Chase Baby Blueprint Nursery Challenge

First of all, if you missed my first three posts, make sure you catch up! This adventure has been a blast taking care of getting the old purple playroom into something that is more suitable for a newborn baby boy. I would first like to thank Chase for creating a campaign that allowed us three bloggers to take $2000 and budget it into the baby room.

Now on with the show!

Here is the room PRIOR to the makeover. It was Charlotte’s play room and was done in purple and hand painted murals (that I did) and of course, an abundance of toys…

BEFORE PICTURES

I have left you with many, many questions. From chair rail to murals, which route did I go? I think showing is better than telling.

So TADA!!!!!!!!!!

My Baby Boy Beach Nursery

AFTER PICTURES

Is that a makeover or WHAT!~

Now let me break it down for you.

I changed the nursery first by finding the crib. Once I had a crib to center the room around, I found custom made beach bedding which set the colors and tone of where I wanted to go, which prompted a painting match. Next, I found the surfboard fan, which I was afraid would change the entire feel of the room, but has actually been a very welcome piece that keeps the room cool and brings in a wooden element.

From there it was about incorporating some elements that would bring the room more personalization. I had this vision in my head of huge pictures the baby would see when he woke up (of family) and took some pictures and had them framed in large black and whites in the wainscoting-eseque frames. Then I added open shadow box shelves and started shopping and collecting seashells and other trinkets from the local area. It was very important to me to have some artisan work from our own coastline artists, so I used the “Pensacola Pelican”, which is an icon around here, some glass pieces from the beach shops, and even a beach car that I got right at a gas station.

Now the palm tree picture on the dresser is actually from Mexico. That was all finger painting if you can believe it!

I also picked up items that you cant see very well like a seashell nightlight and pewter covers for the light switches that are engraved with beach life.

Originally I had picked up that rug randomly trying to break up some of the beige in the room and once I got it in I was unsure….I decided to keep it and feel the room out and once the mural was on the wall, I just really loved the way it all came together. Last but not least, I added a baby hamper and a small storage and sitting bench where I could put toys, stuffed animals, or right now before he can reach it, baby supplies and shoes.

Chase

Let me re-remind you:

Project Nursery:

Objective: Create Nursery using my Slate card with Blueprint staying on Budget
Budget: $2000 from Chase to accomplish the task
Goal: To balance it all out, get my needs (and a few wants) and use my Chase Slate card with Blueprint to keep this shopping experience painless and stress free
Prize: $500 and up!

Now of course Chase Slate with Blueprint has been there through it all, from the first purchase to the last, I have been able to keep control on where the majority of my money has been spent and how quickly I am paying it down.

Don’t forget that this was a nursery challenge, so its a competition (Vote for me!) and making sure I stay on task was of the utmost importance. The last thing I needed to distract me from the end goal of this room was worrying about money. Slate allowed me an easy way to pay for my purchases while Blueprint allowed me an easily accessible and easy ability to set up payment plans that fit right into that budget.

Controlling interest charges are always a big deal for anyone utilizing credit cards and knowing that I have the ability to pay exactly within my own budget based on the payment plan I choose, from Full Pay, Split Pay, or Finish It will keep any parent (or anybody) with a fantastic hold on their own personal budgets.

Again, thanks to Chase and thanks to everyone that has followed this challenge and enjoyed watching my purple playroom go to Baby boy Nursery.

Now all I need is a baby.

~Trisha

*disclosure: This post is a part of the Chase Blueprint Baby Challenge where I am in competition against 3 other bloggers showcased on Parents.com for a nursery makeover. This is a compensated and sponsored post. To learn more about Chase, please go here. To read more about the other bloggers, go here.

You would think that doing a nursery would be fun, exciting even. But wow! It has been hard to have one theme in your head to have ten more show up.

I had originally planned a beach theme, a beach theme that included soft sands, and soft walls, and white furniture, and I am still going that way. But I keep finding adorable items that end up more on the “tiki” or “surf theme” and while they both include water, they totally clash.

