You can see all my How Tos on the House Projects Page.
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We decided we would paint the ceiling and one wall a sky blue, and create a cloud filled sky effect. My wife suggested that we paint bright, multi-color hot air balloons in the sky to make it more interesting.
Another concept we wanted to include was to paint nursery rhyme images on the walls. Linda wanted to do "Hey Diddle Diddle, the Cat and the Fiddle" and "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star".
If you know Linda and I, you know that for us, getting a house project done is usually a long, drawn out process. We tend to overthink and under-accomplish, if you know what I mean. But this time we had a real deadline to work with, the projected birth of our son!
Before getting started, we had a few things to do.
The room was a mess, and needed to be emptied out, of course.
The wall the wall carpet was in pretty bad shape, and besides it was ugly.
The room was painted in peach tones with dark flowered patters on the curtins and the wallpaper boarder.
There was also the hole in the ceiling, which was placed there by our friend Roland's father.
How To: Patch a Hole in Drywall Coming Soon
Roland, feel free to tell your Dad that I fixed the hole. ; ]
I also wanted to paint clouds on the ceiling. And I was thinking about paining the blue coat on the ceiling in a gradient, getting darker as it gets further away from the cloud wall. The idea was to make it look like a transition to a night sky, which I would paint on the ceiling on the far side of the room.
Well that was the plan, but you know how my plans go...
She also wanted to paint some stars and the words to "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star" on the wall over the window. She wanted different nursery rhymes all over the room, but we just didn't have the time to get it all done.
How To: Tape a Clean Line for Painting
The balloon book had a picture of a hot air balloon floating by The Matterhorn in Switzerland.
I incorporated the mountain into my landscape, once again using the projector to get the outline.
The lower section of the mountain is all freehand. I painted a base coat in one brown color, and then added more colors to provide some texture.
The result wasn't great, but at least you can tell it is a mountain. ; ]
I painted the sun free hand, in layers. The paint had some of glazing liquid mixed in to add a bit of texture.
I think the sun came out looking very friendly.
I am very proud of it.
Our friend Jason thinks it look scary.
Sure hope not.
Linda used the projector to paint the "Hey Diddle Diddle" nursery rhyme as well. She spent a lot of time working with different tones of dark blue mixed with glazing liquid to create the inky night sky. It came out very nicely. Her sister Catherine helped out a great deal with this mural, coloring in the laughing dog, the grass, and the cow. She also put finishing touches on the cat, the moon and elsewhere. Linda did a lot on the moon and the cat, in addition to the background. Linda started the dish and spoon, but I helped her finish them. She was originally going to draw a scroll with the words of the rhyme on them, but the scroll just didn't look right, so she covered it over with night sky. Maybe some day we'll add the words somewhere, and Linda will get to show off here caligraphy skills.
Then one day when I was staring at the balloon I was painting, and not feeling too much like continuing, I got inspired. After testing my concepts in some sketches, I measured and marked the bi-fold closet doors into nine equally sized squares, with a small border at the top and bottom. Then I delved into all those paint colors we bought and went to town. I taped each line before painting, using the same technique I described for taping earlier. I wound up with a very nice, high contrast, bright design that really made that wall look nice.
I had previously converted the closet into book shelves, but now that needed to change. I ripped the shelves out, cut them down to half the original width, added a divider and re-installed them. After painting and adding clothes rods at two heights, the closet was done.
The carpet came up easily enough, but of course I had to pull up the nail board around the edge of the room, and all the staples.
My sister Marie and her husband Scott donated a bunch of baby stuff to us, including furniture. They even drove it all the way down from Maine! We put the glider chair/ottoman, changing table and crib in the new nursery.
We already had the book case, the day bed, the standing floor lamp and the oval area rug The rug matched the room's colors pretty well.
I stopped by a Kids 'R Us, which is going out of business, and picked up a matching set of bedding, a mirror, clothing hooks, bookends, and a little picture frame for cheap.
The pattern matches great with the room, and looks very nice on the daybed. Once my Mom finishes the pillow cases, we'll have some throw pillows for the bed.
The light switch plate for when you walk in the door was purchased from Babies 'R Us. Once again, we lucked out with something that matched out color and theme pretty well. We also got a yellow ceramic table lamp with little star cut outs in the lamp and shade. It was one of the few lamps we found there that was not shoddily constructed.
Target supplied the nightstand, the laundry basket, the garbage can, and the clock. The clock is supposed to be designed by some famous architect/designer guy named Michael Graves. I didn't really care, but it does look great. I made the laundry bag from a cloud print material we were originally planning to make pillows with.
I picked up a bunch of short open top baskets with an angled top and cloth liners from Pier One Imports. These were placed on the two lower shelves of the changing table and on one of the shelves in the closet to sort baby stuff.
When Linda told me that she and her sister had bought stickers for the wall, I thought she was nuts. I wasn't about to ruin our freshly painted walls with stickers that would take an act of God to remove. Boy was I wrong. The stickers are peel off and re-use type. They even glow in the dark.
They are so cool, and they helped us get the night-time scene we originally wanted to paint.
There are a few other items we got as gifts from friends and family. I won't mention everyone by name.
Our friend Anita's Mom hand made the colorful floor quilt for us. It is really, really nice!
Most of the crib bedding were gifts we received from our baby registry, as was the diaper champ, which works very well by the way.
One of the sales guys I work with got us the blue piggy bank. It looks very cute in the room, thanks Bill.
The two blue little "It's a Boy!" baseball candles on the nightstand were a gift from the baby shower.
All the finishing touches really brought the room together. I think there is just enough stuff to make it interesting without being overwhelming.
There's plenty of clear area to look at if your eyes need a break, and the colors we picked are quite soothing.
We owe a special thanks to Catherine for all her help on this one. Here are some close-ups.
I like to stand there sometimes at night when I'm soothing William back to sleep.
When he's a little older, I hope he will see it from his crib and have peaceful thoughts.
I like the hot air balloon, but I only ever got the main one done, and it is partially obscured by the crib.
That's OK, because the idea was to have the high contrast colors of the balloon close to the crib where William could see them.
When he's older and sleeping in the bed, the balloon will be more visible.
Inside, the shelves are really functional for small items, which is just about every piece of clothing William has at the moment.
The upper clothes rod is fixed, but the lower one can be adjusted to different heights as William gets older and starts dressing himeself.
Thanks to Mike at work for this idea.
Excellent Results
The most rewarding thing about this room is how much William seems to like it.
Maybe it is partially because this is the warmest room in the house, but that's not all.
William instantly calms when you carry him into the room.
His eyes look around curiously. We really tried to create a variety of things to look at and enjoy.
Hey Diddle Didd- Wow!
I think the highlight of the room is the nursery rhyme above the changing table. It is the first thing you see when you walk in the room, and the dark colors and fantastic images really grab your attention.
I'm so pleased with how this came out!
Cloud 9
The sky and cloud theme really make for a peaceful atmosphere (pun intended).
A less noticable feature is that when the door of the room is closed, there's an alcove where you are surrounded by sky on three sides.
Don't be scared, sun
I still like my sun, and I hope William does too. It's not scary, Jason.
Because it's there
The Matterhorn? Well like another famous mountain, it's there.
What self-respecting closet monster wouldn't want to live here?
I just like the closet, inside and out. The doors are so colorful and bright.
They catch William's eyes whenever I carry him by.
