{Budget Nursery}: The Furniture

My hubby is one of the cheapest most frugal people I know. Let's just say that early on in our marriage I struggled with this, but I've crossed over to the dark-side and joined all the frugalistas out there. The main reason I now penny-pinch is to try to be a good steward of the money God gives us. God has blessed our family through this unstable economy by providing financially for us, and I want to show God that I'm not going to waste His money.  My new mentality is this: If my house were to catch on fire or if I were to die, will I really regret not buying the latest designer thing? {If my house were to catch on fire I would cry if I had all Pottery Barn furniture and had to watch it go in flames...but if it's cheap inexpensive furniture I'm not going to shed a tear}

Using this frugal mentality I now had the task of designing a nursery. {and let's just say that when you put the words "maternity" or "baby" in the mix you are guaranteed to spend more money. Why? I have no clue} So, I wanted an Anthropologie designed nursery on a Walmart budget. Here's how we did that:

The first thing in designing a nursery is measuring the space. My type-A personality was on full throttle, and I took measurements of the open wall space and made a drawing {not to scale..hey, I'm not an architect}

Now that I had the measurements I could start searching for furniture. I began by looking for a crib. I wanted something with clean modern lines in white {perfect for boy or girl with bright accent colors}. I stalked the internet and found this Carter's {3 in 1 convertible} crib:

The original price was $419.99

I found it on sale at JCPenny for $179.99 {savings of $240}

My mother-in-law bought it as a gift, my cost: $0

Next, I searched for an upholstery glider. This was a tough one...even Walmart's upholstery gliders were over $350, so I turned to Craigslist for help. After weeks of searching Craigslist I finally found one. The original owner had covered her glider with fabric that I didn't like so I began to take it off. Underneath I found the original fabric and the brand of the glider: Dutailier. Guess how much a Dutailier glider cost? Only $799. Guess how much I bought my "used-Craiglist-still-in-good-shape Dutailier glider"? $40 bucks people! I hired a company to come clean our carpets, and they only charged me $20 to do an upholstery cleaning on my very frugal Dutailier glider.

Original Dutailier glider price: $799

Used glider price: $40 + cleaning $20 = $60 total {savings of $739}

{do a happy dance!}

Eventually I want to have the glider reupholstered, but for now I'm happy with the original fabric {and my savings!}.

Finally, a nursery needs a changing table/dresser. I wanted a dresser instead of a traditional changing table, I wanted it to be solid wood, and have clean modern lines. I went to Craigslist and found a solid wood dresser. Hubby is in the process of re-doing the dresser and this is the only picture I have right now:

Solid wood dresser: $90

Paint for dresser: $32.98

Cute orange drawer knobs: $19.45

Total dresser cost: $142.43

Here's a picture of the orange dresser knobs I found 50% off at Hobby Lobby:

Total cost for Nursery Furniture: $202.43

My hubby is pleased with my frugal finds! 

{the total cost of furniture would have been $382.42 if we purchased the crib instead of receiving it as a gift. Under $400 for all 3 furniture pieces...not too shabby!}