A Whimsical and Modern Space: Our Nursery Reveal

During the past few weeks, I’ve felt like I’ve been growing two things—the baby, of course, as well the nursery.  It’s been so much fun decorating the space and daydreaming about the experiences my family and I will have in this room.

In case you’ve missed my last few posts about The Blueprint Baby Challenge, I’ll fill you in: I was given $2000 from Chase to makeover my nursery, as well as participating in a competition with 2 other expecting bloggers to win additional prizes of at least $500. Hopefully you’ll love what I’ve done with the room, and vote for mine as your favorite.

Now that the room is complete, I find myself frequently reflecting on what I’ve accomplished, and enjoying how visually pleasing the space is.  I know I’ll relish much of my time in here, nursing, changing diapers, and tending to an infant again, at least during those rare moments when I’m not running on lack of sleep and stuck in the fog of new motherhood.

While it’s been great reveling in the finished room, I also really enjoyed the process of transforming it. From choosing and paying for the furnishings using my Slate card with Blueprint, to painting the room with my brother and sister-in-law, to the fun times hanging wallpaper with my husband, the journey of creating a space for the newest member of my family has been memorable.  Rather than continue to wax poetic, I’ll give you a run-down of the transformation.

Here are the goals I focused on while creating the nursery:

• Eco-friendly, with both green and repurposed items (like the crib)
• Funky, handmade touches
• Furniture that would grow with my child
• Gender neutral
• Not matchy-matchy
• Modern and not too cluttered
• Plenty of storage for our closet-less room

Overall, I think I did quite well with meeting my objectives.  The furniture, area rug, wall paper and paint are all eco-friendly, and I added many handmade accents throughout the room, starting with artwork from independent artists and sprinkling in items of my own making.

My sewing machine definitely got a workout these past few weeks with the creation of a quilted wall hanging, a coordinating pillow, and a liner for the room’s toy basket.

I also enjoyed covering a roller shade with fabric as well as making a felted mobile, which I think is the cherry on top of this whimsical room.  I hope my baby enjoys watching its gentle swaying as he is falling asleep.

And did you notice the monogrammed artwork above the crib? Can you guess what the letter is made from? If you said “broken crayons” you’re right. I arranged and glued them into a "J" for Jude onto colored paper and tucked the artwork into a shadow box frame.

The focal point of the space is the fanciful swallow and cloud wallpaper, which I fell in love with when first scouring the internet for nursery ideas. Despite never having hung wallpaper before, it was actually a memorable afternoon with my husband, trying to hang it evenly and smooth out bubbles.

I love how it looks behind the crib, with the birds sprinkling sweet dreams over a sleeping babe.  Cheesy,yes, but I can’t help but like that image.

The amount of storage that the furniture provides in the room will be very helpful with all the baby clothes, gear, diapers and other things.

Since our 100+ year old home lacks closet space, the dresser and armoire will keep us organized while still being pieces that will transcend our baby’s childhood.

Rather than decking out the crib with fussy bedding, something I never found to be practical with my eldest child, I just bought a few funky crib sheets.  I think they add just enough interest to the crib area without being too confining.

Throughout this entire project, my Slate card with Blueprint has made the shopping process simple. I bought all the items for the nursery, both those online and in brick-and-mortar stores, using my Slate card and was able to easily view and manage purchases with the free Blueprint features.

One of my largest purchases was my $700 dresser. The great thing about the Split Plan is you can set a goal date -like three months from now -to pay off your purchases. In my case I wanted to pay off my large furniture by the time my baby arrived.  It’s great that we can track our payment progress at any time by logging onto Chase.com/Blueprint and make changes to our plan without penalty or charge, like increasing the amount we’d like to pay on the furniture for each month.

I can see the Split option being extremely helpful in the future, say when a major appliance breaks on us and we aren’t able to pay for it up front with cash.  Blueprint helps us to pay off purchases faster and save money on interest, and we can log on to Blueprint to check our progress at any time and change our plan, whether to reduce the number of payments or change the monthly payment amount.   And Blueprint does all the calculating for us, which is really helpful for the months when our minds are occupied with the daily chaos of family life with two small children.

