A Budget-Friendly and Minimalist Baby Nursery

At the end of March I welcomed a little baby, aka Beans.

I immediately envisioned painting the nursery grey (the old color was a soft pink, but whether I had a boy or a girl I wanted the nursery to be gender-neutral). The painted nursery sat empty or in various states of disorganization for longer than I care to admit, but now it's a beautiful and simple solution for our newborn son and me as anew parent.

Being an avid IKEA fan, I decorated and furnished the nursery with everything-IKEA, and I did it all for a total out-of-pocket of $367.

If you were to re-create this nursery from scratch, you'd end up paying about $1,000 more. I had a few items gifted to me, and the sofa and ottoman are from my old studio apartment.

Enjoy the nursery tour!

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The nursery

Around my 5th or 6th month of pregnancy, I really got started on the nursery. At that point, my parents gifted the crib and crib mattress, and I already painted the room.

I did this quick 3d rendering in SketchUp so I could see if the sofa would fit in the room with the crib set up. The door at the bottom-left is the entrance into the room, and the other door at the bottom of the rendering is the door to the closet.

I was pleased with the result, so I built the crib (IKEA Sundvik in white) and kept the sofa in the room (IKEA Ektorp).

Here's what you see when you walk in: the crib, the sofa, and the changing table.

I love the little spice rack shelves I painted; they turned out great as a place to display books and little friends. The clock is a digital (non-ticking) wall clock, which I'm SO happy about.

Here's the breakdown so far for the loveseat area, where the single *'s means pre-existing, and double **'s means gifted.

I'm so lucky to have so many wonderful things gifted to me via parents and family and friends. If any of you are reading this, thank you again SO much!

IKEA Ektorp loveseat in Nordvalla gray, $479*
IKEA Ektorp Footstool in Nordvalla gray, $149*
IKEA Bekväm spice rack x4, $4 each
Digital wall clock from Amazon, $15
IKEA Ribba frames in white x3, $7 each
IKEA Årstid floor lamp, $40*
Throw pillows from Marshalls, $20*
Knitted blankets by my friend Natalie and my mom*

Total cost so far: $48

Total cost from scratch so far: $736

The crib

The crib area is pretty simple. As I write this, a couple of things changed from these pictures; for example, I finally figured out where the monitor camera is supposed to go, and where I have it in this picture is WRONG, so don't mount your monitor camera there please!

I love having the super inexpensive dresser by the door. It works really well as a place to put things that need to come in or out of the room, like empty bottles, folded (tiny) clothes, the monitor, etc. This sucker is mounted to the wall, since these dressers can tip over pretty easily because of their shallow base.

Under the crib I put two inexpensive tubs for extra diapers, wipes, and anything else I don't need right away. I saw this on Pinterest somewhere along the line and decided it'd be an excellent way to maximize space in the tiny nursery.

Here's the breakdown. Again * means pre-existing, and ** means gifted:

IKEA Sundvik crib in white, $119**
IKEA Vyssa Tulta mattress pad, $15**
IKEA Vyssa Vinka mattress, $60**
Sealy Stain Protection Crib Mattress Pad, $20**
Circo Woven Fitted Crib Sheet, $10 at Target**
Circo Musical Crib Mobile - Vintage on the Go (similar), $25 at Target**
IKEA Rast 3-drawer chest, $35
IKEA Årstid table lamp, $20*
Motorola Remote Wireless Video Baby Monitor, $150

Cost: $185

Cost from scratch: $454

The closet

The closet was a mess for the longest time. It's much more organized today than it is in these pictures, but this gives you the basic idea of how I have the closet set up.

In here, I took a 2x2 IKEA Expedit and got white boxes to organize Beans' clothes into four categories:

Long sleeve onesies and full footed outfits
Short sleeve onesies and shirts
Swaddlers and nightgowns
Pants

I was fortunate to receive a TON of gently used little boy clothing from a friend. I also used this system to organize all of the gifted clothes from my baby shower.

On the top of the Expedit I keep swaddlers, receiving blankets, and burp cloths. I also now keep his carseat on the top surface. The Twist & Fold gym that you see in the above picture is now in use (Bebo loves this toy!).

On the top level of the closet, I keep extra breastpumping supplies and other misc clothing items.

Here's the breakdown for the closet. * means it already existed, ** means it was gifted.

IKEA Expedit in white (Now Kallax), $35*
IKEA Dröna box in white, 5x $5
IKEA Skubb box set of 6 in white, $8
Everything else in these pictures were gifted or were hand-me-downs

Cost: $33

Cost from scratch: $68

The changing table

I was headstrong about a changing table for quite a while: I didn't want to get one at all. I thought I'd be okay without one, and could just use mats on top of the ottoman. That didn't last very long.

Fortunately IKEA had a changing table solution in place for a very inexpensive price: The Sniglar changing table is a mere $35 and does the trick. I have a DIY for the custom changing table pad that isn't yet shown in these pictures, too.

For a long time, I just used a fluffy towel underneath a changing pad, and that worked just fine.

I love how multi-purpose the changing table is: it holds diapers, changing table pads, as well as Bebo's noise machine and a hair dryer (an awesome trick to help prevent diaper rash from my friend Stephanie).

The breakdown:

IKEA Sniglar changing table, $35
IKEA Önsklig racks for changing table, set of 4, $10
IKEA Smila Stjärna Wall Lamp, $10
IKEA Dröna box in white, $5
IKEA Skubb box set of 6 in white, $8
Skip Hop Pronto baby changing station, $30**
Munchkin Nursery Projector & Sound System, $23
Conair Hair Dryer, $30*
Bassinet/Changing table pads $10**
IKEA Tutig changing pads, 2x $5

Cost: $101

From scratch: $151

That's it for now! Hope you liked my budget nursery tour. Here's the full breakdown again, where * is pre-existing and ** was a gift or was given to me.