While You Were Out
My mother was visiting us for the last week, and she wanted to work on a crafty type project while she was here. We decided to decorate Cerra's room like an aquarium, because she loves the movie Finding Nemo. Two walls of her room were ugly dark "wood" panelling (the stuff was put up throughout our house); the other two were painted an off-white.
I had found some pretty tropical fish fabric to use for curtains, so we based our paint color choices off of that. We ended up with a turquoise blue for the walls, bright green and orange for the trim and doors, and a sandy pinkish color for the baseboard (to look like sand). We also found coral accent wallpaper and Finding Nemo wall stickers. The two non-panelling walls would be painted using glaze to thin it down, so that it would be lighter the higher it went. The other walls would just be covered with the full-strength blue paint. The ceiling would be painted a blue that was heavily diluted with glaze, and then a rag-roller would be used to make ripples so that it would look like it was under water. We figured that we could get it done in about four days: 1) Prime walls, 2) Paint walls, 3) Paint ceiling and trim, and 4) Touch up paint and apply wallpaper and stickers. The curtains would be sewn while we were waiting for the paint to dry.
A couple of weeks ago, I had tried removing some of the panelling in the spare room to see if it would be feasible to remove it from Cerra's room prior to painting. This was not a good idea. The plaster underneath was in really bad condition, so I decided to leave the panelling up and just paint over it. I used a liquid sander before priming to remove the gloss from the panelling.
We experimented a bit with the paint+glaze combination, and decided that it would be best to paint the walls with the mixture, and then remove it with a cloth to achieve the shading effect. One of the walls was a practice wall because it would be mostly hidden by furniture. I found that scrubbing off the paint and then blotting away the rub marks with a clean cloth gave me the look that I wanted.
The ceiling turned out to be very easy. I had a lot of fun moving the rag-roller randomly to create the look of ripples.
Here are before and after pictures of the room:
I had found some pretty tropical fish fabric to use for curtains, so we based our paint color choices off of that. We ended up with a turquoise blue for the walls, bright green and orange for the trim and doors, and a sandy pinkish color for the baseboard (to look like sand). We also found coral accent wallpaper and Finding Nemo wall stickers. The two non-panelling walls would be painted using glaze to thin it down, so that it would be lighter the higher it went. The other walls would just be covered with the full-strength blue paint. The ceiling would be painted a blue that was heavily diluted with glaze, and then a rag-roller would be used to make ripples so that it would look like it was under water. We figured that we could get it done in about four days: 1) Prime walls, 2) Paint walls, 3) Paint ceiling and trim, and 4) Touch up paint and apply wallpaper and stickers. The curtains would be sewn while we were waiting for the paint to dry.
A couple of weeks ago, I had tried removing some of the panelling in the spare room to see if it would be feasible to remove it from Cerra's room prior to painting. This was not a good idea. The plaster underneath was in really bad condition, so I decided to leave the panelling up and just paint over it. I used a liquid sander before priming to remove the gloss from the panelling.
We experimented a bit with the paint+glaze combination, and decided that it would be best to paint the walls with the mixture, and then remove it with a cloth to achieve the shading effect. One of the walls was a practice wall because it would be mostly hidden by furniture. I found that scrubbing off the paint and then blotting away the rub marks with a clean cloth gave me the look that I wanted.
The ceiling turned out to be very easy. I had a lot of fun moving the rag-roller randomly to create the look of ripples.
Here are before and after pictures of the room:
posted by Mel, Foxtail Farm | 5:39 PM
2 Comments:
Melody,
I loved the room. I know it's a bit late to post a comment...I did see the blog a long time ago, but decided this time to post something. Love my girl's room. Post something new soon, eh?
That's beautiful. And I love how well you did Marlin and Nemo. Just gorgeous. :)
Keeley
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