I’ve had such a wonderful time participating in the Blueprint Baby Challenge and using the Blueprint features to help me through the often overwhelming experience of transforming a nursery.  I’m anticipating many wonderful memories in this room, and will reflect fondly on this time in my life, preparing and dreaming about our newest arrival.

As a reminder, the Blueprint Baby Challenge is also a contest, running from 7/15 through 8/15, so head on over to the website and please vote for my room as your favorite!  You can vote once per day, and you can also win weekly prizes just for voting.

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Chase. All opinions are my own.

Big Plans, Big Changes in Our Baby's Nursery

Over the past two weeks, I’ve started purchasing items for the nursery using my Slate credit card and keeping track of my purchases with Blueprint. As a participant in the Blueprint Baby Challenge, I was given $2000 from Chase to use toward decorating a nursery for my upcoming baby. I’m competing with 2 other bloggers who are also expecting babies for additional prizes, specifically $3000, $1500, and $500, depending on which room is voted most creative. I’m really hoping you like my room transformation once it’s complete, and that you vote for my nursery when the contest begins on 7/15/11.

Like with most nurseries, the major purchases for the room are the furniture, and Blueprint has continued to be helpful with managing these large items like the dresser and wardrobe. Using the Split plan, I can choose to set up a monthly payment amount or the number of payments I’d like to make to pay down large purchases like furniture or renovations. Rather than paying the entire total at once, I can pay about $275 a month and have my purchases paid by Christmas. I can log on to Chase.com and go to Blueprint at any time to track my progress and make any changes to my plan without penalty.Blueprint  handles the math, which is helpful with so many preparations going on in preparing for a new baby and keeping up with a 3 year old. Blueprint helps me stay on target for meeting my financial goals, and gives me one less thing to worry about.

As for the nursery furniture, I chose a matching wardrobe and dresser set, which are of modern design and eco-friendly. These pieces will provide much-needed storage in the room, since bedrooms in our old house lack closets. The furniture is from an American company which makes sustainable, environmentally-friendly products using birch wood with low emissions. The ebony wood also pairs well with the dark crib we are reusing from my son’s infancy.

I also found a sophisticated area rug made of 100% wool, which keeps with my green theme. My ideas for the room were to keep it simple and modern, with creative touches throughout via crafts and artwork. I’ve been successful in repurposing items (like the crib) and choosing furnishings that will grow with my child, rather than be items that will be replaced as he/she leaves the nursery years behind.

With the arrival of the furniture, my efforts have turned to the walls. We finished sanding and painting the moldings around the window and doors, and will soon put some color on the walls via eco-friendly paint and wallpaper. I’ve also started sewing a quilted wall-hanging for the room, using lively fabrics that will add some color to the neutral walls, and am also working on a felted mobile to hang above the changing area or crib.

I’m eager to continue working on the room, and still have some items to buy. The Blueprint Baby Challenge has been such a fun and creative experience, and I can’t wait to see how my room progresses. You’ll be able to vote for your favorite nursery very soon, so stay tuned for updates. I’m eager to see the unique designs that the two other bloggers have come up with too!
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Chase.  All opinions are my own.

Nursery Makeover Challenge: We’re Going Green

I'm tremendously excited to share some news that I've been sitting on for quite a few weeks.  As many of you know (and regular readers of my blog are probably tired of hearing), I am expecting my second child in early July.  While my husband and I cannot be more thrilled to be adding to our family, we were given an additional, unexpectedly wonderful surprise--$2000 to be used toward a makeover our baby's nursery, courtesy of Chase, as a participant in the Blueprint Baby Challenge.

Above: A "Before" photo of the space

As many parents of more than one child know, additional children often begin life with hand-me-downs, and in our case, our eldest child's nursery would have been just fine for the next baby.  But thanks to Chase, we are able to give this baby a fresh welcome into the world.  My son's room, while charming and efficient, was itself a collection of hand-me-downs too, save for the crib, so it is especially nice to be able to outfit the room with "real" furniture and items that will be essential for keeping both baby and parents happy and comfortable.

