I had never thought about setting up a nursery corner in a master bedroom before. I always wanted to have a cute Pinterest-decor-level nursery for my little ones. But then my husband and I decided to start our family right after we moved into a one bedroom apartment. Whoops!
On top of that, the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) recommends that parents keep babies in the same room with them to sleep for the first year in order to prevent SIDS.
So we could pay a few grand to break our lease, and get a more expensive place with a room we would barely use – or we could figure out how to make our one bedroom double as a nursery. And thus the nursery corner was born!
I looked all over Pinterest to get ideas for a cute nursery corner in a master bedroom – but didn’t find much. The setups were all either a fully decked out nursery or just a bassinet and diaper caddy with not much in between. So I came up with my own setup! Read on to see step-by-step how I set up a cute nursery corner in our master bedroom without spending tons of money.
First, Simplify What a “Nursery” is
In a typical nursery you’ll have everything from rocking chairs to large toys to cribs and changing tables. They can get packed full of things really quickly! But the key to setting up a nursery corner in a master bedroom inexpensively is to simplify your “nursery” down to the basics.
For us that meant having only two stations – one for the baby to sleep and one for diaper and clothing changes. This made it really easy to fit our whole “nursery” in one corner of our master bedroom.
For the “sleeping” station we would need a bed, a sound machine, and some cute wall decor. We started out with a bassinet and then upgraded to a pack-n-play as our baby grew.
It may seem a little weird that we don’t have a more permanent crib, but we did it intentionally. Now if we travel anywhere he’s not having to sleep in a bed he’s not used to. Instead he has his normal mattress, sheets, and bed frame that smells like home. Then he doesn’t have to adjust as much to a new place and will sleep better when we’re on-the-go.
For the “changing” station we would need a dresser topped with a changing pad and some way to organize the diapers, wipes, and ointments.
Before buying anything new check garage sales, thrift stores, and FaceBook marketplace to see what’s available. Babies age out of things really quickly so it should be fairly easy to find things. And the more big furniture items you can get second-hand, the more money you can save!
We got lucky and had friends in the area that either had baby stuff they were getting rid of, or knew of other people who were getting rid of baby stuff. So we got both our bassinet and our pack-n-play as hand-me-downs.
Our next big furniture item we needed was a dresser that could double as a changing table. We started with FaceBook marketplace, and within a few days found this white dresser for about $40.
It was difficult finding a shorter dresser that was deep enough for a changing pad, but we got lucky with this one! It had a few little dings on top, but the changing pad covers them up nicely. Other than that it’s very well made and has been perfect for us!
Capitalize on IKEA and Ross
Once you’ve gone through all the second-hand options, the next best places to look for nursery items are IKEA and Ross.
If you’ve ever walked through IKEA you’ve seen how there are lots of little displays throughout the store with insanely cheap, very basic, items. It may be a $10 throw blanket, a $5 throw pillow, or some basic organizational item. That third category is what you’ll want to capitalize on!
My husband and I were able to get both our “diaper tower” and drawer organizers pretty cheaply because of this.
The “diaper tower” is actually called the Vesken Shelf unit and was only $11.99. It fits diapers and wipes perfectly – I was amazed when we first filled it up and things lined up so neatly. It keeps things looking clean and organized without breaking the bank. And other options I was looking at were all over $40 so this felt like a steal! You can find it on their site here.
As for the drawer organizers we found these packs of 6 Skubb boxes for only $5.99! You can find them on their site here. They fit rolled or folded baby clothes really well, and each set has 3 different sizes. The smallest ones are perfect for little baby socks!
It helped us use our drawer space much more efficiently. And other drawer organization options on Amazon were anywhere from $17 to $30 so this helped us save a bit of money too.
Ross is a great place to find inexpensive decor, so we started there. Originally we were looking for woodland or forest themed items. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much luck.
But instead we found this adorable canvas and loved it so much that we changed our whole theme! The canvas was less than $15 and gave us a great launching point for our new theme. In the end our space decor turned out WAY cuter than the woodland decor I had originally planned. We never regretted the switch!
DIY Most of the Decor
It can be hard to find decor that matches what you have in mind without breaking the bank. Frames, tapestries, and wall hangings can get expensive very quickly. And if your intended decor item is hard to find locally you may have to fork out more to get it shipped to you!
Once we switched our theme to space/astronauts I had a very specific look in mind for the wall decor. This meant I couldn’t find anything locally and the online options were too expensive. They also didn’t match well enough with my vision for how the corner would look.
So I decided to make the rest of the wall decor! This ended up being fairly inexpensive and gave me some fun projects to do.
If you’re going this route I recommend making a Pinterest board of crafts, art, and decor that match with your vision. You can find mine here. Then start to sketch out what you want your wall to look like. This will help you determine which items to make and which to ditch.
I did my little sketch using the app Procreate so that I could pick up and rearrange each decor piece as I created it. This was really helpful as I determined what I would make and where it would go.
Ultimately I only made 3 of the 4 items sketched because I decided a more simple design looked better. So that’s another great way to save money – keep your decor relatively simple. Less is more!
So I made a ragdoll crochet astronaut bear, a felt wall hanging, and a navy blue “J” for James. I already had a lot of the supplies I needed for these, so I spent less than $10 on supplies.
Of these three crafts my biggest recommendation to save money, and time, is the painted letter decor. The 12″ paper-mache letters at Jo-Anns are only $5.49, and with one coat of paint you can make it fit your color scheme exactly. And it’s so lightweight you only need 1 command strip to hang it up!
Sometime soon I’ll make tutorial posts about how to make the wall hanging and the crochet bear pattern, so stay tuned! I’ll link them here once they’re published.
If you are looking to crochet decor or toys for your nursery corner check out some of my other free patterns HERE.
Lastly, Look to Amazon
There’s only so much that you can find second-hand, get a great deal on, or make yourself. So once you’ve hit a wall finding things – turn to Amazon. This will allow you to compare prices between items quickly to ensure you’re getting a good deal.
It also means you don’t have to waste gas driving around, or pay for additional shipping if you have a Prime account.
We got our changing pad, diaper pail, and sound machine from Amazon. The sound machine we got doubles as a nightlight and was only $30 when we got it. It was probably one of the things I used the most those first few months and we really loved it. You can find it here.
The last little thing that we got from amazon was this package of glow-in-the-dark stars to place around our other decor. We made it look like the stars where swirling around the other decor with the moon up in the corner.
In the dark it looks even cooler! It was so comforting during those late-night feeds to look over and see swirling stars glowing across the wall. It made things feel a little less lonely and tiring. I’m so grateful that my husband thought to add them to our corner!
So there you have it – it’s entirely possible to set up a cute nursery corner in your bedroom without spending tons of money. I hope you’re able to take some tips and tricks from this post and create cute nursery corners of your own!
If you do, feel free to share them on social media with #lifewithbubbins so I can see what you do! And if you have any other tips or suggestions, leave them in the comments below.
