sweet dreams.

i loooove decorating our home, especially when i have ideas that i can do for not much cash. so i'll try to post them on here when i do. this entry: bel's nursery.

when we found out we were having a girl, i immediately started brainstorming on ideas for bella's room. i knew exactly what i wanted the look to be... whimsical, vintage, lots of pink (of course) and NO themes or baby-ish stuff. i was spending soooo much time looking at baby bedding, and ending up severely disappointed. and then; i found it. unfortunately for me, i found it from caden lane, a beautiful designer baby bedding line that is also amazingly expensive. i also wanted lettering above her crib... which i found was also going to cost quite a bit of cash. a rocking chair was also an essential, but yet again, i couldn't find anything that was under $100. geesh. and don't even get me started on baby furniture. quite ridiculous for such a small little person. soooo... i worked hard to be creative and find ways to save but still create the nursery i wanted for our little pumpkin. here are a few of my tips:

1. ebay, ebay, ebay!

the bedding i found on http://www.cadenlane.com/ was exactly what i wanted for bella's nursery... however, it was going to cost us over $500. this meant it was absolutely a no-go. so... i decided to check out ebay. it was my lucky day. there was the beautiful caden lane bedding at a HUGE discount. when i received it in the mail, it was in perfect condition... still in the package, never even used. http://www.etsy.com/ is another awesome place to go find handmade vintage goodies (i have found some of the CUTEST baby stuff there... and my sis and i are getting stuff ready to start a cute little botique there; so stay tuned!)

2. reuse old furniture.

ALL the furniture in bella's room was stuff we already had in our house, or was given to us. her dresser and nightstand was my old bedroom set that nick and i had been using (we replaced our bedroom furniture with a great, inexpensive set from ikea... LOVE. IT.) my in laws found an old rocking chair for us that nick refinished to match... as well as a beautiful crib someone blessed us with, which nick also refinshed with the help of our wonderful friends! here's a great tip: changing tables are SUPER expensive and you'll really never be able to reuse them after your baby is no longer a baby... SO... i used my old desk (that went with the dresser and nightstand set) as a changing table! it's perfect. just get a changing table pad and there's plenty of room in the drawers to store wipes, diapers and baskets of toiletries, hair accessories and first aid items!

3. baby's name.

as i mentioned, i really wanted to hang bella's name in letters above her crib. i'd seen this done a million times and i wanted to try to do something a little bit different. first, i had to find the letters. once i started researching, i realized these suckers were selling for as much as $20 PER LETTER! so, i found this amazing website: http://www.woodenletters.net/ where you can buy unfinished wooden letters for as little as $1.75 per letter. yes, please. there is a selection of fonts, and i liked getting the letters unfinished because then i could paint them with the leftover paint from bella's pink wall so they matched perfectly. for her letters, i also found frames at goodwill... you can scour through the pictures for any size frame you want (i felt a little embarrassed buying some of the pictures that the frames carried... u-g-l-y...) then you throw away everything but the frame, spraypaint them whatever color you want and voila... you've got a new piece of artwork. i hotglued pink ribbon on each of the frames and used those to make a creative border for the letters. i have to say, i was pretty satisfied with the idea... the hard part was hanging those little buggers!

4. repurpose old accessories.

i had some old accessories laying around that worked perfectly in bella's room. an old candleholder with crystals, a vase i spraypainted to match that held branches, an old picture frame, a mirror and a lamp i had bought years ago. these worked perfectly in bella's room... since nick and i had gotten married i hadn't used these things to decorate our room since they were a bit on the girly side :) and fyi: you can transform ANYTHING with spraypaint.

5. showcase special pieces.

one of my favorite things for bella's room is a sweet little pillow that my sister's mother in law had made for her! it's a quilted pillow with her name on it in the colors of her nursery. i LOVE it! and have it in the center of her room so it's something that people see first. maybe you have a blanket that someone knit, or a family heirloom, or whatever it might be... give that piece a special place in the room that shows it off!

6. organizational help.

i love these dark brown baskets that you can find at target: http://www.target.com/ I found a few there for 9.99 a piece (originally meant to store CDs and DVDs) and they make great storage for various items. i have one on her chaging table that holds lotion, diaper cream, her bath wash, medicines, etc and her wipes. i have one on a shelf that holds toys and rattles, and then two that hold extra diapers. they make everything neat and organized while still looking good and not busting your wallet.

bella's nursery was such a fun project for me, i just thought i'd share a few things i learned along the way. i also handmade wall vases for her room... i'll give directions on how to make those in my next home decor post :)

until then...