The furniture in a child’s bedroom tends to be smaller in size than a normal bedroom. Dressers hold less, beds are smaller, and even closets tend to be smaller. In a child’s view though, these items can seem enormous and are just waiting to be decorated to their liking.
My first tip for finding great kids furniture is to ask around to friends and family, check out freecycle.org and craigslist to see if you can find things on there. Flea markets, garage sales and the newspaper are also great places to search.
Even if what you find, is less than desirable or not necessarily what you are looking for, furniture can be altered to be what you want it to be. For instance, a metal frame headboard might be scratched and rusted, but a fresh coat of paint and you have a brand new bed!
Here are a few other tips on furniture for children:
* You can apply wall-paper to dressers or bookshelves to dress them up a bit. Use coordinating colors or themes to go along with your child’s interests.
* You can easily hide an ugly nightstand or other item by draping a piece of cut fabric over it. Find fabrics in coordinating room colors or a particular theme.
* You can decorate a lamp or lampshade by painting and adding trim to the actual shade.
* Some furniture like bookshelves and trunks are easy to make yourself. Patterns and how to manuals are available at the library. The supplies and cost of making these will far outweigh the cost of purchasing one at the store and making one allows you the ability to customize it. Don’t forget all the decorative trims available at the hardware store too!
* Use stencils, sponge paint and stamps to decorate furniture in a child’s room. All can be painted over someday and it’s a lot easier to paint a piece of furniture than an entire room!
Check out the frugal living blog for more great ways to save money on everyday things!
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Painting Your Child’s Room The Frugal Way