African Safari Baby Room Mural - Basic Painting

Intro | Basic Painting | The Animals | Other Details | Before/After Pictures

The Sky

With every project, you have to get started somewhere. It was quite scary to paint over the beautiful peach color we had painted this room only a few years ago... but it HAD to be done. The first step was obviously to remove all furnature from the room and take off all electrical coverings, and mask of the ceiling fan. We laid down some large painter's plastic to protect the carpet and went to it. First coat of paint was the light blue we selected for the "sky" This was painted on the entire ceiling and about half way down the wall. We didn't have to be too careful with this coat, just get a good covering so none of the old peach color showed through. We ended up using just under 2 gallons of paint for a total of 2 coats of sky.

The Grass

Next: the light green for the "grass." I used a paint roller pole as a quazi-measuring stick to lay down the masking tape around the perimeter of the room. We wanted to make sure the grass horizon was high enough to be above most of the furnature. We knew there would be a lot of wasted room behind some furnature, but at least we could put some fun animals and trees along the horizon.

The Plateau

In this picture you'll also see a much higher piece of masking tape. This was used to mask off where the plateau would be. Of course we had to wait for the grass paint to dry before filling in the light- brown mountain color for the plateau.

The Tree of Life

The last major part of the "basic" painting we did was to paint the trunk of the tree which was the main entry door. We wanted to have a tree that we could "carve" with a bunch of sayings, and also have a way of marking our little baby growth by marking the tree as she grows. When I was growing up we had a wall that we would mark our heights... I just thought this would be FUN! The door to this room is slightly recessed, so it made the tree's canopy that much more "3D" To paint the top of the tree, I just used the brush to make some knarly looking branches. I just free-handed them and they turned out fine. Even if they really stunk, they would be mostly covered up with the leaves, so I didn't worry about it too much.

Oh yeah, the paint I used for the tree was Home Depot "Oops Paint".. If you don't know about it you are really missing out! Basically, its paint that someone else returned ("oops") and you get to buy it for 1/4 the price. Selection is usually very limited, but you can't beat $5 for a gallon and $1 for a 1/2 gallon!

The Hut

We decided to paint the closet doors a light brown to resemble a grass hut. Eventually I will add a fake grass roof over it to make it seem as real as possible. This picture was taken a little bit later in the project... I guess I didn't think brown closet doors were that exciting to take a picture of..

Oh yeah, this paint was "Oops Paint" too. What a bargain! Eventually, I'd like to add some detail to the "hut" like add a window, door, or perhaps someone/something looking out from around the corner?? :)