Jeremy and Seb are now 4 and 5 years old. I’m ashamed to say they were still sleeping in baby rooms for absolute ages, so last year I decided to do a revamp for them. 

J chose a racing car-themed room, while Seb went for something a little different – dinosaurs (who would’ve guessed?).

We’ve just done a whole bunch of renovations so we don’t really have money for fun décor stuff, so I figured out how to do it on a budget.

Here are a few ways to upgrade your kid’s bedroom on a budget.

Print it yourself

I love putting posters on walls but buying them seems a bit excessive. After all, most of them you download and print yourself anyway. So why not skip out the middle man and do it yourself? I did a quick little design on Canva using free images, printed them and put them in some frames we had lying around. I’ll do the same thing the next time we redo their rooms, but with other pictures.

Use their art

I know, I know, not a lot of our kids’ arts is wall-worthy when they are so young. But try your hardest and find pieces that are quirky and original. You can either frame them to make them look fancy or you can just prestik them onto the walls. I was surprised by how much the boys’ loved having their art on their walls.

Yes, they’re creepy. That’s why I love them.

Use their toys

All of our kids have toys. They are either lurking somewhere in their bedrooms, the lounge or (if you’re lucky enough) in their playroom. Rather than buying new décor items related to the theme of the room, use their toys. I scrounged and found all the toy dinosaurs we had and put them on Seb’s shelf. For J, I moved the hot wheels track into his room. Voila. 

Top tip: Do the same for their birthday cakes! You don’t have to buy a fancy cake – buy a cake from any shop and stick some theme-related toys on them. 

Change their books

I’ve always made sure my boys have access to books no matter where they are in the house. As a result, we have books on display in every room! And each boy has a bookcase in their bedrooms. I change the books whenever they show an interest in a new topic. I don’t buy new books because that alone would bankrupt me, but I swop with friends, buy from second-hand shops, and ask for books for birthday gifts. I don’t care what my husband says, you can never have too many books!

Paint a wall

Sounds so simple but it makes such a difference to a room. I found some paint in the garage that we had used for something else and painted one of the walls in Seb’s room. Game changer.

Use hooks

In each of their rooms, the boys have three wooden hooks on the wall. On these hooks we hang towels, dressing gowns, shirts, hats – anything that looks nice when it is displayed or needs to be within reach often. When we change their rooms, or even just for a change, I simply change up what is on hanging on their hooks.

You can see that when we decide to upgrade their rooms again, I’ll be able to do it quickly and easily – and still on a budget!

Side note: Obviously every time my boys get angry with me they tell me they hate their rooms, but whatevs.

PS: If you’re looking for someone to help you DIY your bedrooms, look no further than Kandua: 

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This blog post was sponsored by Kandua.