By Carl & Jo Violetta
Ideally, children’s bedrooms are a place for them to relax, have fun and showcase their personality. However, furnishing and styling your home is often costly. It can be difficult to find space in the budget to style kids’ bedrooms as well. The good news is, it’s possible to create a special space for your children without breaking the bank.
We spoke with two of our favourite home styling experts Claudia Brdar (The Renovate Avenue) and Vicki Lawrence (Moonface Studio) about styling kids’ bedroom on a budget. Here are their best low-cost kids’ bedroom styling tips:
tip#1 upcycling
Claudia’s number one tip is to upcycle furniture. ‘Before you go out and spend any money, take stock of what you already have, not just in your kid’s bedroom but throughout the house. Look for any pieces you can rejuvenate or repurpose.’
Sanding and painting old or outdated furniture pieces, such as bed frames and wicker chairs, can breathe new life into them. Adding fun knobs and handles to drawers and cupboards will add quirky character to ordinary pieces.
Vicki suggests getting creative with decal stickers, ‘Use decals to upcycle furniture. For example, scallop decals look fab as a border on a dressing table or chest of drawers.’
tip#2 incorporate colour
Inject fun and personality by using colour. You can definitely be more adventurous with colour in kids’ bedrooms.
Colourful soft furnishings like cushions, bedding, rugs and throws are an affordable way to makeover your child’s room. Soft furnishings are also easy to update as your child grows, and their tastes change.
Claudia’s a fan of feature walls, ‘Feature walls can work well in kids bedrooms. Painting one wall in your child’s favourite colour will personalise their room.’
‘Be sure to involve your child in their bedroom decisions. Ask them which colours they like and work with them to figure out which colours will work together. This teaches them a little bit about design and making decisions for themselves.’
tip#3 bring personality with wall art
Make the most of your floor space by decorating the walls.
Instead of a traditional feature wall, you could encourage creativity by creating a blackboard wall. Paint a wall with chalkboard paint, which you can find at Bunnings or any paint store. Then let your child use chalk to decorate their blackboard wall.
Do you have a budding little artist in the family and aren’t sure what to do with all the masterpieces they bring home from school? Try framing your child’s artwork pieces and displaying them on the walls. Discount stores often sell affordable frames.
tip#4 use wall stickers
Continuing on with the wall theme, wall stickers are a fun way to decorate your home. Vicki explains, ‘They’re essentially removable stickers that you can use to create features or patterns on walls. You only need a short amount of time to apply them, so you can transform a room very quickly.’
With so many different sticker designs available, you can decorate a whole room for under $50 in less than two hours.
Wall Stickers aren’t just for walls. You could let your imagination run wild and use them on windows, tiles, furniture, storage boxes; there are so many options.
tip#5 set up a storage system
Children’s rooms tend to get quite messy, which is why it’s helpful to create a storage system.
Start by decluttering your child’s room. Then create a place for everything by using storage containers such as drawers, boxes and crates. Storage containers don’t need to be expensive. Start by seeing what you can repurpose. For example, ice-cream containers and old shoeboxes make excellent storage containers.
Even if your child isn’t reading yet be sure to label all your storage containers. You could purchase labels or DIY. Try printing labels on plain paper, laminating the paper and then sticking the labels on the containers with a glue gun.
tip#6 create a reading nook
Encourage your child to read by creating a cozy little reading nook in the corner of their room.
Claudia explains how to create a low-cost reading nook, ‘Attach a floating shelf low on the wall to display books. Create seating by placing a small chair, mini sofa or bean bag next to the shelf. Alternately, you could use a tent with some snuggly cushions inside it. Then bring it all together with a small rug.’
tip#7 get crafty
Making DIY decorations is an excellent opportunity for children to get involved in the styling process. For example, making fun pom-pom garlands is a kid-friendly activity that doesn’t require any sewing or knitting skills. All you need is some leftover wool and a pair of scissors.
If you’re handy with a sewing machine you could make sweet looking homemade bunting using a small amount of fabric and ribbon.
There are plenty of tutorials online on how to make garlands and bunting. Here are a couple of our favourites:
How to make a pom-pom in three minutes flat:
woolandthegang.com/blog/2014/05/3-minute-pom-pom/
DIY Garland Bunting Flags
stylecurator.com.au/diy-garland-bunting-flags/
So there you have it, seven low-cost, tried and tested tips for a stunning bedroom makeover. With a bit of creativity, some DIYing and shopping around you can create a beautiful, budget-friendly space your child can feel proud of.
Jo and Carl Violeta are self-confessed numbers nerds, parents of two, and co-founders of the award-winning business, Violeta Finance. They’re a husband and wife team who are passionate about empowering their community with financial education, love the odd glass of wine, and get a kick out of helping families achieve their homeownership and financial dreams.