The Big Nursery Reveal

Our nursery has been finished for weeks now...so here you go, a run down of our nursery including money we spent on it. A few things you should know first:

1. This was our most expensive room ever--this was the first room I ever had the opportunity to plan from start to finish. I had LOADS of fun doing it. 
2. I pretty much stole the entire decor idea from Young House Love and Clara's nursery. Thank you Young House Love for your inspiration!
3.  The bedroom is small-8 ft by 10.5 feet. Go ahead, measure it out and compare it to a bedroom in your home. It's small.  This was another reason I chose to follow Clara's nursery design. Her room is the exact same size.
4. It's gender neutral. Because we're foster parents and knew we would have a mere hours between the time we'd receive a phone call about a baby and the time that we'd be parents to that little one, we knew gender neutral was the way to go. 

Because we're currently renting, we chose not to change the wall color or rip out the carpeting to expose the hardwood floors, but you better believe me, I would have loved to!

Enough of the pre-post wording hoopla, now to the fun part: Pictures!

We chose a pretty basic green, brown, and white color palette. We wanted to make sure everything in the room could  be used for babies 1, 2, 3, & 4....and also be transitioned into the next stage with the baby. We should be able to reuse everything until the baby is 12 except for the glider. 

The green curtains are actually table cloths found at Wal-mart for $10 each (you can't find fabric cheaper!) and you can read about why we needed to purchase those faux wood shades from Target here. 

I had so much fun finding good deals like the rocking chair on Craigslist for $40 or the ottoman found at the thrift store for $10 transformed by spray paint as seen here. The ottomon works perfectly as a foot rest and a storage spot for our little one's toys.  

In the end, we were a little excited about the radiator taking up so much space, because it is the perfect spot for books.

I loved redoing the baby dresser I found on Craigslist for $70. The basket found on clearance from Michael's is the perfect spot to place all of those diaper changing essentials and the lamp is perfect for all of those 3 am wake-ups.  

One of my favorite parts about the dresser?  The knobs.

Not bad for $1 each at Michael's!

What do you do when you want specific sayings on posters? Make your own! You can find instructions for how I made the posters pictured above here.

I love that it will always be really easy to make new sayings if I am ever bored with these. 

Every child's room needs a few hooks on the back of the door to place the pj's, jacket's, and sun hat. I could not pass up the deal I found for these brand new hooks at the thrift store. 

I love our practically brand new $400 crib found on Craigslist for $100. Not only does it work well as a crib, but it will transition with our baby as he grows and needs a toddler bed then a twin size bed.  I found the bedding for just $14 at Target on clearance. The mobile was given to us and we DIY'd the mirror above the crib. 

The photo collage is just extra scrapbook paper that we lined the drawers with (shown below) as seen here.

 Can anything be cuter than baby shoes?

I know all of you are wondering....so, how much did it cost?

The Baby Room Budget Breakdown:

• Crib and Mattress-$100 from Craigslist
• Bedding-$14 on clearance from Target (original price $65)
• DIY Mirror Supplies: $10
• Dresser: $70 from Craigslist. Paint from Home Depot and knobs from Michael's totalled $22
• DIY drawer cover project: $3
• White Lamp: $6 thrift store find Lamp Shade purchased for $8 from Target on clearance
• Basket: $5 on clearance from Michael's
• Basket Hamper: $10 from thrift store, $3 can of spray paint to paint it
• Shelves purchased from Target from a gift card
• ABC blocks: after Christmas clearance  buy from our grocery store: $2.50
• Bamboo plant, "friends forever" plaque, book, and toy-already owned
• White Ceramic Pig $1 from the thrift store
• A to Z book ends: $8 thrift store
• Rocking Chair: $40 from Craigslist
• Ottomon: $10 from thrift store-can of spray paint $3
• Curtains: $20 from Walmart
• Curtain Rods: $15 from the Dollar Store
• Faux Wood Blinds: $20
• Poster Prints: $15 each, totalling $45
• FAMILY hooks: $8 from thrift store
• Frames: Christmas gift-ok, I know this was the biggest expense, but I promise this my only Christmas gift this year from Joel...NOTHING else!  Not even my annual pair of Christmas PJ's. But if you have to know, frames came to about $130

Total comes to $298...if you count the frames, total comes to $428 (but I think it's unfair to count the frames because it's all I got for Christmas!). 


Not too bad considering Young House Love spent $717 on their nursery and had their crib given to them & they're the decor budgeteers!  Really, not too bad when you consider most people spend $200 for just their crib bedding set!

Now that you have seen our nursery, do you want to know the birth story of our child? It's a special one and it's all written out here.