Savvy mum saves £800 on daughter’s dream princess bed by knocking up her own using IKEA bargains
IF they didn’t cost a small fortune, we probably would have bought our little one a princess bed by now – but as it stands, they can cost upwards of £1,000.
That said, we could do with taking some inspiration from savvy mum Nicole McShane – who knocked up a princess bed in a matter of hours using IKEA bargains.
Explaining how she put it together, Nicole told Latest Deals: “We wanted something special for Penelope as she’s seen a few friends’ beds and was particularly interested in a princess castle – which little girl isn’t?
“I had a look round but the prices were ridiculous and I just couldn’t justify spending that much on a child’s bed. I searched online and on Instagram and Pinterest for around 18 months for something more affordable and came across this design on Pinterest.”
Then Nicole saw a boxy design on Instagram and showed it to her engineer husband who agreed that it would be easy to do.
The couple started with simple IKEA bedframe and bought some extra wood from B&Q to form the “castle” and roof.
“B&Q will cut MDF for you so we got them to cut the roof to size,” she said. “The tongue and groove was really easy to attach – even I could do that part!”
Once they had the structure of the bed, Nicole then painted it in white Valspar paint – which they had matched with Farrow and Ball’s pricey All White shade.
Using some leftover wood, the devoted parents then made flower boxes to attach to the “windows” before painting them pink.
Adding a personal touch, Nicole filled the flower beds with fake peonies and roses from Home Bargains – which were the flowers she had in her wedding bouquet.
- KURA bed, £129 from IKEA –buy now
- KALLAX Shelves, £45 from IKEA –buy now
What’s more, the parents also bought an IKEA storage unit to act as steps going up to the bed and even added some boxes for toys in the area underneath.
In total, Nicole spent just £200 on the project – which saved her a whopping £800.
She added: “It took a couple of days just because we did it in the evening but if we did it from the morning it would have been a few hours to build.
“The painting took the longest time and then having to do two coats. Also, with the flower boxes as we had to wait for glue to dry.
“I’m really happy with it. I personally thought it would be a disaster but I actually like it better than the design we saw online because of the pink and trim we added to it!”
For more home inspiration, you can follow Nicole’s Instagram page here.
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