Minnie Mouse Room : DIY Decor

Our littlest has reached a rite of passage…. the “Big Girl” room!  No more nursery for her!  Bye bye crib and changing table – hello toddler bed and big girl stuff! We had so much fun making a Minnie Mouse room just for her!  Lots of pink and purple with white polka dots, this was a really cute Minnie Mouse Bow-tique themed toddler room and it is just too precious to not share.

One of C’s first words was “Mimi Mow” – and what she meant by that was “Minnie Mouse“. Proving once again that she is 100% mine, she shared her enthusiastic love for all things Minnie Mouse Bowtique at the ripe old age of one!  She had a Minnie Mouse 2 year old birthday party and naturally when we talked about her big girl room we all decided a Minnie Mouse bedroom was in order for our toddler. We had a lot of fun with our unisex Disneyland Bedroom and unisex kid’s Disney Bathroom – but now I get to do a Disney inspired room that can be 100% girlie – and I couldn’t be more thrilled!

Minnie Mouse Room : DIY Decor

If you know me, you know I’m not a huge fan of ‘character’ bedding and clothes. That being said, I respect that kids love it. While I personally would have loved to custom make a little eyelet and ribbon toddler comforter, I knew she would be so excited to see Minnie Mouse on her bed each day, so I ordered her this  Minnie Mouse Toddler Bedding. Big giant Minnie Mouse, flowers, pink, purple, I mean – what else does a two year old want in her themed to the nines Minnie Mouse room?  I tried to soften the look a bit with crocheted baby blankets – one made especially for her, one for her big sister, that are in the perfect color scheme.

Little Miss C is our ‘I need a billion babies in bed or I can’t sleep’ kid. We were one of those sets of parents that used to think that it was super gross and wrong to let kids pile up the stuffed animals, until we had a kid that ‘needed’ so many babies. Now I just take as many as I can out to the laundry when she isn’t looking and know that someday she will outgrow it.

We repurposed the book sling from the big kid’s room (we swapped out red & white polka dot fabric for pink & white polka dot fabric for a Minnie Mouse Bow – tique look) and hung it right at her level. A rocking chair from my childhood and a stuffed Minnie larger than her (thanks Grandma) makes for a cozy little corner to read in her Minnie Mouse Bedroom.

Her little toddler bed is Pottery Barn, because only the best will do for my little princess. Just kidding, while it is Pottery Barn, it isn’t because that is the only thing I am willing to decorate with….. it was $20 at a garage sale in a swanky neighborhood. She got designer furniture cuz mommy was in the right place at the right time!

Her dresser has lived a long life – it served her big sister well in her Princess room, then C in her Birdy Nursery, and then we put those fancy knobs back on for C’s Minnie Mouse room!  Not bad for an $80 Craigslist find!  We topped it with a storage box, faux flowers, and lamp that were all left over from J’s baby room!  $0!  The Princess Picture frame was made from a Princess wood decor piece that was in big sis’ Princess room and we hot glued one of our polka dot pottery barn frames on it! We printed out a pic of C playing dress up in a pink Aurora dress and we think it sure is sweet for next to nothing…..

It was important to us that we decorated this little room for C. We put many things down low, on her level for her to enjoy. It seemed silly to hang all the pictures up at our eye level right?  We’ve hung a cute silhouette Mickey & Minnie frame. The polka dot frames are modified from a set from Pottery Barn – and I of course purchased them at a garage sale. We printed out silhouettes on our home computer.

At the same garage sale we found cork boards (in the big kids rooms) and also this perfect pink magnet board! Grandma can be thanked for the cute pink rocking horse (an estate sale find) and the Minnie Mouse Bow – tique night light!

The OCD in me really wanted magnets that matched, but the thrifty gal in me knew these letter magnets we already had would be enjoyable and not effect our budget- so freebies it was!

The polka dot paint in the Minnie Mouse room is the cutest in my opinion. We painted bright white with a big band of “It’s A Girl” Pink (VOC free paint by Behr) all the way around the room. Check out our Polka Dot Paint Tutorial we posted earlier. We then took stencils with the white and made Minnie worthy polka dots on the band. We used a chair rail to frame the pink polka dotted band…. and here is where it gets really cute!  We wove pink ribbon in and out of the bottom chair rails, which I think is the cutest thing ever (tutorial coming). We have done this in our girl’s rooms before and it is always a hit! I think that for the Minnie’s Bowtique theme it is even more fitting!

One of the ways we keep our costs low is by re-purposing furniture from the previous room, other areas of the house, or second hand finds. One of my favorite pieces in her room is this sweet corner shelf. At one point this thrift store find was painted white and in my oldest girl’s room. We used some of the “It’s A Girl” paint we used on the wall to make it the perfect little custom piece. She has a basket with tutus on the bottom, a picture frame with some of the fabric from her baby room, fancy tissue box, an accessory tree, and a Minnie night light all neatly and whimsically displayed. We also had two “hair pretty” holders left over from J’s princess room that we were able to hang in C’s room. $0 – yay for hand me downs!  We purchased the pink hamper at a friend’s ‘adoption fund’ garage sale!  Great deal! Great cause! Win win!

Her light fixture was also repurposed; originally from her brother and sisters room – we painted over the red with pink – it took about 30 minutes and we were able to reuse what we already had!

And perhaps the best piece from the past is her black Minnie Mouse shelf. My dad made me this shelf in high school (middle school?) and I loved it!  We used it to decorate the big kid’s shared room at the old house, and it fit perfectly into this room too with one adorable modification. I made a tiny pink bow and hot glued it on top of the Mickey Mouse cut out – voila!  Minnie Mouse!  The decor on top is all stuff we already had; her first set of Mickey Ears, a Willow Tree figurine a friend gifted us when C first joined our family, frames we already had, pink vases from thrift stores, and a Mrs. Pots I have had since Beauty and Beast first hit theaters.

Because we repurposed so much, this room cost less than $200 including paint, chair rail, new bedding, and the furniture we had to buy!  Bedding was purchased new, a few things were gifts, and just about everything else was bought at garage sale for pennies on the dollar or reused from other areas of our old house. As stated in a previous post paint was provided by Behr, but I figured the actual cost into the total!  I am a big believer that a fancy, schmancy, special room does not need to cost a lot of money to make!  Planning ahead and a little treasure hunting can really help in keeping the cost down!  Even with our tight budget our little Minnie lover has a fancy pants Minnie Mouse room fit for a Princess!