Baby Room Home Projects

This in-between space is now reaching its full potential.

The after is an explosion of color, pattern, and imagination.

The redo turned a "meh" sleep space into a dreamy retreat.

These are also so helpful, and so very cute to boot.

An aunt created a brand-new, totally cute and chic bedroom for her niece that can change as her style and interests change.

With IKEA cabinetry, Semihandmade Shaker cabinet door fronts, fresh paint, and a lot of classic tile!

And manages to hold onto some of its 1920s period charm, too!

"Go for it! Have fun! It’s just paint" is officially a color month motto.

This bedroom has style inspiration for all ages.

Even with nothing in it, this space felt dark and cramped — but a cheerful redo made it feel more spacious and inviting.

This playroom is like a mini studio apartment. "I am so proud that I built almost everything in here with my own two hands," the homeowner says.

"Smoker’s yellow” walls get a rainbow revamp.

Featuring an IKEA hack changing table!

Let these happy, kid-friendly spaces inspire your next project.

You could copy this look for any room of your home.

This space is just as beautiful as it is functional.

You'll want to steal ideas for your own bedroom.

Nancy was recently faced with the challenge of completing a quick and affordable bedroom makeover for a couple who is adopting three siblings. She transformed a guest room into a bright and airy girl’s room in only five days, and while there are plenty of lovely touches in the space, it’s her simple and cheap solution for a wall treatment that really stopped me in my tracks.

Stacy had a great home office. The question was, would it be a great nursery, especially if she wanted to re-use many of the same pieces? Let’s see what this room looks like reconfigured as a nursery and which items Stacy kept in the space: Sweet, right? As you can see, Stacy kept the gray paint along with the colorful turquoise shutters (re-repurposed from her wedding). The fetching tissue paper artwork is a DIY project.

Name: Ursula (7 years) Location: Soho, NY Making a room for Ursula in our new home together took awhile but it was a joy. For her first room to herself in our new life (we were sharing a one bedroom for a year), I was able to take a white sheetrock box with a high ceiling and make it airy but cozy and have plenty of storage for her growing lifestyle of clothes, dolls, costumes and toys. Before! During!

Soffia bought two of these tall, imposing pieces at an Icelandic Goodwill—I’ve dubbed them “bookdenzas”—and wanted to lighten them up and give them some personality to use in her son’s bedroom. Here’s what she came up with: Soffia tells us: The tall book case is an old piece of living room furniture that was very popular in Iceland in the 70s and 80s. I bought it for around $40 at a local Goodwill.

This ruddy red (marsala?) room color is quite nice, but perhaps not entirely suited to its 2-year-old occupant, Vera. Her mother, Petra Probstner, took a big risk and painted murals on all four walls mimicking the urban landscape of Chicago that lay outside the windows. The result is, frankly, breathtaking. Amazing, right?? As you can see in the progress photo below, she taped the mural off and then filled it in with grey, mint green and peachy-pink paint. Thanks for sharing, Petra Probstner!

Sometimes I come across an adorable kid’s room on Pinterest and get the urge to spruce up my girls’ rooms a bit. Unfortunately money is tight these days and spending money on a new lamp or cute print is just not in the budget. That’s when I usually start getting creative and try to come up with projects that I can complete on the cheap.

I love Before and Afters that feature something hideous or lackluster transformed into something beautiful and creative. This is not that kind of Before and After. This is a perfectly nice guest room completely overhauled to become a “big boy” room for a 2-year-old.Amanda wrote to share this house project with us. The carpeting stayed, but that is about the only thing that didn’t change, including the paint on the walls.

Honestly? I'd live in this nursery.

The after is seriously chic, but still colorful and fun.

This bedroom perfectly blends practicality and fun.

Project by: Taylor Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Just days before my scheduled c-section, we were finally finishing our daughter’s nursery. We wanted a room with lots of contrast, personality and DIY touches. We also knew we were working with a small space and so we wanted our choices to be high-impact and make a smart use of our limited floor space.

This little fairytale house will make you want to be a kid again.

What happens when you take over your sister’s bedroom? You scramble to rid the space of everything pink and girly. Even after a great deal of elbow grease had already gone into this space to rid it of girl cooties, Max’s room still needed a little punch of hip and cool to better represent the grownup teenager he’s become. Want to see what it looks like now?

One rainy weekend Lora Neveu decided to build a charming little dream escape in a window nook in her daughter’s room that had remained empty and unused. Follow me after the jump to see what she came up with.Two days and $165 later, Lora had created a wonderful and cozy space that doubles as a play/nap and storage area. She built a simple box and divider out of plywood and brackets, painted, added cushions, lanterns, and drapes, and then she was done.

Rachel of VanHook & Co. is sharing a project that features paint in an unexpected way: refinishing a worn out wooden floor in her kids’ room.A painted floor may not be a DIY for the faint of heart, but the floor in Rachel’s kids’ room turned out beautifully. After experimenting with paint on their hallway floors, Rachel and her husband decided to apply a distressed version to their children’s room.

When Jane and her husband bought their new house, they were less than thrilled with the outdated and sad bedroom that would be their son’s nursery. The wallpaper was old, the walls were in bad shape and, to cap it off, there was a very, very skeevy bed that lived in there. Eight months pregnant, Jane got to the tedious work of stripping the wallpaper, repairing walls and then building the room back up from scratch.Today, the nursery is a far cry from its humble beginnings.

