Because we are expecting our third baby this summer, we
decided to get our boys moved to their new big-boy bedroom and get them settled
a few months before their baby sister arrives.
They have been in their new room for about 2 months, and it has been
working out great. With that accomplished, my next task was to
turn their room (previously blue and green with frogs) into a girl’s room! The good news is, I’ve never been a fan of
pink and purple and flowery and all that, so I didn’t plan on changing it a whole lot, but I did want it to look
like a baby girl’s room, not a boy’s room.
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| Before: Blue and Green Frogs |
I decided that I could handle a little bit of pink, but I also
wanted to add a touch of orange. I took
out most everything that was blue, and left all of the green stuff. So, I had my colors to work with now: pink, orange, and green (all of them bright
shades, not pastels). The boys didn’t
have much on their walls, but they did have two square frog pictures above their
crib. I took these down (yes, I cried
when I did it!), and decided to make my own replacement. Off to the craft store!
So here’s today’s do-it-yourself project for your home: making wall art (or any decorations, for that
matter) to match exactly the colors
you want, the theme you want, etc. After
all, we can always find something we like at the store, but the idea of finding
multiple things at multiple stores and trying to get them
all to coordinate? That’s just overwhelming!
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| Materials: Canvas, Adhesive, and Scrapbook Paper |
Here’s what I did: I went
and bought two 10x10 canvas pieces at Joann Fabrics, just the size I needed to
replace the two frog pictures. Then I went
hunting in the scrapbook paper aisle until I found the perfect one for my little girl---and there it was! Bright pink,
bright orange, and bright green—definitely girly, but not too flowery and princess-ish
for mommy! I found two coordinating
prints and some Mod Podge adhesive, and went home to get to work.
As this was my first time doing a project like this, my plan
was to cut out a 10x10 piece of the paper and then stick it on the canvas, and
maybe paint the sides pink or orange to match.
But as a friend suggested, the paper was bigger than the canvas, so why
not just wrap it like a Christmas present? (Thanks for the suggestion,
Tim!). So that’s what I did, and it
worked out great! The Mod Podge is so
easy to use…just get a foam brush, brush it all over the surface of your canvas
(be careful to smooth out the edges!), and then carefully place the paper on
top. For a “glossy” look, I bought the
glossy type, and also brushed it on top
of the paper after it was firmly attached to the canvas. I let them sit over night, and the next day I
put them up on her wall above her crib. It
was finally starting to look like a girl’s room!
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| After: Pink, Orange and Green Shoes! |
While I was putting some of her clothes away the other day, I
looked around and thought of another idea for the scrapbooking paper that I had
leftover, as well as the Mod Podge. I cut
out some of the shapes on the paper, and then stuck them onto the drawers of
her plastic shelves from Ikea. It looked
so cute! I cut out a few more, and stuck
them on some of the other little plastic items in her room. I was so proud of
myself!
And, for my last project…I bought a third and final
coordinating piece of the paper, and am going to buy a 12x12 canvas to attach
it to (thought I would mix up the sizes, to make it less uniform). This paper
has a lot of empty space, but that’s because I bought some pink alphabet/number
stickers…which I will be using to put her name and birthdate on it when she
arrives! Can’t wait!
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| 3 more months until this has a name and birthdate on it! |
*I bought all of my items on sale or with coupons, and I also
receive the 15% teacher discount at JoAnns.
The total cost for the three wall hangings and decorating the plastic
bins was approximately $17. Can’t beat
that!
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