Small kids bedroom ideas on a budget
When you have a small kids’ room to work with, it’s difficult to summon up the vision to make it a safe haven for your child because real homes don’t always look like the ones shown in the magazines. However, what’s lacking in space doesn’t always have to mean lacking in style. Here are some small kids bedroom ideas on a budget (which can also work as kids’ shared bedroom ideas too).
Declutter
One of the most important ideas for small kids’ bedrooms is minimalism, i.e. get rid of the stuff you don’t need! A good way to make a room look smaller is to fill it with stuff. We will talk about storage later, but you can hide things you want to keep in cleverly positioned storage units.
Small kids’ bedroom ideas tip – Don’t throw away what you don’t want – either upcycle, give it away, sell for extra cash or put it on toy rotation!
Spring sale is now on, with up to 50% off on small single beds here!*
Refresh, repurpose, and reposition furniture
Could you repurpose any furniture? It’s amazing how you can renew life into a bedroom, just by moving things around. If you have any usable items, keep them to one side because you can always revamp them with a bit of paint and some TLC.
In my boys’ room, we had mattresses leftover from race car beds that were too small and a cupboard with a door that was falling off its hinges. We flipped one of the storage shelves over and turned it into a bookshelf/toy storage area (more on that below). We also kept one of the IKEA wardrobes and bought another one, so both boys had the same wardrobes for storing clothes on either side of their bunk bed.
You can also look for old items on sites like eBay and Freecycle, which are brimming with old antique furniture that just needs a lick of paint to bring them to life again. You can even get old furniture for free on Freecycle!
Is your kid’s bed in the optimal position? Does your child need a larger bed or can they get away with having a small single bed in a small room? Repositioning the bed changes the whole look of the room and gets the creative juices flowing.
Rearranging furniture is completely free, so keep items you want aside and in mind while you’re planning how you want your room to look.
Kids’ bedroom ideas for small rooms tip – Don’t over clutter your child’s room with bulky furniture. Can you make do with one wardrobe rather than two? Can you combine uses for the storage shelf like we did?
Spring sale is now on, with up to 50% off on kid’s beds here!*
Plan how you’d like the room to look
Children’s bedroom layout ideas often start with a sole purpose and a focus point, which would normally be the bed. There are really two ways to tackle the planning stage of a tiny kids‘ room.
- Clear the room and stand at the door. Envision what colours you’d like the walls to be and where your current furniture could go. What new items would you need to finish the room? Write them down.
- Stand in front of the room with everything in place. What do you have already that you can embellish upon? Do you have items from other rooms that you could ‘borrow’ to add to the room? Or can you remove items from the room to open the space?
Small room tip – Only have one focus point and have other items pointing to it. Try to keep things to the walls and leave the middle part of the floor space open to give the illusion of a spacious room, even if it’s a small space.
Work with the floor layout
On paper, the furniture might seem perfectly mapped out, but in real life, it doesn’t look so perfect. Pay attention to the measurements of the room and the floor plan, as well as where you want the furniture to go. You want this room to accommodate as the child grows in their space.
You can change a room’s character simply by adding a rug to the floor. When choosing a rug, think about your floor type. For example, if you are opting to place a rug on a laminate floor, then you have more options available to you, as it’s relatively easy to use the laminate floor as a blank space to work from. Whereas, if you are looking to cover the carpet with rug, then you’d need to think about the pile of your carpet and look for contrasting textures. For example, if you have a thick carpet, go for a thin rug as a contrast.
Don’t be scared to venture outside of your comfort zone, though. Sometimes brightly coloured rugs can transform a bland space and even add depth of space to a small room. You can find high-quality cheap rugs from Land of Rugs and there are tons of options to choose from that don’t involve you forking out too much money for the aesthetic fitting. Small bedroom ideas for boys could include a racetrack rug, which my boys loved, and of course girls can love too,
To keep your child’s room accessories under a tight budget, create a list of what you need for the room. That way you will not get carried away by unnecessary and expensive items.
Have a theme in mind
As we know all too well, our children are prone to active imaginations that rarely switch off at bedtime. Having a healthy imagination goes hand-in-hand with creativity, which is why it’s so important to make sure we inspire our children every chance we can get. If you have a little one that’s adventurous and loves all things nautical, for example, then creating the ultimate pirate-themed room may be just the thing to feed their imagination – and it works for little girl bedroom ideas for small rooms as well as boys too!
Setting the scene
Let’s stay with the pirate-theme idea for your child’s bedroom. In keeping with the colour scheme, you could choose a wallpaper with a nautical style, such as an anchor pattern or treasure map print. Or if it’s easier, paint walls with block colours like blue, red and yellow, which will look great with the rest of the room’s pirate accessories.
