A cheap, easy way to decorate your nursery

This post is several months overdue but am glad I’m finally getting down to sharing it!

In my last month of pregnancy, I finally got down to thinking about decorating our nursery. It was definitely low on my priority list compared to getting baby necessities, household chores and managing the business. What’s more, all the baby purchases started to add up despite having gotten several items second-hand or borrowing them from friends.

To help manage with the costs and not wanting the nursery to be over decorated, I decided to come up with a simple way to add a little something extra to the baby’s room.

cheap and easy nursery decor … 

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Isaac’s first month party!

In Chinese tradition, we celebrate the day our baby completes his or her first month with family and friends. After a whole month of getting used to our baby’s arrival, we really looked forward to catching up with close ones!

Juggling the baby’s needs and the business took quite a lot of time and sleep so preparing for the party took a lower priority – at least I tried to convince myself of that considering how much I love planning parties. In fact, I decided to go without decor and buy the door gifts from a supplier instead of making it ourselves so that it wouldn’t add more unnecessary stress or work. But of course, who was I kidding!

The night before the party, I decided to make a sign on our kitchen glass door to prevent people from walking into it by accident. Previously I had pasted a line of random post-its on the door – my husband has walked into it enough times for us to realize it’s a safety hazard (ulp!). I had always intended to have a decal pasted on the kitchen glass door but never got down to it once we were expecting Isaac. So we made a first month party sign instead!

first month party sign on glass door

pardon the crazy (artistic?) reflections…

I was really happy with the sign… and that really got my itchy hands going. It felt sad for that sign to be our only decor and it made the blank wall by our front door seem too plain.

So… I started cutting random triangles only to realize it would take a lot of work to have them all stuck on the wall. I was pretty much going to give up but my dear husband was determined to let his crazy wife have her triangles on the wall. He helped to stick blue tack on them while I was in the shower and we stuck them on the wall one-by-one till our masterpiece was complete! It was actually really fun doing this with him in the middle of the night like school kids with a craft project all over again :)

Triangle photo wall - welcoming baby isaac

Midnight shenanigans

Triangle photo wall - welcoming baby isaac

Isaac’s first photo wall

And there it was! A photo wall and the first thing guests would see when entering our apartment. (The triangles aren’t stuck in perfectly straight lines but my perfectionist side went out the window the minute my morning sickness started. Lucky husband haha!)… 

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IKEA transformed with Superfront

I’ve always found IKEA a good go-to for quick home furnishing needs on a moderate budget. I know there’s been a lot of talk on quality and shelf life but that has never really bothered me. I’ve had a few tables warp or break over the years. But I’ve also had a foldable table that has lasted me 15 years and counting.

Nevertheless I’ll admit – I don’t really think long-term when it comes to furniture and living arrangements as I like changing things up once in a while. (Of which I have duly given my future husband a heads-up!)

For our new home, we’ve been looking out for furniture and IKEA is definitely one of the places we are looking at due to budget constraints and sheer convenience.

Most of the stuff is nice enough, but guess what I just found to make it even nicer!

Hellooo Superfront.

superfront for ikea cabinets

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Mixing paper flowers with real flowers

Flowers for weddings can sometimes cost a bomb. And it also feels like a waste to be tossing so many flowers after the ceremony if no one wants to take them home.

I’ve been quite keen on making paper flowers for our wedding but we’ll see how many I can whip up in time. I had thoughts of mixing paper flowers with real flowers but wasn’t really sure how they’d look.

And then I came across these!

paper flowers mixed with real flowers
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Gold cutlery

The hunt has begun. Previously, home decor and household items were a matter of daydreaming and browsing. But now with our upcoming new home, things are getting serious!

Recently, my fiance and I came across gold cutlery at a store. I had always seen them in food style photos and thought they were pretty cool. But actually holding them and thinking of using them on a daily basis needed some mental adjustment. After all, most cutlery we’re used to is silver, and gold felt… different.

So I started searching for more gold cutlery online to see if I could start getting used to it… Paired with simple white plates,  these gold babies make everything look so good!

Gold cutlery

{5pc cutlery set in gold by Canvas | $70}

gold cutlery

{Almoco flatware by Design Within Reach, $50}

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