Having a baby is a great time to explore your creative side as you prepare for your new addition. Many, during this economy crisis, are trying to find ways to decorate the baby’s new room without wreaking havoc on their bank account. Here’s how it can be done:
Decide on an overall look or theme. Picking a basic theme for your baby’s room will help you to narrow down your needs and wants and is really the first step in the money saving process. While picking a theme is good, it is better not to get tied down to one color. You may be able to buy for cheap a paint that will fit into the general color palette for the room by checking the “oops” section of your local paint or home store. There you can expect to get a full gallon of paint for about $4 and, possibly, small cans of trim paint for even less!
Buy wall art that you can mix and match. Buy for cheap pieces such as wall decals or wall borders from the dollar store or that are in the Clearance section of a home store. Don’t just use the decal as it is, cut out designs or create words from the various styles. You may be able to decorate the entire room for less than $5.
To add a little flair and class, consider framing some high resolution pictures that you can find and print from the internet with some cheap, but chic picture frames from your local dollar store. This is a quick and fun way to make the walls really pop without costing your family a lot of cash!
Decide on the room furnishings and their placement. Before you start buying figure out what you want and where it should go. You’ll not only save money, but you will save time. Your baby knows absolutely nothing about what “new” looks or feels like. So don’t get too caught up in that. Focus instead of selecting pieces that are gently used or that you can buy for cheap to do what you need it to do. Any frugal fashionista knows that overbuying is always a bad thing.
Always consider other saving, cost-cutting options like borrowing or endeavoring to buy for cheap items that are slightly used. Your local free paper or free classifieds site is sure to have an abundance of baby items that people are trying to get rid of. Your total expense for your furnishings could be a tank of gas and a little time to coordinate item retrieval.
Finally, buy for cheap the rest of the stuff by checking out your local thrift and consignment stores for items that you may be able to mix or match into your theme. But be creative. If it’s not the “exact” color that you would like, you could always spray paint the piece exactly as you want it for about $3, or buy or make a basic slipcover, and enjoy.
Follow these simple tips for finding deals, steals, and ways to buy for cheap to create the room that you want for your baby without breaking the bank!