When you're going through tough times financially, debating the merits of one $1000 designer crib vs another feels about as irrelevant as debating moon rocks vs plutonium. Believe us, we've been there. When I was pregnant with my first child, I was a waitress living in a 600 sq ft apartment with my line cook boyfriend. We didn't have 2 pennies to rub together. But we're here to tell you, you should not feel excluded from the light-hearted fun that is nursery design.

You can carve out a tiny baby space that is rich in what high end catalogs and boutiques lack. Just think, they pay photo prop stylists to fake what you can create for real and for dirt cheap. A vignette! Because when you get down to it, the beauty of a nursery is in the details, the hand-me-down, handmade, thrifted, gifted, one of a kind genuine personal touches.

All you need for your vignette is a shelf, a table top, or a windowsill. Then add whatever makes you happy. A ragdoll from grandma, a pair of booties knit by a friend, your old Fisher Price toy that your mom kept all these years, a copy of your favorite childhood book from a used book store, a piece of homemade art in a Goodwill frame, a plastic dinosaur handed down from an older child.

Here are some gorgeous vignettes to help get you going.

Indigo's Hyggelig Nook
Eva's Pale Blue Beauty
Oliver's Well-Traveled Bedroom
Hank and Dexter's Hand-painted Vintage Hideaway
Luca and Gia's Simply Smashing Shared Space

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