Painting a Mural!

So after I kept saying that the colors of our baby's room looks like a giraffe, my husband finally suggested that I paint a giraffe on the wall. Well, I was concerned that if I just painted a giraffe, it would blend into the walls and wouldn't really look that good. Plus, i was scared of painting anything at all on the walls because I didn't want it to look like an awful mess when it was done!

But, the next morning, I had an idea - use the invitations my mom bought for my baby shower as a design plan. With a few minor adjustments, I decided that I'd just go for it. If it doesn't work, then we'll just have to paint a few more coats of yellow over it, right?

After a trip to OfficeMax to have the invitation blown up and laminated. The grid is in 1 inch squares, and each sq. inch is a 6 in. square on the wall.



I first tried to draw the grid without a level -- bad idea. Ended up at Target to buy one, and that was a HUGE time saver!



This is my first ever attempt at creating a mural. I think that the hardest part is working with the texture of the wall... the wall that constantly wants to work against me. It is very difficult to make a straight line! Also, everything requires at least 2, if not 3, coats of paint to get full coverage! And some even a little more than that...

Pencil drawing of the monkey on the tree

The first paint

Here are a few more steps of the process:

I did not realize how long of a process this would be... I started this over my spring break (the end of March), and here is it April 17 and I'm still not completely finished!! Backache, exhaustion, and having a million other things to do have really gotten in the way!!! However, I will post later the updates of the entire room, because, finally, our nursery is ALMOST finished and looking ready for little Daniel to move in!!!

Here is the most updated picture of the mural: