Mum creates dream nursery on £90 budget – making impressive cot mobile for just £4!

It's easy to spend big when it comes to creating the dream nursery. But as this beautiful nursery proves, it's not always about blowing the budget. Creative mum Lindsay Wlodarski transformed her room on a strict budget of just £90.

How? By upcycling secondhand items and crafting decorative touches herself. Such as a cot mobile, animal watercolours and floral wall art. Probably the most impressive of all is the handmade £4 cot mobile, which would have cost around £150 to buy new!

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Already mum to three young boys Lindsay Wlodarski was thrilled to discover she was expecting a baby girl. 'As soon as I found out I knew that I wanted her nursery to be super elegant and girly,' she told Latest Deals.

Pink nursery budget makeover

To set the scene the walls were given a lick of paint in an elegant shade of pale pink. 'I managed to make one tin stretch to the whole room,' she explains.

Lindsay was savvy to keep the costs low, saying  'I sourced what I could from Facebook Marketplace. And was extremely lucky to receive a stunning changing table for free, from a lady who lives in the same town as me.'

'Another acquaintance offered us a white and grey cot bed – which was a perfect fit for the room.'

 'I attached a rose garland, which I already had at home, along the bottom of the cot for a decorative touch,' she says. 'I paid £1 for the cot valance sheet on Facebook Marketplace.'

It’s the handmade touches, such as the beautiful cot mobile, that really give the nursery its wow factor.

Homemade cot mobile cost just £4

'The cot mobile is my proudest creation and so very worth the hours I spent on it,' says Lindsay proudly. 'Firstly, I sketched out the design and then created the pattern for each piece. I cut each item out of felt that I already had at home, hand-stitched them and filled them with stuffing from a pillow.'

'The flowers are made from spirals of felt that are hot glued together. Each component was then attached to string and securely tied around an embroidery hoop, which I finished with some glued-on lace ribbon and flowers. I sourced a musical arm to hang it from for £1 on Facebook Marketplace.'

Handmade artwork and foam flower peg rail

Lindsay also handcrafted the corresponding rabbit and swan artworks that adorn the walls, which she has displayed in £2 photo frames from The Range.

Lindsay already had two spare wall shelves hanging around in the house, so she painted them with grey paint samples to match the colour scheme of the room. She attached some foam flowers from The Range to the front of the shelf with the clothes pegs on it to enhance the floral theme. Speaking of which, the floral wall art above the cot was another craft hit.

Paper flower wall art

“I had seen oversized flowers for the wall when searching on Pinterest and Etsy, but they cost around £80 or more,' exclaims Lindsay. 'I watched a few YouTube videos to learn how to make them and had a few practice runs with printer paper. Once I was happy that I could do it, I spent £9 on shimmery card from The Range to make the final versions.'

'Each petal is hand cut, rolled onto a pencil to create the shape, and then glued together. They are attached to the wall with Wilko’s picture hanging strips.'

Homemade bow holder

Lindsay also made the adorable hair bow holder. Along with a dreamcatcher, both crafted with materials she already had at home.

Lindsay already had the IKEA white wardrobe. Aside from the items she picked up for free or handmade , here’s what Lindsay spent…

Budget breakdown

• Wilko Paint, £12
• Amazon Rug, £15
•  Cot mobile, £1 (plus some supplies she already had)
•  Picture frames, £4
•  IKEA book shelves, £10
• Wallflowers, £10
• Flowers on shelf in jar, £2
• Foam flowers on shelf, £1
•  Valance sheet, £1
• Curtains and lampshade from The Range, £16
• Vinyl name stickers, £18

That all adds up to a grand total £90 – amazing!

The makeover took Lindsay approximately one month, which she completed while she was pregnant nonetheless. Meaning it was ready for her baby girl, who was born in August 2020.

Related: Girls bedroom ideas for every child – from pink-loving princesses to adventurous tomboys

Reflecting on the room Lindsay says, 'When I first started the nursery, I couldn’t have imagined how special it would be. I’m really pleased with how stunning it looks, considering I was on a very tight budget.' Impressive work.