Need interesting children's wallpaper ideas

[nomoreheels]

Right, my work on the nursery is about to start in earnest now that we've sailed through the 21 week scan. (It's a girl! :) )

Unfortunately I am on a very tight budget. I'll be doing all the wall prep and painting myself but I would at least like to have a nice feature wall.

I have had an eye on this wallpaper for ages from Bodie and Fou:

www.bodieandfou.com/penguin_wallpaper-turquoise?category_id=188

But... I can't justify spending that much on two rolls of wallpaper, even at the sale price and with an additional 10% off via an email I received from them - especially as I'll have to pay someone to hang it as I've never done it before and really don't trust myself to do a decent job.

The wall I want to cover is 2.63 m wide by around 2.5 m tall, so I've calculated I'll need 2 rolls for papers that are 52 cm wide.

I am looking for similar types of design, but, well, cheaper! Nothing too pink, flowery or cutesy. No Hello Kitty or obvious branding. Unfortunately a lot of wallpaper seems to be just that...

Any suggestions gratefully looked at. Cheers!

how about some stencils? Or wall stickers? Etsy.com has some really cute ones...

Oh, I don't have any good ideas except to ditto what northerngirl has said about wall stickers. But I just had to comment as that wall paper is lurvely. It is so wonderfully ungendered.

You could search ohdeedoh which is the children's section of apartmenttherapy.com which has a similar aesthetic to that paper... Another idea might be to look for fabrics as there may be more options or cheaper options. Growing up we had fabric covered walls in our bedroom which would have been much easier to put up than wallpaper.

i think its lovely but will be hard to add furniture and accesories too.

Look on the bouf.com website and also Caroline McGrath. The first for wall stencils hundreds of them but fantastic. McGrath for lovel wallpaper... Not sure on price but she has had a sale on...

There are some great stickers here.

Omg just looked at the wallpaper and we have that in both the green and silver in different places! Have just done massive extension and it's just gone in. It is fabby we got from C Mc
not sure if Caroline McGrath is cheaper......but she doesbhave some lovely alternatives

I'm in love with these, but they are only marginally cheaper than yours!

I especially love the parrots in the first colourway and the menagerie

penguin wallstickers; too cutesy? You could make something like this

Hey, lots of responses overnight - thanks everyone. :)

Great idea on the wall stickers, I think this is the road to go down if I can't find any wall paper. Plus we can put them up ourselves - much cheaper all around. I will check out all the links posted and have a snoop around.

P.S. I like those penguin wall stickers BoBoo. The DIY wallpaper tree is a good idea but might be beyond my artistic skills a bit time consuming right now.

Baby will have lots of homemade things made by me though - I like to sew and make my own sock monkeys, soft toys, baby shoes, trousers, that sort of thing. I also collect vintage and odd collectables so the room will (hopefully!) have a very quirky feel.

Guacamole - thanks for those stickers. I'm decorating my 10 year olds DSs bedroom - sure to be something there he'll like

Update: I ended up getting two rolls of this paper today: www.mamasandpapas.com/product-whirligig-wallpaper/749054000/type-i/ It's part of their new range - I was the first to buy it in the Manchester store apparently.

I was out shopping for baby stuff with my DP's lovely mum, and we spotted it. The online image doesn't really do it justice, but they had a whole wall done up with it, and it looked great. It had a similar feel to the penguin paper I liked originally, too. :) I have to say, it's nothing like most of their other papers, which tend to veer towards the cutesy side.

Best of all, she got it for us as part of her baby gifts to us, so I can have a bit more to spend on having someone put it up, or maybe flooring if I feel brave enough to try myself!

I still may get a small wall sticker though, as I'm only papering one wall.

Glad you found something you like, and as you say it's really similar in style to the penguin paper. I'm agonising over fabric for a blind for my DD's room so hope I can find something as quickly.