Princess Style Nursery on a Budget

Michelle Kirstein
by Michelle Kirstein
11 Materials
$300
2 Weeks
Medium

How I turned my guest room into an adorable nursery for my 1st granddaughter for far less than you might think by using mostly reclaimed furniture and thrift or budget store items with a few luxury exceptions.


This was my guest room. I loved the "beachy" theme with the headboard that I made out of an old vintage door (see that tutorial here: http://www.hometalk.com/diy/bedroom/furniture...) but I was more than thrilled at the opportunity to transform this space to something fit for our little princess.

First was to paint. You can see we had lots of extra help.

This room is about 12' x 12' and it ended up that we needed 2 gallons of paint.

We chose Behr Premium Plus Ultra in Galaxy Tint. We loved the soft gray color with slightly lilac undertones.

Next came the furniture. We knew we wanted a new crib for safety purposes but the other pieces needed to be unique and customized. When I found this vintage dresser for $10 at a garage sale, I knew we were on the right path. With a few coats of antique white and pink paint...

... some hand detailing with metallic gold paint and absolutely adorable drawer pulls from London that I found on Etsy and chantilly lace decoupaged on the drawer fronts and the sides, I think we nailed the look were were going for. icon

This solid wood book case was gifted to us years ago from an office liquidation. Two coats of the antique white paint with the pink on the back panel gives it just a pop of color. My daughter is a pre-school teacher and has been collecting these pristine children books for years. Clearly our little Sophie is going to be very well read. icon

BTW I made this customized name tile with my Cricut machine and a free font using a Jeffrey Court Wisteria tile from Home Depot.

Now lets get back to that canopy and crib. For the canopy, I grabbed a wire wreath frame from Joannes and 20 yards (yes 20!) of pink tulle that i got on sale for 40% off then used a 20% off total purchase coupon. Then we added the flowers. We used the Pink Dahlia Rose Hydrangea tile and that way we didn't have to worry about mixing and matching. In the end, this canopy cost $42 to make which is less than half of what we would have paid retail, and way less than the cost for a similar custom made one.


We purchased a standard crib from JC Penny and while you can't see it very well in the picture, but I also decoupaged the chantilly lace on the back panel of the crib, to tie it into the dresser.


The gold "S" behind the lace was 7.99 from Ross!

A few years ago I picked up a Lane cedar chest for free that was left in a friends garage for years. Unfortunately the wood was so bad that it was beyond restoration but I saved it anyway with the hope that it would find a new life. With some paint and elbow grease on the inside it is now an adorable toy chest.


The window treatment is 2 blackout panels from Target with white tulle overlay. Then more tulle, 20 yards draped over the rod and brought together with a few more flowers left over from the crib canopy.

Add some inspirational art from Ross so our baby girl knows that she can be just as strong and powerful as she is beautiful.

We were blessed enough to be willed this beautiful hand carved rocker. We paired it with antique white frames with gold leaf rubbed on to tie into the metallic gold in the rest of the pieces. Throw in a $20 garage sale glider, a decoupaged table (its possible I went a little decoupage crazy) and a small crystal lamp with the chantilly lace draped softly over the shade.

And what princess room is complete without a pink chandelier? This adds a beautiful finishing touch and a soft light that creates a stunning reflection on the walls.

I hope this gives you some inspiration in creating your own princess nursery for your own little princess.

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  • Jana Jana on Feb 10, 2019

    Where did you get the rocking horse? Did you paint it, or is it an original?

  • LeeAnn Weston Whitsel LeeAnn Weston Whitsel on Feb 10, 2019

    This is so beautiful. My granddaughter will be coming in May and I want to do a nursery for her at my house too. Thanks for the great ideas. I also want to do a headboard like your beach themed one for my bedroom. I love it! I hope I can do it!

  • Theresa Taylor Theresa Taylor on Feb 10, 2019

    Why do you refer to the canopy flowers as hydrangea TILES?

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  • Kim Kim on Apr 18, 2019

    Wow, you work magic. What a cute nursery for your daughter. I wish I had vision for decorating. Thanks for sharing

  • Renea Renea on Apr 25, 2019

    I dont have any babies coming. I would love to try the head board. I have an old condo headboard, that we were given.  . If you have any suggestions about the headboard, please SEND me a picture of it.

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