Poils de dragon… tournes en rond!
Bave de crapaud… fais trois sauts!
Toile d’araignée… toute emmêlée!
C’est la potion, de l’Arbre à bonbons.
(1…2…3…)
BOUH!

Happy Halloween!

I had a little less ambition for Xavier’s (almost 4!) mural, because he was already living in his room when I painted it, so I didn’t have the luxury of working at night after his bedtime — and probably because I didn’t wish to invest the same amount of time in the project, too!

Just like Orléane’s mural, I used the wall’s initial colour for the background and used leftover latex paint for some colour mixes, in addition to acrylic paint. (And, yes, I mixed latex and acrylic at some point! I don’t know if there’s a rule against this, but it worked: the paint texture wasn’t ideal, but it was still serviceable.)

So here is my basic illustration:

I used whales/fish illustration from the web as models for putting together my own composition while correcting the colours. Yes, yes, the “water” is green, but since the room’s sky is already a dark blue — with silver sprinkles in the paint, for stars — I wanted to keep the green. It also allows the blue fish to pop out a little better.

I traced a grid on the illustration, because I had used that technique to reproduce Orly’s forest on her wall but, so Xavier’s dunes would look more natural, I started by tracing these, then I reproduced each fish “by eye”, about at the right spot.

I didn’t take a picture before starting, so we’re jumping directly to the first step: sea bottom dunes.

I started with the whales at the back, then. I tried to give them a green tint (like the “water”), so they would look farther — otherwise their proportions would squish the other fish! It worked a little better for the humpback than the killer whales, but oh well…

A few hours (and a few days) later, other fish, plants and mammals appeared.

I didn’t count how many hours I put in, but it really didn’t take so long: maybe 4 to 6 blocks of 2 hours. Here is the final picture again, with the addition of the eyes, a turtle, a school of fish — and a few children!

To strengthen the juxtaposition of the mural under the sea and the starry sky, a few boats are sailing on the shelf that stretches between them. The duvet full of fish came from Ikea a few years back, and the big turtle a was gift from auntie Karine. Xavier loves his sea and sky room!

(I really don’t have all that much experience, but if you have questions about the process, leave them in the blog comments and I’ll answer from my experience.)

Everything is done now — erm, except some paint touch ups in our room, which, hum… will-get-done-eventually — so here is a look at our girl’s completed room:

We didn’t repaint the walls, which are three shades of blue. I still like the colour/pattern we used for them when it was our room and, since there are a lot of pink accents and dolls in the room, it still feels very girlie!

I don’t adore the way all the furniture is pushed up against the wall, but there are two logical reasons for this:
1. This is Orly’s first big bed, so having 2 sides of wall around it (and a bed guard) is safer.
2. It creates a super large play space in the middle of the room!

This wall is pretty empty now. We’ll add a frame or something eventually:

Lastly, the closet wall on the left… Since her everyday clothes all fit in the dresser, we stashed most of her toys in the closet. Three benefits to this:
1. There are built-in open shelves in there, so the toys are easy to access once the folding doors are open.
2. Space for the big toys, like doll strollers and ride-ons.
3. We close the doors and it all disappears. w00t!

Does Orly love her new room? Yes, she does!

I started on the computer, because that’s where I’m comfortable. I used the wall’s dimensions and planned an image:

Right away, I have to say I can’t take any credit for the illustration. This is a composition of elements and illustrations that charmed me; they were pulled from children’s books and the web, mostly — they were all created by talented artists. I just poorly re-drew those and placed them together, probably stepping over a couple of copyrights along the way. (I’m so sorry, talented artists. You’re just so… talented! Your imaginations will fuel my kid’s one so wonderfully. Thank you.)

Ok, back to business. I made my own composition, but you could use any drawing or image you like.

I didn’t have a projector handy and was eager to start, so I just traced grid lines over my printed image and then traced those same grid lines over my wall.

Once that was done, I reproduced, square for square, the illustration on the wall. It was fun to do.
(Sorry about the next two pictures… not enough contrast for a good photo…)

Now for the fun part: colours!

I used leftover latex paint for the green grass, acrylic for the other colours. With the image all traced, it was only a matter of colouring in each area.

I started with the grass:
(I know, this part looks boring, but it was exciting just to see some colours on the wall already, so I recommend starting with the boring parts!)

