Having a Montessori bedroom does not need to break your budget and be filled with the fancy furniture.
Tour our simple Montessori bedroom for our 1 year old that is filled with a second hand toddler bed, Kmart kids couch, frugal cube shelf, Kmart art, and an Ikea bookshelf attached to bed.
In total I don’t believe our Montessori set-up cost us more than $250.
We chose a second hand wooden toddler bed.
This has lasted my oldest til he turned 7, and then we upgraded him so our newest 1 year old can have independent bed.
We always aim for long term use if we can, more budget friendly.
A short toddler bed allows for easy independence climbing in/out of bed, without the health risks of a floor bed with a mattress on the floor.
We personally have never done a floor bed, but from about 11-12 months our children can usually begin getting in/out of a toddler bed.
A Kmart couch suits being child sized furniture for reading books just as well as the expensive options many influencers post about.
Do what works for your family.
Being Montessori aligned at home does not have to look like a Montessori classroom.
Our kids love have loved sitting on their foam couch and looking through books.
We have used a 4 cube shelf on its side for over 7 years.
It’s a great height for babies & toddlers and fits most trays/toys.
We rotate materials on the shelf fairly often and only display a few materials at a time to allow for focus and mastering the skill.
Observe your child to see what they’ve mastered and adjust your toys accordingly.
The one not “cheap” item we currently have is our Ikea Pax Wardrobe.
We started with a small simple DIY Montessori wardrobe (below) until we could save up to customize a Montessori inspired design.
You can see more specifics on our original design for our two older boys in our Ikea Pax post.
As long as you can keep their clothes at their level and have only a few options out at a time you can make many Montessori wardobe options suit you. I’ve written about a few frugal options for Montessori toddler wardrobes if you need ideas.
We used bottom 4 drawers of Ikea Pax wardrobe and added more as they grew. Below is an older brothers set-up using the same drawers.
Instead of buying a whole bookshelf and worrying about anchoring it to the wall, we bought an Ikea shelf and attached it to the end of our toddler bed.
This kind of “hack” could also go on the side of a wardrobe if you happen to rent or can’t make holes in the wall easily.
Again we rotate through books and only have between 3 to 5 accessible at a time.
We try to find Montessori aligned books, but also I love a good story as the parent who reads it every day.
Also, sometimes just finding what you can from the local thrift shop works too.
Our best book finds are nearly always at the thrift shop, but there are few modern authors who make some beautiful illustrations still.
Tabitha Page has some absolutely beautiful illustrations with realistic watercolor images. The stories are anthropomorphized a bit, but lovely stories that I would pair alongside Peter Rabbit and Bramberly Hedge.
This bee book was from the thrift shop, but it was fairly realistic in wording and had textures on the pages which for me is a great way to get babies and young toddlers engaged in books.
I have found and made a small list of Montessori aligned books if you are trying to get some ideas of what to look for or get from library or shops.
Kids loves books and it is one of the most research backed activities that absolutely helps children excel in the long term.
This was how my eldest’s Montessori bedroom first looked when he was 1 year old, which has been years ago now.
You can see this is a realistic look of how a Montessori bedroom can look without all the expensive items/furniture that many social media images will show you is “Montessori”.
We’ve used these simple affordable items for years and with 3 children now, and they’ve worked for us doing Montessori at home.
Hope this helps anyone who feels overwhelmed by all the “Insta-pretty” Montessori rooms and can see that you can make a Montessori at home environment on a more realistic budget. <3
Feel free to ask any questions in comments if you have any!
