This particular bedroom has seen approx 4 changes since we’ve been in our home of 20 years, adjusting to our growth and changing needs along the way. When big brother left the nest and relinquished his room, it just so happened that Eliza had reached the age where she was needing a playroom. Not yet at the age where she was comfortable with that being located anywhere in the house other than close to us, our now vacant son’s room on the same floor as our bedroom and hers, seemed the perfect choice for it. She had outgrown entertaining her friends in her bedroom, and frankly, I preferred that our living room and den remain somewhat organized and without a barrage of Barbies and Lego pieces. So I set out to create a playroom for her.
We dismantled Craig’s monster of a bed (that’s another post 😉) and stored it in the basement to start, while removing all other furnishings from the room. I then set out on choosing a color scheme.
Craig’s room, when I had repainted it for him, consisted of a hand-painted plaid on his walls from chair rail height down to the floor. Well, I had just painted his room a few years prior, and I wasn’t about to repaint the entire room, ceilings and all included. I’m far too frugal for that. So I came up with a bit of a practical plan.
Above the plaid in Craig’s room, was a painted border to finish it off at chair rail height and above that, a neutral sandy beige wall color running from the painted border at chair rail height, up to and including the ceiling in the same color. I’m attaching an older pic to give you the visual of what needed to be covered.
The “Aha!” Moment
Seeing that completely repainting the entire room was not an option for me, I tried to find a way to keep the upper portion of the wall as it was, ceiling included. So I came up with a plan to repaint the walls from the top of the border only, down to the floor. It would be just enough to cover the plaid.
But what did I have in color options and in pulling it all together while only repainting half of the wall? Well, again, with the ever-present challenge of living in a small town with limited options and stores, I set out to Wal-Mart to see what I could find for fabrics. And what I would find in fabrics, would then dictate the paint color of my bottom half of the wall. Paint suppliers, we are not short on!
Choosing Colors For the Playroom
What I found at Walmart were bundles of coordinating patterns, approx. 32”x 32” and some smaller 18”x 18”. And I found colors and patterns of those different sizes that I could make work together. Perfect! I knew that I would be making toss cushions, covering a playroom bench set, and needing remnants for accent pieces in the room as well as a floor rug and a toy bag – oh, and cover a lampshade AND toy bins for cubbies in the benches once made.
I decided what would work best with the existing upper-half wall color. And I bought up every package of the same that existed at Walmart, coming home armed and ready for the next few months worth or more of projects for her room.
Carefully Priming To Cover The Darker Plaid Colors Only
I wanted something girly and pretty that would remove my thoughts completely way from the Southwestern Funk feel of the heavier and darker plaid that was formerly Craig’s. The plaid was painted in a midnight blue and burgundy so I knew I would have to prime to cover the darker shades of the plaid. That was a given.
Making sure that I still had some of the upper wall color in a paint can somewhere in my stockpile first tho, I taped off the top of the border making sure to cover all evidence of the dark border below the tape.
Once taping was finished, I carefully brushed on primer using a 1”wide foam brush in order to avoid bleeding of the paint under the masking tape. The remainder of the bottom half of the wall called for a haphazard rolled coat of primer to cover the plaid. And on the baseboard to the floor to cover the dark navy color as well as window trims and doors.
The Fun Part – Painting the Playroom!!!
Once dried, picking up a color from one of the Walmart patterns, I then used an artist’s brush to paint chocolate brown swirls freehand, following the top line of the plaid’s border now primed. Then I removed the tape.
I had chosen a light blue paint for the bottom half of the playroom wall also pulling that from one of the Walmart patterns. So proceeded to very carefully paint anything under the swirl with the light blue using the artist’s brush. And used the 1″ wide foam brush on the areas where I didn’t need to be so careful inside of tight spaces with fine lines. I did the same of the already existing beige of the upper portion of the wall with the can remnant, above the swirl. This was done around the entire perimeter of the room.
I then rolled on 2 coats of the light blue where I was now safe to roll, stopping at the top of the baseboards. And painted the baseboard trim in a cream color as well as the window trims and doors the same. The room was ready for all that was to come! But wait! I’m just beginning!
Four Bare Walls Of A Playroom = Fun, Fun, FUN!
