5 Ways To Furnish A Kid’s Room Cheap
My son's room has been stripped to the bare boards. Everything has been emptied from his shelves. His bed fell apart, pieces collapsed all over the floor.
(Ironically, my husband bought this bed BRAND NEW before we married. Meanwhile, our secondhand stuff remains strong and sturdy.)
As we work to put his room back together, I can't help thinking of us as the Anti-Rooms-To-Go family. Sure, we've looked longingly at the wood fort bunk beds, matching dresser, nightstand, and desk combination, but there are many ways to outfit a child's room cheaply.
Here are some of our strategies:
Go for a daybed. You only need one mattress, no box springs. Pushing the bed against a wall gives more play space. Plus, the higher clearance means you can slide tubs of clothing or toys underneath.
Ditch the dresser. Instead, use closet space for shelves, bins, and hanging organizers.
Forget the set. Even professional designers avoid matching. If you'd like kids' furniture to coordinate, paint it yourself with this easy method.
Create your own wall art. Hang up fishing poles, a butterfly collection, or an old barn board painted decoratively with her name. Even better? Hang your child's work in the pride of place. We make over an old canvas with leftover house paints.
Find bedding that pulls it all together. You don't have to buy new, but don't pair those Star Wars sheets with polka dot pillowcases and a plaid comforter if you can help it. When in doubt, buy solid color sheets.
What tricks do you use to make your child(ren)'s room a cheerful place?
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12 Responses to “5 Ways To Furnish A Kid’s Room Cheap”
May 25th, 2009 at 7:14 am
We don’ have kids yet, but used forethought to decorate our extra bedroom with these tips- my husband built a daybed for the room, which serves more often as a couch than a bed right now, and we decorated the walls with thrifted board games for a fun theme!
May 25th, 2009 at 7:23 am
I couldn’t agree more about the newer furniture being poor. My son has a dresser that we have had for 3 years and it is already falling apart. We have a new baby and we moved that into his room and got some second hand furniture from our in laws that it 30 years old and great. Sometimes newer furniture just doesn’t hold up.
May 25th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
This is a timely topic for me – it’s about time to reconfigure the kids rooms since we’ll be putting three boys in one room and Brenna and the baby in the other. At least until we finish the downstairs!
May 25th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I was thinking about doing a post on this tomorrow. I’ve recently realized that the best thing I can do for my kids’ rooms is to let them have lots of space. It’s contrary to my wannabe-decorator nature, but letting the rooms be very plain and sparse has sparked all sorts of creativity in them.
May 25th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Right now I have a toddler with a mattress on the floor. We skipped the toddler bed and went straight from crib to a top quality full sized mattress that will last him until college. When he’s a little older we will get a day bed or slat bed that does not require a box spring.
I also do not have a dresser for him. Shirts get hung up and a basket in the closet holds pants and shorts. I lined his entire room with shelves and store toys there in pretty baskets or by themselves. I find this much more organized than toy boxes and even at 2.5 my son knows which toys go where.
My biggest tip is that if you’re going to do a “theme” don’t go all out. We bought Tonka truck sheets to get my toddler excited about a big boy bed but skipped the matching quilts and accessories. Instead I have a plain Navy blue comforter that will go with almost future theme.
May 26th, 2009 at 8:36 am
Oh my goodness, you are right about the themed sheets! They are so irritating, constricting, and usually polyester, which is not nice to sleep on.
I agree with all your points! Also, a day bed can take a trundle! You can buy the parts to make a day bed, and the trundle mechanism, from a big furniture store.
The trundle pops up to make a king-sized bed with the day bed, good for visitors!
Ours came from Jordan’s furniture here in the Boston area. One caveat: don’t let anyone jump on the trundle
May 28th, 2009 at 6:03 am
Oh children’s room is the most difficult thing to get set LOL. Parents have to keep the moods of their children in track as well!
June 6th, 2009 at 7:55 am
My young teen daughter says: “Use a piece of scrapbooking paper you like, trim and frame in a clearance frame, for classy but frugal wall art.” See the post on my blog about her decoration.
June 9th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
We make nice photocopies of favorite book pages and frame them in IKEA frames. If a favorite book is falling apart, we look for pictures that can be saved. We have at various times had pictures from Green Eggs and Ham; Chugga, Chugga Choo Choo; Fancy Nancy, Jamberry and George Shrinks up in the kids rooms. I have also let the kids pick out one print when we go to a museum. One of our local museums even will give out a free print when you leave. Currently all the furniture in the kids room is stuff we got from our parents when they were downsizing. Wonderful stuff with family history.
June 11th, 2009 at 12:33 am
For girls, you could spray paint the metal buckets pink or yellow or whatever or you monogram them, to give them a more girl room look.
June 11th, 2009 at 2:22 am
Generally, we do not need much money to make a room neat and clean. We can become more creative when we arrange the room by ourselves. In addition, we are able to cut the budget as well as use good materials.
In case of the kids, we can try to teach them how to take care of their rooms. We tell them that nice rooms are comfortable to stay in.
September 5th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
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