Lets start with the crib.

We finally got that crib up. Happily, the crib was the easiest thing I had to do! Even though I went with a white crib which can traditionally be thought of for a girl, I love how the lines on it are all straight across which give it more of a masculine feel. My daughters crib was all fancy and curvy, and also white, but they are so different that it still works for me and this theme.

This crib is in Vanilla and you can see that I have laid in my starfish bedding and organic cotton sheets. My only disappointment was that as much as I liked the crib, and liked the bedding, they dont seem to go together. You cant see the lovely ruffles on the bottom of the bedding set, but they seem to make a great hiding place for the cats!

Also, my daughter Charlotte has started to get into the game and surprised me with a few additions of her own on the walls, including this seahorse I found taped in the room today.

I do believe I will frame it for his room from his big sister.

Now with the walls, going from that dark purple mural to blue was quite a treat. It made my daughter cringe a bit since this was her playroom, but ultimately I do believe I achieved a beautiful wall color that is pleasant to the eye, not too soft, but also dark enough to feel like the ocean.

My thoughts from here were to put wainscoting on the walls and really give it a finished look, but would you know after buying $200 in wainscoting and chair rail, driving it home w/ the hatch up on my truck, and dragging it up the stairs, and I thought it was far too stark next to the white furniture.

So of course down the stairs, back to the truck, back to the store.

And back to square one. My new thoughts now are to perhaps get a mural. I just emailed them today to find out how long it would take to ship, but I do believe it might really finish the room behind the crib.

Right now I am considering this “Florida Skies” mural, which I believe may compliment the color and theme of the room and also give the baby something soft to look at when he wakes up:

If for some reason that would take a few months and I cant get it in time (can you believe the baby will be here in 12 weeks? EEK!), my back up plan is paint a stripe around the room to separate the top and bottom, so thats also still a possibility.

I have looked at a ton of “wave” rub ons and even sayings like this one I found, but overall making a commitment has been so hard!

One commitment I have made that I do love however is my glider. I didn’t get that with Charlotte, so I wanted to make sure I had a place to rock the baby for the middle of the night feedings. I absolutely fell in love with this Glider in this soft cream and matching ottoman, where I can rock or kick my feet up. It just feels so lush and when I sit on it I can almost imagine looking out over the Ocean.

Come to think of it, that reminds me, I totally have to find some ocean sounds to play!

From this point forward, what I have to do is decide between a mural or stripes, or even leaving those blue walls the way they are. I have to get in some of my left over furniture like Charlotte’s old nursery dresser and start fixing up some shelves. I also need to clean out the excess toys from the closet and figure out some real storage.

In short…I have to do everything still!

Through it all, the Chase Slate card has been keeping my purchases straight and I can track them on Blueprint anytime I need to which gives me peace of mind and the ability to control my budget each month. Of course having the Chase card with Blueprint makes it easy with all those upcoming purchases as well. I can easily find out what categories my money is being spent in, set up payment plans to make it easy to pay my debt down or off, and its one less thing on my mind with all these nursery designs and plans.

Signing in has been so easy. Finding out my balance, knowing what the upcoming bill will be based on how I want to pay, and using all the budgeting tools has made this project extremely low key as far as stress is concerned for me.

Don’t forget, this is a challenge! The Blueprint Baby Challenge! The Blueprint Baby Challenge is where three bloggers, including myself, are competing to redesign a room in our house into a nursery to win up to $3000 with our amazing designs. Chase has given us $2000 in order to complete this makeover task as well. So not only do I have to make this nursery perfect for my little one, goodness knows he will be the last, but I have to edge those other mommies beautiful designs out to win.

The Pressure! The Pressure!

I cant wait to share the finished product…when it’s finished that is!

~Trisha

Grand Finale! My Nursery Reveal!

Chase Baby Blueprint Nursery Challenge

My Baby Boy Beach Nursery

Chase

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