 Above and below: The remnants of my son's nursery, waiting to be transformed.

When shopping for the nursery, I used my Slate card, including the free Blueprint features which have been helpful in keeping track of purchases.  Blueprint is a first-of-its-kind set of free features offered by Chase that is built into many of their credit cards and which helps you manage your expenses while saving money on interest on certain purchases.  Those of you who have been pregnant probably understand the term "pregnant brain" and can recall how important it is to have someone or something else remembering and calculating things for you.  What's great about Blueprint is that I can use the features in so many ways to pay off purchases faster and save money on interest.  For example, with Blueprint, when charging a large purchase, like the nursery furniture, I have the option of designating a set amount to pay each month toward a larger purchase, or I can decide how many payments I’d like to make.  Blueprint does all the math for me, and I can design a plan to pay down my balance faster and save money on  interest, as well as track the progress I'm making toward paying off my larger purchases.

As for my ideas for the nursery, I really want to focus on items that will grow with my child and that are eco-friendly.  Rather than buy a changing table that will only be used for a short time, I want to invest in furniture that my son or daughter might even take with him/her when she leaves our home.

Some ideas for the space

Because babies and children are so sensitive to chemicals and smells, I've chosen paints with low VOCs, environmentally-friendly, formaldehyde-free wooden furniture, organic crib sheets and a natural fiber area rug.  I plan on reusing my son's crib as well as creating some handmade items like a mobile and textiles for the room.  Decor will most likely be repurposed from other areas of our home and will include things like toys and objects that can be admired and played with.  As a former art teacher and artist, I'd love to include prints and artworks by artists and craftspeople in the space too, and hopefully convey a sense of both calm and whimsy in the decor.

I'm really looking forward to sharing the experience with you, both with outfitting the nursery and using the Slate card with Blueprint.  The Blueprint Baby Challenge nursery makeover is also a contest, where I’m competing with two other bloggers, Trisha of MomDot and Sarah of Minnesota Mama’s Must Haves, for additional prizes.  The blogger whose nursery is deemed the most creative by voters will win the top prize, $3000 while the second and third place bloggers will each win $1500 and $500, respectively.  Starting July 15, you’ll be able to vote for your favorite nursery (hopefully mine!) so stay tuned for updates.

This is such a special time in my family's life, and I'm happy and grateful to be marking the occasion of my child's birth with the Blueprint Baby Challenge.  I hope you enjoy following my progress and seeing the results of my nursery makeover.  Head on over to the Blueprint Baby Challenge website for more information, as well as to check out the other two bloggers' nursery ideas.
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post from Chase. All opinions are my own.

Nursery Update

We at least got one item off the checklist this weekend.  Nursery moldings painted!

 Our house is still a disaster though.

But at least the whites in the room are more white than dirty.  Next up, the walls.  Piece of cake compared to all the nooks and crannies of the moldings.

I also had some energy and time last night to finally start the quilting of the quilted wall hanging for the nursery.  Progress is a great thing, and a motivator for more progress.  I'm eager to finish it off tonight, if I am not wiped out after dinner time.

Now, I didn't do anything crazy with the quilting, just some straight(ish) lines and eventually some borders around the outside.  This was really all I could handle at the moment--a wall hanging with minimal fancy stitching.

I even used painter's tape as stitching guides, so I could sneak out on having to draw chalk lines all over the quilt top.  So lazy....

While I was sewing last night, I kept thinking "I'm doing this!! I'm quilting!" It was exciting, and a little funny too, that that kept playing over and over in my head.  Such a dork.

I still have many other projects to tackle, like my felt mobile for the nursery, and making a coordinating pillow from the fabrics of the quilt.

Eventually I'd like to do a crib sized quilt, or even a twin, since I do have enough fabric left to do it.  But as usual, time, space and energy need to align to get anything done.

Hope your weekend was productive, or more importantly, relaxing.  Thanks Iz and Jeff for help in scraping and painting those stubborn moldings, and for keeping an eye on S!