In considering how her playroom would be used for the next few years to come, I had decided that what I wanted most in it were the following features:
- An art wall displaying some of her creative drawings and colorings from birth.
- I had also decided that I wanted a self-affirmation wall consisting of childhood photos of her throughout her various stages of growth
- As well as a family tree, as our family mostly live either an ocean away from us or scattered throughout Canada. And I felt it important that they be kept present in her memory and in her knowledge of them.
- She would be needing an activity/arts and crafts center. This room would have to accommodate her through all stages of drawing, painting, jewelry crafting, building lego, playing with Barbies etc,
- The room would also have to include an entertainment corner for movies and her Wii
- Of course, the space would need to accommodate little friends for sleepovers and
- Being the doodler that she is, the room should include a chalkboard wall
And ALL of it needed to happen in a room approx. 12” x 15”.
The Playroom Family Tree Wall
I opted to start with her family tree wall.
A number of years ago, I had bought the greatest little arts projector from an arts supplies store in Sackville NB online, and have used it often since. I think I paid something like $125 for it and truly, if you’re into crafting and projects, it’s a great investment! Amazon.ca carries them for $90 over here .
I then found a small pic of a graphic that I liked online – a simple tree that I could imagine as a family tree. It was roughly 5”x 5” when I managed to enlarge it on my computer, and I printed it off on my pc printer.
Placing the printed image under the viewer of the projector late evening with sufficient darkness in the room, I had to make sure to not move it any way shape or from. Because, had I, then I would have had to erase everything traced onto the wall, and start from scratch. One of the great features of this little projector, is that you can zoom your image, so with a bit of repositioning, closer vs further away etc, I had my ideal location and angle of the image projected onto the wall. Get that thing traced and do not move the projector.
The Tracing
With a pencil, I lightly traced the outline of the image – of the leaves, the tree trunk outline etc. My goal in all of this, was to paint a tree on her wall, with several branches. One side of the tree, would see hung photos of my side of Eliza’s family, and on the other side of the tree, hang pics of Joe’s family all a great distance away. This for me, was a must-do for her new space.
Filling It All In
Once I had everything outlined with pencil, I used an artist’s brush to fill in the leaves and a 1”wide foam brush to fill in the trunk, matching my paint colors to the fabrics I would be using. Some of the paints I used were from leftover cans of paint I had still in the house from other projects. What I was missing in colors, I bought in small bottles of stencil paints from the Dollar Store and Wal mart for $2 a bottle.
After filling in the leaves with the dark colors using an assortment of art brushes, I eyed up the printed image now in my hand, and guessed as to where the leaf veins would go on the wall, and casually painted those in a lighter color with an artist’s brush. And once that was dried, I softened the dark branches and trunk with a light color wash of part beige paint mixed with 2 parts water, washing over the area with a damp cloth dipped into the wash.
With the painted tree now dried, with an eraser, I erased some of the pencil marks still visible and carefully wiped away the eraser remnants with a dry paper towel.
Enter Family Members
I then grabbed a bunch of small 5″ x 7″ and 4″ x 6″ black picture frames from the Dollar Store for $1 each. Coming home to my computer to comb through 185 Gigs of family photos, I finally selected those of our closest family members that I thought could work, and converted them to black and white on my computer. Then I resized them to fit the frames.
Once printed off on cardstock, I cut them out, inserted them into the frames, hung the frames on various branches of the tree where family members were meant to connect, et voila!
Our little one would never have to again wonder what her family members looked like when her memory would begin to fade of prior visits. She would know which cousin belonged to which aunt and uncle as I was careful to connect them together for her. The tree was finished off with a photo of Eliza as a baby, one of Joe and I before her, and of our beloved Murphy on the trunk – the trunk being the center of her world. Every child should know their roots, how everyone in their little worlds came to be and how we are all connected.
One Down, Still A Few To Go!
So that was the Family Tree – wall #1 of the playroom completed!
Stay tuned for part #2 – the affirmation wall. It won’t be nearly as lengthy, but also a special, affordable and fun-filled project for a kids playroom!! In the meantime, you can see its current use and state over here – where the playroom eventually found itself converted to a teenage girl’s bedroom.
Until Part #2 :-),
Leave a Reply