How to style a boy's bedroom on a budget {or how we did it anyway!}

When we moved into our newly built house, we wanted to update some of the boys furniture in their rooms particularly since it was an eclectic mix of items we'd gradually collected over our years in Wellington and nothing went together particularly well.

But with a limited budget (we've spent a fortune building the house let's not forget!) we had to be smart about styling the boys' bedrooms on a budget to create a fresh and modern look without breaking the bank.

During the build process we made the decision to put in wardrobe storage solutions in each of our bedrooms during the build. This was such a good idea as it reduces the need for having a set of drawers in the bedroom taking up space. Even though Mylo ended up with a smaller version (due to a skinny hall cupboard on the other side of his wardrobe in the house plan), both boys have more than enough room to hang all their clothes or have them folded away in the drawers as well as storing most of their toys and books neatly away out of sight in their wardrobes. This definitely helps make their rooms feel bigger and less cluttered for a start.

Between the wardrobes and the additional room furniture I'm really pleased with how spacious and modern their rooms are - they have a few similar pieces of furniture in their rooms but still enough variety in colour scheme and individual items to make each room their own. Plus there's room to add more at a later date if we want to.

Here's how we did it:

Designers Choice Junior Cooper Duvet Cover from Farmers $149.99
This is a reversible duvet cover with a fun geometric print on one side and a lovely nautical stripe on the other.  I love both sides of the design and we mix it up as to which one has the design face up on the bed at any one time.

We certainly didn't pay full price for these duvet covers - buying them during their big New Years Sale with at least 50-60% off full retail price if I remember correctly.

Workspace Sam Chairs in Blue and Green from Warehouse Stationery $59.99-$79.99

Vigo Desk from Mocka $129.99
If you don't mind a bit of DIY furniture, then building flat-pack furniture from Mocka is a great value option for stylish, low cost items and the free shipping NZ wide no matter how large or small the order is a big plus point too.

Mocka Storage Unit - Two Cubes in Blue and Green from Mocka $59.99
Again Mocka came up trumps with these small storage units that function well as bedside tables to keep the kids books, drink bottles and alarm clocks on - as well as a few treasures to safely stow away in the cupboard below.

Scandi Shelves (Hexagonal and House design) from The Warehouse - $20-$40 for a set
These aren't identical to the ones I purchased (I bought a set of 3) but you get the basic idea. I can't now find the original versions I bought online now but they may still be in stores.

I love that the boys can mix up which of their treasures are displayed on their shelving at any one time.  A word of warning though - you do need to be prepared to spend the time and energy using your maths brain to get the calculations right to get the shelving straight and centred with even spacing between - if that's the look you're going for. And if you don't already have one, invest in a spirit level when hanging these - you won't regret it! We hung the Hexagonal shelving with normal picture hooks but the house shelves had a slightly different hanging system so we just used some small screws in the wall to hang these.

Home and You Riverside A2 Grey frame from The Warehouse $25-30
Both boys had created one particularly colourful piece of art from school last year that I knew I wanted displayed in pride of place on their walls - Noah's was a fish picture and Mylo a crazy colour pattern picture. These grey A2 frames with an A3 mat inside were the perfect way to display them on their walls.

I'd bought quite a few of these items within a week or two of moving in and hadn't had any time to get the rooms properly set up until now so it's been rather satisfying seeing my vision of styling the boy's rooms finally come to fruition.