Procrastination and Panic

I'm having a rough couple of days here, mostly because I'm a highly organized (bordering on obsessive) person and I'm panicking about all the things I want to get done before this baby arrives.  I mean, check out the sidebar ticker--I have 8 weeks at the most!

Don't let that smile fool you.  Just look at that huge belly--it's almost time! And that wall paper is a little sneak peek at the room.

I'm most worried about getting the nursery together, not because the baby will be sleeping in there necessarily, but because there's no way I'll have time to fix up the nursery once he/she arrives.  Being with two kids alone all day is already freaking out my sense of order and timeliness in getting just the general stuff like meals and laundry done.

I'm trying to rope some family and friends into helping paint the room. It's truly a mess! The walls are all banged up, holey from things I've drilled and hammered into the walls, and the moldings are atrocious and haven't been painted since the previous owners.

And we need a doorknob!  I'm embarrassed to admit that the door has been like this for quite a while, even when Soren was using this room as his nursery.

I generally adore our old house, however there are so many quirks and weird measurements that never add up to "normal" renovations.  Chris was going to replace the crappy doorknob months ago, but didn't realize until after drilling the hole that the door was too thin for a standard knob.  Somehow we'll get that fixed, eventually.

And the crib---well that has to be repositioned to the highest level.  Aaaaghhh! I'm overwhelmed with tasks!  Plus, where in the world have I stashed all the crib sheets?

Thankfully the dresser and wardrobe have arrived; the wardrobe is in pieces all over the room, in the process of being put together.  And the paint is here too, which I'm eager to get on the walls along with the wallpaper.  The paint is from Yolo Colorhouse, which manufactures gorgeous, eco-friendly colors with low VOCs.  I went with Stone .04, a soothing light gray.

I really just want to sit back, relax, and enjoy the last few weeks of this pregnancy.  But of course, the nesting instinct is making me insane, wanting to re-caulk our horrible bathtub, sew burp cloths, finish the mobile I started making, sort and wash baby clothes, and de-gunk the fridge.  There are too many things on my mental to-do list.  What's the most crazy thing that you've done as a result of nesting before your baby?  I'm fighting the urge to scrub the pantry closet and lay down contact paper on the shelves.

I'm sure you're wondering what the hold-up is with getting the nursery together?  Stay tuned--it will be worth the wait, and the surprise.

Tackle it Tuesday: The Nursery

It's sad watching the nursery that I worked so hard on decorating become different, little by little. It's bittersweet, knowing my little darlin' is growing up and changing. Since he's now crawling and pulling himself up on everything and everyone, I needed to do a little rearranging. Specifically, I had to remove the wonderfully-useful shelving unit that served as storage in our closet-less nursery.
SoJo's been pulling himself up on the metal corner pieces and I obviously don't want blood from a cracked skull as part of the room's design theme. We'll leave the blood and crossbones for the teenage years.

I took the baskets that were underneath the unit and put them on the floor next to the chair.
I don't mind SoJO playing with the books and it's much easier to pull one out when reading him a bedtime story.
Then I packed up the other two baskets that just had miscellaneous baby stuff like crib hardware and manuals for baby items and moved it to the attic or in the storage area above the rocking chair. The person who last renovated our house did some weird things like building a long storage area along the ceiling rather than putting in a closet.
We dread what that storage compartment is hiding, other than the baby stuff! Probably crumbling plaster.
Once the shelves were moved out of the room, I moved the dresser to where they were,
and also sorted the clothes to get rid of some outgrown stuff. This is a weekly "tackle it," it seems. I put away the changing pad that was on the dresser because I rarely change SoJo on it anymore. He rolls around too much, and I end up just doing it on the floor anyway.

This is the old set-up of the dresser and the chair.

After I got the dresser out of that area, I moved a little black table that was next to the crib to the chair.

Much more convenient having the lamp nearby and a place to put odds and ends while nursing (nursing pads come to mind, rather than having them get wedged in the chair cushions).

All that's left to do is vacuum! And do something about those curtains that hang too low and are so tempting for little hands.

For more Tackle it Tuesday, visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

More Nursery Pictures