Teen Room Project #6: Cityscape Mural

This mural was relatively simple, I didn’t do any pencil drawings at all, but rather went along the wall placing blue painter’s tape at random heights to get a varied height for the buildings I would later create. I basically just “guesstimated” the width of the finished buildings. We then stood back and adjusted the pieces of tape to make sure it didn’t look like “stairs” or too planned. Once we were happy with the random look of the building heights, we used a level to ensure that all of our vertical and horizontal lines were perfectly straight. I used the edge of the level as a guide to place my tape strips. Once the general shape of the buildings was complete (plain rectangles), I went back and began to add a bit more variability with roof styles, inconsistent widths and the odd white window. Eden really wanted to keep the look mostly “silhouette like”, so the addition of the windows was sparse. This suited me fine because I really wasn’t sure how the tape would peel up from under the 3 coats of paint. In the end, it peeled off really easily and I was left feeling like a few more windows would have been easy to do and perhaps have added to the finished look of the cityscape.

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6 Steps to Bleed Resistant Taping:

The key to any taping is always the dry brush sealing of the edge. Never skip this step or you will get bleeding and it is the fasted way to take the “Wow!” out of your project. Always remember:

    1. Tape
    2. Seal with a relatively dry brush using the SAME colour of paint as your background. For example, I was painting a black cityscape against a white wall, so I used the exact same white as that used on the wall and sealed the edge of the tape so that no black paint could bleed through onto my white wall.
    3. Let the paint dry completely and look it over to ensure you’ve seal the entire edge along your tape.
    4. Paint with the desired colour.
    5. Let dry completely.
    6. Carefully remove the tape.

 

“Turn The Page” ~ Eden’s Room Make-Over

I was so looking forward to the summer and couldn’t wait to finally have the time and energy to put up some regular posts. Baseball season is over, school has been finished for 3 weeks and yet, this is only the second time I’ve sat down at the computer to post. Why is that you might ask? Well, so far, we have been super busy! We did 2 weeks of swimming lessons at the outdoor pool in our neighborhood which was fabulous, but meant at we were tied up from 8:45 am until about 12:30 everyday. Aside from that, I have been busy planning out our 2015 Road Trip to Southern California. This is a huge undertaking and has consumed every spare moment. Between swimming lessons and vacation planning, Eden and I have been plugging away at re-designing her bedroom. I must say this is exciting and sad all at the same time. I chose the colour scheme for her room when I was pregnant with her (14 years ago). Since then, we have lived in 3 places and although the layout changed and the room evolved, the palette remained the same. Eden turned 13 about 6 months ago and is more than ready for a new look that is more “grown-up”.  After lots of planning and discussion, it was time to “turn the page”.

Eden's Nursery

Fabric Swatches

These are the fabric swatches from the original nursery design. So lovely!

This is a terrible picture, but the only one I have of Eden’s nursery. It was a real “labour of love”. Most fo the accessories were white, with aqua and apple green accents. I had found a whole whack of colour coordinated fabrics that I absolutely loved and went to town. You can tell how dated it all is with the homemade bumper pads (that are no longer deemed safe) and a photo so old it’s not in digital format and had to be scanned! This room was a huge project because aside from painting the walls, I had made pretty much everything from the fabric I had found ~ roman blinds, the sheers and canopy, the bumper pads and quilt, as well as a re-upholstered chair and the cushion for the rocking chair. Fortunately, when we moved (when Eden was 4), the blinds, sheers and chair still worked in her new room. We decided to go with the same colour scheme, but update the look by adding a hand painted mural. When we moved again only 2 years later, Eden was not yet ready to give up her mural and thus I did it all over again in our current home. This was Eden’s room just a few weeks ago, but it is now taking on a whole new look. Stay tuned as we begin to reveal the total room make-over. I know this will be a process and it won’t be completely finished for months, but were finally getting close!