreens offers free 8x10 photos pretty often and if you want to find out when be sure to follow me on Instagram because I always share the codes to my stories.

One of the pictures I printed for free was a design with my baby's name on it which I made on Canva. Something personal like that could have cost a few dollars but I only spent the money on the frame which was a great savings in my opinion.

My latest nursery - Floral pink and navy blue nursery

As I mentioned previously, I am on my fourth baby and nursery. You can check out my second baby's nursery here and my third one right here but for this blog post I will be showing you how I decorated my fourth baby's nursery as well as detailing where and how I got the items to design and decorate it.

As for furniture I decided to go with white so I could repurpose my third daughter's furniture such as crib, rocking chair and changing table. For colors, I wanted something a bit different than you usually see for nursery so I picked pink blush and navy blue with gold accents and a floral theme.

Here is the final result.

Rocking Chair

Baby monitor

White Frame

Curtain

Curtain Rod

Fake Flower Decor

Pack of Canvas

Rose Stencils

Moon stencils

Stars Wall decals

Gold frame

Crib

Mesh crib bumper

Bedding set

Bassinet

Rug

Dresser - Got it for free from facebook marketplace

Unicorn Lamp

Wipe warmer

Gold wire baskets - I got mine from dollar tree for $1 each but you can get them from amazon right here

Diaper Pail Liners

Diaper pail

Aqua scale Baby tub

Changing Table

Changing pad

Milestone Board

Floral Storage bins

Drying rack station

Woven storage baskets