Each colour took TWO COATS. Latex AND acrylic. It took very long. Like, 2.5 weeks of devoting 2-3 hours per day (aka “whole evenings”) to this project. (I’m glad I didn’t know about this, because I would have had less ambition to start with! lol)

For many colours, I used original colours — pure blue, magenta, pre-mixed brown for the trees. I got to mix some colours for the detail work and the flowers, though; I loved doing this!

I painted those mountains about 6 times each before getting the right shades… (You’ll see the back ones change again later on in the pictures.)

There’s at least one evening’s work between each picture.

Honestly, it was easy enough to paint. I wasn’t going for realism.

I did try to add some shading, though, but found the acrylic was drying too fast on the wall: the area would get sticky in seconds and the other shade of colour wouldn’t blend well with the first one. Of course, that’s probably because I have no knowledge or training in working with acrylic. Hehe.

However much I loved doing this project and trying a new art, at some point during the second week I got a little fed up of spending evenings on end painting a vertical wall. That’s when I got to the (–censured–) leaves.

Let’s not talk about those. (Seriously, not a word, you.) I know the kids will let me off the hook about them.

Some detailing — and many hours — later…

I’m done!

I’m done!!

Now let me just note some of my favourite details:

Someone lovely created this sleeping fairy. My version is crudely simple, but I’m still proud of her skirt’s detail:

This little house came out of a story book. The shape is charming! It doesn’t show from the picture, but I painted it with metallic paint:

Oops, I’m telling you: I don’t know how that last one got in there… (This is the duvet I got for Orly’s bed. It’s from Ikea and it’s SO pretty!) Erm, ok…

Some specifications about materials and cost for the mural (as opposed to my Ikea bill, erm…):

My wall was already blue, so I saved on that. I also saved on the green latex paint I used for the grass, since it was leftover paint.

I had some acrylic already, but bought new colours for most of it. I bought 30$ of acrylic, but ran out of white and spent another 10$ for that. I still have lots of leftover paint, however, which I will use in future projects — and for when the kiddos paint!

I also spent about 8$ on two “quality” brushes (from de Serre) after cursing my old ones from the dollar store. Those were SO worth it.

In total, close to 50$ in art supplies — but with leftover material.

To finish this off…

For the room, we inherited an old twin bed and dresser from Frank’s family. Frank sanded them, I primed and painted them in white (this was less fun than the mural…), along with another matching twin bed that my boy already had.

To echo the mural, I painted two of the same flowers on the dresser’s drawers. I like how they turned out.

And then, I finally drew my own quick illustration: it’s a well hidden little rodent in the dresser…

Yup, it’s hidden on the side of a drawer. My girl loves to pull it out to ask the mouse what she should wear today.

Speaking of which, have you noticed the wallpaper covering the inside of those drawers? I instantly hearted the run-down dresser once we pulled those out. It’s such a girlie piece of furniture!

Here’s my girl. She’s just waiting for us to move out to our new room so she can acquire the space.

…but I’m going off-topic, so let’s wrap this up. Paint a mural! It’s fun and you won’t regret it!

Yesterday, just to give it a try, I unwrapped a Mr. Clean’s Magic Eraser I had gotten as a sample when they came out – and that I’d dumped amongst my cleaning products a while ago. Woah! (See below.) Maybe not something I would use every week – I would be afraid it might damage the surface in the long run – but once in a while… shiny! I left a reference tile, see:

A week short of his second birthday, the toddler spent twenty-four hours at his grandparents’ house over the weekend. Our parenting charge therefore diminished by half, the three rolls of faux-rock wallpaper that have been laying on the kitchen table for three weeks have finally married a wall.

A before pic (for future contrast):

Ready to start working (Frank, nuts about home decor, was overjoyed):

Magie!

Now, what’s missing?… Oh, yeah:

Of course, this will look even more classy once all the toys are back…

PS. We feel compelled to note the couch will probably return to the other side of the living room in the following months. I still want to get an electric fireplace for that wall, chocolate coloured.

Other plans include:
- Framing that charming painting by Frank’s mom to make it pop out even more.
- White wood blinds, most likely.
- O’gee moulding for the top of the wall.
- A (fake) tropical plant for the top of the bookcase while it’s there – because if every other corner of the room has its own plant, this one might feel left out.
- Painting the other living room walls, as well as the foyer, the adjacent dining room and kitchen, the hallway… in shades of coffee beige, blue-gray and (maybe) some brick red. Will post about it in due time.