Michele’s son had outgrown his room’s decor, and everyone was sick of the orange, purple and red color scheme. It took a couple of weeks to re-do it completely, using a lot of what they already owned, plus adding a few new things to the mix. The goal was to keep it affordable and simple.This room might win the award for the most handmade things in one space.

When expecting her first child, Susannah did what many folks do in preparation: convert the extra guest room to a nursery. She clearly enjoyed the process, gathering everything she’d need for her first born from sources from Target to Etsy to Craigslist. You want to see how it turned out? You know what to do…Susannah did a great job mixing fun and colorful patterns. The spot above the changing table is ready and waiting for a photo of her soon-to-be-born baby boy.

I love it when kids’ rooms look like, well… a room fit for a kid! This is a great example of a clean, organized, yet creative space for a little one to flourish.Kara Rosenlund designed this room to be a cheerful, relaxed space perfect for a growing little boy. From the dramatic floor-to-ceiling chalkboard walls, to the sunny ceiling fan, to the “grass” rug on the floor, there’s no risk of mistaking this room for a serious grownup space.

For her twin girls, Abbie created a nursery that had — wait for it — not a lick of pink, and an amazing focal point. Take a look at how how she anchored the room, after the jump! See lots of other photos of the finished room, along with all her projects, on Abby’s blog, Five Days Five Ways Thanks for sharing Abbie!

When Brooke and Luke found out they were expecting a baby boy, they decided to turn their office into a nursery. The problem was, it felt like more of a “man room” than a little guy’s nursery with its dark, knotty pine walls. So Brooke and Luke decided to roll up their sleeves and work a little magic with primer and paint. It was a lot of work, but the end result is stunning:For more photos and details, check out Brooke’s blog, Life in Bridgetown.Thanks, Brooke!

Some parents worry that their baby’s closet is too small, but what if all you have for a nursery IS a closet? Kari has been inspired by all the small nurseries we’ve shown in the past and wanted to share her own small space baby project: her closet turned nursery.  Kari writes: We are about to have a daughter and wanted to stay in our one-bedroom apartment, so we converted our walk-in closet into a nursery. Our space was 43′ x 77′.

We often extol the virtues of creating a nursery that will grow with your child and we still believe that. But if you find design and decorating fun, maybe you are looking forward to updating the nursery to a “big kid” room. Reader Laura felt it was time to go from “the land of the dinosaurs” to “swimming with the fishes” in her son’s new, nautical bedroom.

8-year-old Jake had been sharing a room with his older brother until the family decided it was time for each of the boys to have their own space. Their home had a small office that might serve for a third bedroom… after a few little adjustments. Okay, maybe a few big adjustments. Jake’s parents wanted a place where he could sleep, play, study, and host sleepovers — you know, kid things — but the room’s small footprint made this a bit of a challenge.

Project by: Jodie Rosen Design Location: Canada This is a big boy room for a 3-year-old boy, Dylan. The room is accessorized for a 3-year-old but as the child grows, the main pieces will remain age appropriate, and grow with him.This room started with the amazing fabric sourced from Tonic Living. From this jumping off point, we selected the Monte Design Toddler Dorma bed colours of charcoal with a navy pipe.

Gemma and her husband have a baby on the way and, while they didn’t get pregnant just so they could design the nursery, for them, it was a welcome bonus. When they moved into their bungalow, the room was, as Gemma called it, “a hot turquoise mess.” With $600 to spend, they were able to fill the room with nursery essentials: a crib, dresser/changing table (they scored a used one and fixed it up) and a new rug.

Many kids fantasize about having a secret, child-size room just for them. My own kids have a secret room, but it’s more accurately called “hide behind the couch” or, sometimes, “throw a blanket over your head.” Parents Fey & Mark in Cleveland Heights, Ohio discovered they had unused space below their stairs and decided to do something really special with it.

Erin of DIY on the Cheap needed a new sleeping solution for her two boys – her youngest was sleeping in the nursery, while her older son was in the guest bedroom. She decided to create a shared “big boy room” for both and hit it out of the ballpark! Erin made the headboards (you can find the tutorial here), toddler bed and pillows herself as well as updated/upcycled a ton of other pieces in the space. See more about the transformation on Erin’s blog, DIY on the Cheap.

Dana of MADE wanted to spice up her daughter Lucy’s boring bedroom. Living in the suburbs in a “cookie cutter” home, the space was seriously lacking in character and personality. With paint, accessories, and a lot of creativity, this room went from white to wow! I love that Dana didn’t make any big purchases (furniture, an area rug, or curtains) to totally transform the space. The biggest changes were a very creative coat of paint and a few fun DIY projects.

Here’s how Hung describes the room his 5-year-old son Adrian inherited when they bought this house: “purple 70s shag plush carpeting and lime green grey walls”. Not exactly a child’s dream room. The family decided to turn Adrian’s room into a not-too-themey nautical room.. Great job! The textile hanging and lights are particularly dramatic and memorable. They’re a smart way to add a strong visual that is affordable and that even renters could do.

In small rooms it just makes sense to “go up” and optimize your vertical space. Faced with the challenge of making better use of a tiny bedroom (7′ x 12′) in Manhattan, architect Benjamin Marcus conceived a lofted bed structure with stairs and desk and storage below. Benjamin tells us more about this project: The room has two points of entry on opposite long walls, making it a very tight space.