Weekend Update

Happy Sunday! The weather here today has been dark & gloomy - even a brief hailstorm! The above picture was an ugly pail from a thrift shop that I spruced up with some paint! I mostly spent my weekend with the family : ), but there are some exciting things to note on some things I have been working on.

* Nursery- With the tree complete I moved on to finishing up another nursery project. Stayed tuned for details/pictures.

*Bathroom- Remember how I said I wasn't going to paint the bathroom....um, oops. Maybe I changed my mind. Changed it big time. Since I last mentioned the bathroom...I painted the lower cabinet a color called hand cast pewter which is a charcoal gray color. I had thought about painting it black, but chose this instead and I am so glad I did because I LOVE it! The top of the walls and ceiling I painted a beautiful soft gray called partridge gray. The upper cabinet and trim is being painted a white color called cream mist. I absolutely love moulding and was recently inspired by two awesome blogs, Infarrently Creative & Thrifty Decor Chick. They had both done board & batten spaces. I am attempting board & batten in my bathroom space and hoping it will turn out! I have run into a small problem which is that my walls are slightly bumpy which may give me a different look than what I am after. I have a couple ideas so maybe I can correct this problem! I will keep you posted on the progress- keep dreaming design!

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!