The Tree in the Room

It is done! If every time you handle a brush & paint it looks like you've been in battle this project isn't for you. However, if you have some level of painting skill this is a relatively easy, inexpensive project. To do this project you will need 3 quarts of paint; 1 base color, 1 tree trunk/branch color & 1 leaf color. I purchased my paints for approximately $30 total from WalMart's Glidden Better Homes & Garden paint (hey, as often as I paint things I had to stop being fancy with the paint.) For the base color I used In the Garden from their Mixed Greens collection. You may or may not need more than a quart for the base depending on your wall, how many coats you need, etc. I primed the wall in advance and had enough of the In the Garden color for painting a 10 foot wall (there is a small window) once, plus minor touch ups and enough leftover for another project I am working on. My leaf color is Loose Leaf, also from the Mixed Greens collection. Tree color is Tierra Brown from their Savory Spices Collection. First, of course, paint one to two coats of your base and let dry. Second, paint on your tree trunk and branches. You can draw it on lightly with pencil first, if you like, however I just painted it right on. I was going for a look that wasn't too perfectly symmetrical, but not off enough to bug me. I painted two coats for the trunk, one for branches. Don't worry about making the branches perfect as they will mostly be covered up by leaves Next, begin painting on your leaves. I recommend first painting a general outline of leaves and then filling in. I made a alternating pattern of vertical and horizontal leaves in the same shape. The tree at an early stage- Make sure you step back and look at your tree frequently so you make sure it is turning out as you intend. I had to squeeze in time when I could and wasn't checking my work often enough. At this point I was very unhappy with the tree and wanted to paint over parts of it. Everyone in my family was very positive about it so I decided to leave it as it was and begin filling in leaves to see if I liked it any better.

More leaves. I was using a finer brush to outline leaves and filling in just to see how it would look. My intention was to go back afterwards with a second coat on the leaves with a different brush.

A few more leaves...

and a few more leaves....

Victory! I did add a few leaves to adjust what I didn't like, but I never actually painted over anything. Also, I never did a second coat on the leaves. My husband really liked how the green leaves looked over the base coat and said to leave it with the one coat. Since it would save me an hour or so of painting, I went with it.

The work in progress thus far. Sorry about the crummy pictures, the room is only 8x10 and it was had to get a good angle.

The Little Man likes it!

News From the Nursery

I am really trying to get as much of the nursery done as I can. There is a wall behind the crib and I was trying to decide what to put there. Lots of ideas came to mind, but none seemed right. I wanted it to look nice, but not stick out much or be too heavy, keeping in mind the fact his crib would be right there. Also, that the little man will grow and eventually try to rip whatever I put there down! The nursery has kind of a forest theme going on and I had these leftover wall stickies of tree branches from a different project and I tried putting them there. No good. So, somehow I came up up with this idea of painting a tree on the wall. It makes a big impact and can't be ripped down! I will share the how-to and pictures tomorrow. I worked on it in spurts over a period of several days and just finished this evening, so I will take some good pictures tomorrow when the sun is up.

I am also finishing up another project in there, but weather is not cooperating! I have some things to spray paint outside and every time I have a minute to spray paint it is either raining, snowing or windy.

As far as my 'progress' goes, I feel it will be never ending! I've gotten little done over the past several days other than the basics laundry, dishes, etc. My daughter had dance practice one night & the next she performed in the halftime show at a Bucks game. Then, she had a four day weekend, so we tried to spend time doing fun things with her. Here's my minimal progress update!

Tuesday, Day 4

I tried to get back on my old cleaning routine. The way this worked was I had areas of the house divided into sections and would doing a thorough cleaning of a area on its designated day-this fell to the wayside towards the end of my pregnancy with the Little Man. Anyway, Tuesdays would be the bathroom and the hallway between the bathroom and two main floor bedrooms. This actually went quite well. Bathroom was a piece of cake. It was already clean from the minor updates and was quickly cleaned. Next came the hallway. This also wasn't too bad. There were a couple boxes of toys to sort out from when I cleaned the girls room and since I have already started sorting/separating went pretty nicely. Now all that is left there is my oldest daughter's headboard. She had her own room and had a big white scrolled metal bed. I was going to sell it, but my husband told me not to. It is very pretty and he said his mom was going to keep in her spare bedroom turned playroom and then if we needed it back we could get it back from her. I'm pretty sure this arrangement was made a couple months ago and it is still here. I've decided my husband has through his next set of days off to move it or I'm going to attempt to sell it.

Wednesday, Day 5 I was so tired this day I barely remember it, other than the Bucks game. I did work on the tree in the nursery a little bit.

Thursday, Friday Days 6 & 7 Mostly just out with the family.

Saturday, Day 8 Mainly worked on nursery projects as time allowed.

Sunday, Day 9 Same as above.

Well, check back tomorrow for my nursery pictures and until next time keep dreaming design!