DIY: Tree Mural

UPDATE: This tree mural is finally complete!!! If you want to see a more recent blog about this please click here.

I wanted to share with you a sneak peak of a project I've been working on for Noah's room.

For the longest time I didn't know what direction to go in his nursery. It wasn't until recently when we finally found a decent rug for his room that I felt like I had a good starting point. The rug (pic below) is neutral and has a playful texture similar to tree bark.

I liked the idea of adding tree decals to the empty wall in the picture above - it would tie in with the rug, and add color, dimension and interest to an otherwise boring wall. I researched some tree decals and came accross a variety of styles (below):

Image courtesy of Cuttingedgestencils.com

Image courtesy of Womantribune.com

Image courtesy of Modernurbanbaby.com

Don't you just love the last one! When I checked prices for similar decals they ran at about $100, plus shipping, and waiting 2-4 weeks (since I live outside the States). Instead of dealing with that, I decided to paint the trees myself - at least it'd be customized to his room, I wouldn't have to wait a couple of weeks to see results, and I already have in my possession the materials needed to make it happen (except the green paint for leaves).

So I embarked on the journey of painting my first mural, I started a few days ago and have been working on it for an hour or so a day. First I sketched the trees which surprisingly didn't take long. Then I whipped out the brushes and that's when the fun began. I'm still in the painting stage and so far I'm really happy with the results. I hope Noah likes it as much as I do. I know he loves the birds because everytime he walks in he get's excited and keeps pointing at them and saying "bird" over and over again. Anyway, enough talk, here are some progress pictures of my tree mural:

Sketch of one of my favorite sections - two birds sitting on a branch

First coat of paint

 

After a few layers of paint...

 We have leaves!

  Bird #1 is painted on

  Loving the birds and falling leaves

I'm hoping to be done in the next few days and when that happens I'll be writing a post on guidelines and tips for painting a mural.

Hope you all had a great weekend!