How to Furnish and Decorate Your Kid's Room On A Budget (and have FUN doing it!): PART 1

(This started out as one post...a post that got longer...and longer....and longer.... until I decided, "Well, I guess I'm writing my first series."  So here I go.....  Commence Part 1.)

I've been having a BLAST lately decorating Isaac's new room.  On a budget.  A fairly tight one.  Since we are in the process of adopting a baby, we wanted to go ahead and move Isaac out of the nursery (and the crib) and into his "big boy room" (and his "big boy bed").  A few months ago I was fairly overwhelmed trying to figure out where the cashm  that we needed to furnish (let alone decorate) his new room was going to come from.  But then.... I had the thought that sent me down the path I ended up taking in order to find most of our furniture for his room: "Lots of people have furniture sitting around that they no longer need and would rather not have...."  So, here's what I did first:

Good morning, buddy!  Just waking
up from his nap. :)

I posted in my Facebook status (back in the day when I had a Facebook... It already feels like ages ago. :) ) that I was just wondering if anyone had a twin sized bed that was in decent condition and that they no longer needed.  Within an hour, a friend of mine contacted me, and we had our mattress, box spring, and frame.  For zero cash.  (Is it weird or scary having a mattress that's been used?  Not under two conditions: 1. You're comfortable with the home the mattress came from, and 2: You get a good mattress cover.)  I bought a $13 mattress cover from Walmart (inexpensive, but great quality), along with this double bed rail, which I somehow can't find on Walmart.com's website right now... but I think it's there somewhere for a little cheaper than advertised at the link I provided (just FYI).

Still sleepy...but loving his race car. This pic
shows the height of the bed off the floor.
It's perfect for him.

My one splurge for his room was on this bedding set... which was still more inexpensive than others that were similar.  Isaac absolutely LOVES it....as do I.  Quite often, he wakes up from his nap and sits in his bed for several minutes saying (with great enthusiasm) "Airplane! Truck! Tractor! Blimp! Car!"  Cute??!!  YES!  Like I said, he loves it.  But I digress.....

We put his bed on the floor for now - just the mattress and box spring, no frame, so he's able to easily climb in and out of it.

I then found 2 old (originally very inexpensive, I might add) brown bookcases at a friend's garage sale, for which I paid a total of 10 bucks.  For BOTH.  In addition to an old mirror - brown wood with old bronze hooks.  They gave me the mirror for free since I'd bought several other things.  I've been told I have eyes to see through the current condition of an item, to see what things COULD be.  I agree... I'm actually kind of passionate about it.  Stay tuned to this series to see how the mirror and bookcases are transformed.

Craig's List is also a great place to look for inexpensive, good quality used furniture.  Believe it or not, if you know what you're looking for, you can find some really great stuff.  After keeping an eye on CL for a few weeks, I ended up with the PERFECT dresser for Isaac for $30....complete with red and blue handles to match his room!  (Who says God doesn't care about the little things?)  Picture to follow later on in this series.

Considering that I had originally thought we would have to spend between $500 & $600 to furnish his new room, 40 bucks for a dresser, 2 bookcases, and a free bed is pretty darn cheap!! And pretty awesome for our budget.

In part 2, I'll share my first of 3 amazing discoveries that I've made on this journey (including how I transformed the old bookcases and mirror)... It might surprise you to find out how easy it was. :)