Here are some tips for budgeting a creatively decorated children’s ministry. First you have to be realistic. Here are your options:
- Do it yourself (we can help!)
- Pay a local artist to come up with something
- Hire a company like Creative For Kids to design and create it for you
In each of these three examples the price just gets higher as you move down the list. Let’s take a look at your three choices and see what fits for you!
Do it yourself
This is the most cost effective of the three and has some great financial benefits. On the flip side it can create headaches in others areas. Good news though, Creative For Kids has provided cost effective resources for years to help churches do it themselves!
We have a full line of do-it-yourself mural kits and most recently, wall stickers, wall hangings, and banners. With one of our mural kits and some good volunteers, you can paint a typical classroom for about $150 in a few days of painting.
Hire a local artist
There are some benefits to hiring a local artist over doing it yourself:
- The artwork will look more professional
- No need to recruit and rely on volunteers
- The artist does all the work for you
- A professional artist can create and paint a large area more effectively and efficiently
The price of artist usually varies based on the artist’s skill, demand, quality of workmanship, etc. The price to do a typical mural that is 12 feet long by 8 feet high might range from $300 for a beginner to $1000 or more for a seasoned professional.
Hire a national company
Creative for Kids specializes in creating amazing areas for children. That’s what we love to do! Typically churches that hire us are between 1000 – 8000 in membership. We have done smaller and larger churches but the 1000-8000 range of membership seems to be our niche. The main reason for this is that churches in this range usually have the budget to hire companies like us.
We provide a wide range of services and our professionalism is typically much higher than a local artist. The expectations are much higher as well. I have found that most national companies won’t give out a financial ballpark figure. Admittedly, that frustrates me.
We start out by telling our clients to figure on around $17/square foot to hire a company like ours. This estimate gets you onto the playing field of understanding. Now this $17/square foot is for paintable wall space in your area and this is just for muraling. This ballpark figure gets you mentally and financially prepared for a budget.
For Creative For Kids, the final figure we provide is for everything we have agreed to, no hidden costs. We show up on time, do the work according to the timetable agreed upon and leave you with nothing short of a spectacular children’s area you can’t wait to reveal to your kids!
I have to warn you, some companies will charge as much as 3 times that number. Make sure you get a detailed breakdown of exactly what they will do including all costs. The sky is the limit to what you can create in your ministry area. Just make sure you know up front what the final cost is.
