How To Furnish and Decorate Your Kid's Room On A Budget (And Have Fun Doing It!) Part 3

Welcome, friends!  Here we are again!  Thanks for checking out part 3 of my series, How to Furnish and Decorate Your Kid's Room on a Budget (and Have Fun Doing It!).  (Again I must say, pardon my long-winded title! :) )

**If you missed the first 2 parts of the series, here ya go:
How To Furnish and Decorate Your Kid's Room On A Budget: Part 1
and....
How To Furnish and Decorate Your Kid's Room On A Budget: Part 2

Annnnnnnd.... here we go!  Prepare for more easy, low-budget tweaks that bring personality and pizzazz to your kiddo's room.

Remember the old brown mirror with bronze hooks? I had spray painted it white, and the hooks gray.  Well..... I took it a step further.  I LOVE painting.... just acrylics, and I'm really not all that good at it, but I don't have to be.  I can look at pictures (in this case, the airplanes and blimps on Isaac's bedding) and replicate them to end up with some fairly cool-looking 2D stuff.  Here's how the mirror ended up:

I have it hanging over his dresser for now.... but when he's a year or so older,
I'll hang it down closer to his level so he can hang his jackets, etc. on the hooks.

Not perfect by any means, but still a really fun (and inexpensive - nearly free!) custom piece for Isaac's room.  It's not hard - you should give it a try!  Garage saleing this weekend, anyone?! Yay for low-budget treasures!  (If you do go garage saling, remember to look at things with eyes to see what they COULD be with a few tweaks, and don't discount them because they're not pretty....yet!)

Along these lines, let me share the 3rd amazing (and yes, budget friendly) discovery I've made as I've put his room together:  Hobby Lobby sells these awesome wooden frames, in various sizes, that can be crafted and painted.  They also sell little wooden letters like this that can be painted and glued to whatever project you're creating.....and wooden plaques like these.   (Walmart has some stuff like this too, but Hobby Lobby has a much better selection.)  I have LOVED using this stuff to decorate his room - it's been SO MUCH FUN!!  This is the reason why this is my favorite post so far in this series. :)  Pretty much everything I've painted/crafted for Isaac's room is 2 dimensional and relatively easy to pull off....even if you've never painted before.  Here's how I do it:

1. Do a Google Image search like this.  Find something that you like, preferably something 2D.  (2D is just way easier, to start out with anyway...)  Practice drawing your picture in pencil on a piece of scrap paper until you like how it turns out.

2. Paint your wooden plaque, frame, or whatever you're using with whatever color acrylic paint that you want to use as your background color.

3. After the background color has dried, with the image in front of you, draw the image over your painted background lightly in pencil.

4. Use small brushes to paint whatever colors you want.  Rule of thumb: Simple is good.

5. Finally, go back and outline, in black paint, where your pencil markings used to be.  Maybe this is because I'm a total amateur, but I've found that the easiest way to get clean, thin lines like you need, is by using toothpicks.  I dip my toothpick in black paint, paint about 1-2 inches worth of outline, re-dip, and continue.  I usually have to use 3-4 toothpicks because the ends start to get soggy.... but hey, it works!  A little craft glue, some painted wooden letters (maybe some ribbon too?), annnnnd..... there you have it!

This is hanging on his door... He ADORES backhoes.  Obsessively. :)

Isaac is also obsessed with lawnmowers... in Isaac language:
"Mom-monners."

Zoo photo collage. This is a little busy for me, honestly.  I like the frame,
but as soon as I have a worthy picture, I'm going to remove the collage
and just have 1 photo in this frame against a solid color background.
Still, I really like how this frame turned out. :)

Just throwing this in for fun.  Found cool ribbon at Hobby Lobby
that matches the scrapbook paper in the backs of the bookcases!

Seriously, I am a TOTAL amateur.  I have had no real education when it comes to painting - I've just figured it out on my own a little bit... and have ended up with some totally cute, fun, (if slightly less-than-perfect) custom decor for Isaac's room that he absolutely LOVES. :)  (And I love it too!)  Soooo, I say all of this to say, YOU CAN DO IT TOO!  Try it!  And when you do, come back again, comment, and leave a link to a picture of your final product! I'd love to see it, and it will inspire others to give it a try too!

(I should mention also that acrylic paints, in case you're new to them, are very, very inexpensive.  You can find small bottles anywhere from 50 cents to $2 at Walmart, Hobby Lobby, or any other craft store.)

Thanks so much for sitting down with me for a few minutes today!  Hopefully you're feeling inspired to do some new, fun things in your own children's rooms.  They will love it, no matter how it turns out, just because YOU did it!  I promise! :)  Tune in tomorrow for Part 4 (the final segment) of How to Furnish and Decorate Your Kid's Room On A Budget (and Have Fun Doing It!).

PS - Our creative projects give expression to pieces of our hearts....  I would LOVE to hear your ideas and/or see pics of projects you've completed in your children's rooms!  Share with us, and I will do my best to respond quickly!  Thanks, friends!