Playroom Mural

I know, I know, it was summer. I should have been posting all the tons of stuff I have been doing. Well I have two reasons for not posting more: Juniper and Sullivan. I love them dearly, but they really cut into my work time.

I have been doing a lot of work on the kitchen, but I am waiting to post until it is done, which was hopefully before school started, but that didn't happen.  

In the meantime, we tackled the playroom.

So here is a picture from before we moved in.

My only real issue as the wallpaper (well also the wall, but that will have to wait for another day). So. I thought about my options.

1. I could rip the wallpaper down and paint.

2. I could just paint over the wallpaper.

Now, from my experience, taking the wallpaper down is a lot of work, plus it often leaves the wall damaged and requires repair, priming and you can still see the imperfections. So I figured I would skip all of that mess and just paint the wallpaper.  Since I would be painting over the wallpaper, I figured a mural would be great way to disguise the seams and any other imperfections.

So I started pining mural inspirations and called in my friend, the beautiful and talented Kelly Ryan. She is a great painter, and just happens to be my BFF, lucky me!

So we decided on an inspiration photo.

I like all the colors, the movement and the abstract quality.

So I primed the wall to give us a clean slate, then Kelly sketched an outline directly onto the wall.

We (Kelly, Nick and I)then started mixing colors.

Then we just went for it!

Even Juniper got in on the action. Since we knew the couch would go back under the window, I just let Juniper paint the whole bottom half of the wall. 

The family that paints together, stays together, right?!

So here is the mural, with all the painting done.

So next came the lines. Instead of painting them in, we decided to use a paint marker.  It went really fast, and looks great.

The next step was to cover the mural in varnish to help even it out and protect it. Hmmm, maybe that will still happen...someday.

As for now, I am loving how bright and cheery it is. What a world of difference can be created in one afternoon! All thanks to good friends.

Until next time...