Earlier this summer, we got the bright idea to move our newly-one-year-old into his four-year-old older brother’s room. We live in a three-bedroom rental, and I desperately wanted my office/craft room/library back, and the boys initially loved sharing a room with each other — I loved hearing them giggle together in the morning. Sadly, we have since moved the baby back to his own room because they were both waking each other up at night and my sleep-deprived brain couldn’t handle it — BUT, all of this bedroom switching did motivate me to finally get their room decorated!

Ideas for Boys Bedroom Decor: Ocean-Themed Room Wee Decor - ad

I decided to go with a beachy, ocean theme with a modern twist (my husband forbade me from using baby blue and taupe, saying this should be a “cool surfer room” and not an “old lady beach house,” ha) — and I did it without breaking the bank. Here are a couple of the ways we decided to decorate on a budget:

beachy frames and instagram photos

Boys Bedroom Decor: Beach & Ocean-Themed Room Ideas

At the beginning of the summer, our local Home Goods (I LOVE that store!!) was having a sale on beachy decor, so I picked up a bunch of frames. I especially love that driftwood-esque one in the top left corner. My overall color scheme is gray, navy and turquoise, so these frames fit perfectly. I printed off a few of my favorite pictures of the boys from my computer but knew I wanted to incorporate some of my Instagram photos too. There are excellent online companies like Printstagram and Artifact Uprising that will print your Instagram photos beautifully, but I just made this collage myself — I downloaded my feed using Instaport, collected my favorites of the two boys together, arranged them the way I wanted in Photoshop, and printed it off at Costco. Less than $10 for the whole project, frame included!

Jack's Room - Beach & Ocean themed decor

I also printed and framed some photos we’ve taken on our travels the past few years — a palm tree in Hawaii and a surfer in Venice Beach. I put some of our favorite beachy books up on the shelf (we have a lot, my son is obsessed with ocean creatures these days) along with a beach painting I found at a yard sale for $1.

Jack's Room - Beach & Ocean themed decor

Boys Bedroom Decor: Beach & Ocean-Themed Personalized Wall Decals

I knew I wanted to add a few playful elements to the room — it IS for little kids, after all — so I ordered these cute fish wall decals from Wee Decor. I know there are plenty of places to order vinyl wall stickers out there, but these are the BEST I’ve found by far. The illustrations are cute and modern (and affordable), they come in a variety of colors (there were four different colorways to choose from with the fish, or you can custom design your own color scheme) and they’re removable! That’s important when you have a four-year-old who likes to rearrange his wall art. 🙂 They were easy to put on the wall, no air bubbles or tears or any problems.

Even though the boys don’t share that bedroom anymore, they still get a lot of playtime in there — and I’m always so happy to look around and see a bit of our personalized touch, especially because it didn’t cost us a ton of money.

What are your best tips for decorating on a budget?