Adventure Awaits

The New Mural is Done and Ready for Our Little Man

Day by day it seems to be progressing slowly…and then I look down at my belly and realize that I’m 34 weeks. The time then seems to have flown. To get ready for the adventure that awaits us shortly. I’ve been knitting a bit less these days to get ready for his arrival. We decided to put a mural on the one wall of his bedroom and it’s finished!

Now, all we have to do is wait for the shower to gather the rest of the items that will pull the room together!

The Mountain Mural

Planning the Mural

We took a few weeks to plan the mural, this way we ensured that it is exactly what we wanted before we put any paint on the wall. We spent hours Googling and Pinterest-ing to find the right combination of colors, mountains, etc.

In the end, we looked at three nursery ideas that had aspects which we liked. Then, we chatted through what we wanted, in order to make sure that we both shared the vision for the mural. After all, we hope it will be on the wall for the next 10 years.

The Making of the Mural

We decided to have the biggest chunk of mountains in the foreground. I taped those out first. When we were happy with those, I added the next layer. My husband had the idea to add snow caps to the middle tier of mountains. Rather than add a new color of paint, we let the white of the wall shine through, using the negative space.

Next, we were off to shop for paint. We’ve gone to one store and one store only for paint – Benjamin Moore. In the north hills we have two locations for Colorize of Pittsburgh: one in Wexford and one in Cranberry. Every time we go in, we get expert advice, friendly service, and the right color in the right type of paint for the job.

This trip was no different. For just $32 worth of paint, we created a beautiful mural that is exactly what we wanted.

What You’ll Need:

Supplies:

• Paint brush for edging
• Small Detail Brushes: If you’re not taping your edges, you may want smaller art paint brushes to get a thinner, crisper line when you paint your mural.
• Small roller (you can either clean your roller for paint changes or invest in a few rollers for color changes)
• Optional: Paint trays
• Tape or Pencil to map out your design
• Photos of the different parts of your nursery (can be on your phone) to pick the perfect paint colors

I like to paint and have painted almost every room in our ranch home so far. So I have good brushes for edging in house – this saved us some money here. We also had the roller handle so we just needed some refill rollers to get this job done.

Trick: with a smaller roller, you don’t need a big fancy, plastic, paint tray. I grabbed a few paper plates left over from Christmas and those worked perfectly for when I got to the rolling stage.

Step By Step Instructions

Step 1: Plan

As s I mentioned above, you need to have a clear plan in mind before you start this project. It makes picking the different elements of your mural easier, and ensures that the end result is exactly what you want.

During this phase we also moved items out of the way. I’m stubborn and moved most of the stuff myself but it you’re pregnant you really should have your husband or someone else help you.

Step 2: Map/Draw it out

This step comes before the paints because having all of the design elements established will save you trips to the paint store. That and you won’t have to worry about adding in matching colors later on.

Taping the mountains: I taped out all three layers/rows to make sure my husband and I were on the same page. Normally, I’d start with the lightest color and work down to make covering mistakes easier – however, for this project the darkest section was also the biggest and I wanted to make sure the color was just right. See more on this in step 4.

Step 3: Pick your Paints.

We love Benjamin Moore Paints. My parents have used them for years in my home growing up. They last, you can clean them, and they’re safe to use around kids. Our local paint store is ColorizePGH and they have an amazing staff that offers great advice and help when you seek it.

Typically we do this in two trips. On the first trip we grab swatches (and for bigger projects samples), then bring them into the home to make sure everything looks right.

For this project, since ColorizePGH has all of our paint on file, we were able to pull swatches for the nursery base color, hallway, and surrounding rooms to make sure everything worked together. As it turns out we loved the Van Duesen Blue so much that we have used it in our kitchen and went to it again for the baby’s room!

Step 4: The Mural

I painted the dark blue mountains, edging and all (2 coats for our textured walls). While that was drying, I edged the top of the middle section of mountains to see how the colors matched. After the blue dried, I was able to pull off the tape and then reapply it along the very edge of the blue mountains. This extra step gave us the crisp lines. I wanted to free hand this but my husband who knew my mobility isn’t what is used to be at 8+ months convinced me to tape it.

Then I repeated these steps one more time for the top most layer.

Now you’re ready to enjoy your new room and place the finishing touches as you wait for the baby to come.