Go for curtains with similar prints to match this nautical vibe, or find some with a brightly coloured striped design, which shouldn’t be hard to hunt down. If your child has a wooden floor or bland looking carpet, add some magic to the room with a pirate-themed rug. There are lots of children’s rugs available, meaning you’ll easily be able to find one that’s fit for a pirate’s abode.
The ship
It only makes sense for your little matey to have their own ship, so let them sail around the seven seas of Slumberland in a bed fit for Blackbeard himself. If you or someone you know is partial to a bit of DIY, why not have a go at customising a bed for your child? Don’t despair if you don’t have the skills or time needed because there are lots of great beds out there with cool bedding sets to match. If you require a kids’ room design for two kids, then a bunk bed would work well here.
Storage is your friend
Things you have accumulated over the years should be out of sight, so invest in some clever storage, which is also space-saving too. There are some great small children’s bedroom storage ideas out there – Google is your friend here.
You can also invest in some paint and repaint the storage and any other bulky items to a theme colour you have in mind.
Small room tip – Use the walls for storage so you’re not taking anymore space on the floor, which brings us onto the next point nicely.
Use the walls
Very small bedroom ideas could include mounting furniture onto walls, which will save space on the floor and cover up open wall space too. Installing sliding doors (you can find some great options at Barrier Components) will create more open fluid space in the room without burning too much of a hole in the pocket.
Think about space-saving beds
For very small children’s bedroom ideas, bunk beds are great, but sleeper beds are even better because you can use the space under the bed for the homework/study area. Small bedroom ideas for girls can include a fairy princess sleeper bed, which has a lounge section for reading. And for kids’ bedroom ideas for boys, you can opt for a racecar sleeper bed which has a play section underneath.
Ideas for kids’ small bedrooms tip – Make sure not to position the bed by the door or else your child may struggle to get in and out of the room. And think about bed size – do they really need a double bed, especially if you’re looking for small kids’ room ideas that fit inside your child’s room?
Create a homework/study area
Motherhood Diaries took part in a ‘Back to School DIY Homework Makeover Challenge’ to makeover my boys’ homework area and, as they were then both in reception and year one respectively, a homework area was an important part of the bedroom.
We were given a budget of £40 to make over our children’s homework area and this is the room we had to deal with:
Before the desk makeover
So, as you can see, the boys needed more than a homework makeover! So, on top of our challenge to makeover the boys’ homework area, we did up the whole room at the same time. To their credit, they were perfect helpers.
Small kids bedroom ideas – DIY Homework Station Makeover Challenge
The challenge was to makeover the homework area for under £40, which we kept at by buying the following from Ikea (we tried to steer away from the classic Ikea kids’ bedroom though):
- Stuva Bench with White – £20
- Children’s Stool – Mammut – £5 x 2
- Sunnersta Container – £0.50 x 2
Grand total of £31!
We also had the two storage boxes and red and white pots from a previous purchase that we could repurpose. Rust-oleum offered us the opportunity to review the following paint alongside our DIY Homework Station Makeover Challenge so we could also jazz up our homework area with some cool paint too.
- Satin Furniture Paint – Blue Sky
- Mode Spray Paint in Blue Aqua
- Glitter Sparkling Finish in Gold
- Glow in the Dark – Aqua
- Magnetic Chalkboard Paint (Brush) – Black
- Doodle Wall – White
- Brushes
Getting to work
The result!
Storage boxes are great small bedroom ideas for kids because they can act as part of an extended table and they can store other items out of sight.
The boys’ storage area
Kids’ small bedroom ideas can include storage, which doubles up as a table and house many items in a child’s room.
The bed!
Bunk beds are great bedroom ideas for children because they’re space-saving and can house two kids!
After the makeover
The boys were super happy with their room now and spent so much more time in their new homework area. Now I have two girls, I am busy researching ideas for small bedrooms for girls.
So, there are tons of ways you can makeover your child’s homework area. Some great kids’ small room ideas can include recreating their school environment, like the classic wooden desks and Action Storage school lockers, or you can go for the classic homely look like we accomplished over the course of a weekend.
Ideas for kids’ rooms tip – Build up on your homework area rather than out and use a chair which fits comfortably under the table to save space.
The finishing touches
Now you’ve sorted out the main focal points of the room, engage your child’s imagination even more with some accessories, but keep it light for small rooms. A great kids’ bedroom idea is to opt for some fancy dim lighting and books on the shelf. Work with what your child’s interests are and keep it decluttered for that larger space illusion.
Room ideas for kids needn’t be difficult and unobtainable and there is no reason you can’t make your child’s small bedroom funky and cosy. Use the above small bedroom ideas to encourage the creative juices to flow and create a bedroom your child will love for years to come.
*Collaborative feature post*
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