Gender neutral nursery on a budget post is finally here! In this post I’m sharing simple design elements, along with DIY tips and tricks to create a gender neutral nursery on a budget!
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Gender Neutral Nursery on a Budget
Let’s first take a trip down memory lane and remember what this room looked like before. It functioned as our guest bedroom, aka grandma and grandpas room. Although it was one of my favorite spaces in our home, we had no choice but to turn it into a nursery once we found out we were expecting baby number 2.
Although I was sad to see our guest room go, it was so worth it to design a nursery space in here. Click here to shop this photo.
The wood wall was a DIY project we created about a year ago using Weaber Lumber Wall Boards. They are linked here , if you want to check them out. I’ve saved a highlight of the entire process on my Instagram page if you’re interested in the process.
CALM NURSERY VIBES
When I started designing the nursery space the main thing I wanted to focus on was creating a very calm environment. By adding natural elements like a standing plant, straw designed mobile that was my grandmothers and keeping the furniture light, it helped to create a place of peace.
Whenever I create a new space, the first thing I like to do is completely clean out the room to help give myself a clear vision. I created a design board to help guide my ideas.
Creating a design/mood board is always a great place to start when designing a new space!
CREATE SPACE + FUNCTION
The room itself is quite small, and in order to make the room feel bigger I opted to take off the bi-fold closet doors. This really helped the space open up and feel larger. I painted two small sections within the closet and added some modern geometric shaped wall decals to give it some character! These are from a small shop, check out KennaSota Designs here.
I also decided to add sharpie shiplap in the closet to give it more character and tie in with the wood wall. If you’re interested in the process or would like some more tips on how to create this look using a Sharpie Paint Pen, you can check out my blog post Sharpie Shiplap for all the details.
It was so fun creating a new space within this closet!
TIP- make sure you keep your closet doors, you may not always want to have them off in the future. We stored ours down in our basement.
PAINT IS MAGIC
The best way to keep a room makeover within budget is by using paint! Paint is magic! The first thing I did was to paint the walls white using the color Alabaster by Sherwin Williams. I knew I also wanted to incorporate a pretty dark green color and I ended up going with Roycroft Bottle Green by Sherwin Williams.
The wood wall felt too warm to me and it did not tie in well with the overall design ideas I had for the room. I opted to paint it the Roycroft Bottle Green color and I love how it turned out! I simply used a brush to paint the entire thing.
DRESSER MAKEOVER
The next DIY in this space was one that made such a big difference! I wanted to incorporate this lovely green color elsewhere in the room by adding it to a piece of furniture. My son’s old dresser that he currently wasn’t using any more turned out to be the perfect item! I had painted it a dark blue several years ago, so after a light sanding I cleaned it up and applied 3 coats total using a brush and small roller. Below you can see a before picture of the dresser.
Before photo of dresser. I had already taken the hardware off.
Painting furniture and adding new hardware is one of the easiest ways to change up the style of any piece. The hardware I was able to find on Amazon for super cheap, and I linked it here.
I am always amazed by the difference paint and new hardware can make!
DIY ART + FINISHING TOUCHES
The last part of the room makeover was adding special finishing touches. An inexpensive way to decorate any space is to create your own art. For this space I wanted to create modern, minimal art. I found inspiration on Pinterest and created line art using a pencil and fine point sharpie. In order to save money and not buy new frames for my art, I used existing ones I already owned and created matting within the frame using burlap.
This simple trick of adding burlap to a frame for matting, will save you money and time!
This hand holding art piece is one of my absolute favorites, created by artist Coley Kuyper. Click here to shop this photo.
I was also gifted a beautiful hand drawn piece by a fellow artist Coley Kuyper I met through Instagram. This hand drawn art is one of my favorite pieces. You can check out all her amazing talent here.
THE FINAL PRODUCT
The finished product! Click here to shop this photo!
What a fun project this was! Make sure you head on over to my Instagram page to catch all these DIY’s in real time! I have also created a saved Nursery Highlight, if you have any more questions.
We are now anxiously awaiting our baby boy and trying to prepare for this new season of life!As always, thanks for stopping by and supporting my page! It means the world to me!
Happy Creating,
Holly