MSM: A tree for Nigel

Once I saw this Fabric on the Walls Tutorial over at Infarrantly Creative, I knew I wanted to do that instead of buying a mural. That way I could get the perfect mix of whimsy and realism that we wanted.

She has pretty good directions but I documented our process anyway because, well, I'm a blogger and that's what we do.

I started by cutting out a tree shape with newspaper. I thought it was going to take me a long time to get something good but it wasn’t that hard at all. I taped it to the wall to see if I liked the size and I did.

Then I went fabric shopping and found this awesome mottled brown. I used 1.75 yards of the brown which may seem like a random amount but that was all Hobby Lobby had left. Luckily it turned out to be enough but I did have to divide the tree into three parts to get it all on there. The seams didn’t show later so it wasn’t a big deal.

I used the newspaper as the pattern but I did make a few changes. I noticed that the thinner branches looked a little less scary than some of my bigger branches. I wanted this to be a friendly tree not a creepy shadowy tree like you have nightmares over.

Then I used a little roller to wet the wall with liquid starch and stick my fabric up there. It doesn’t take much liquid starch at all to get a good stick. You might notice that I had to make some more changes here since the third branch ran into the vent. At this point I wasn’t sure if I liked it with the changes and was frustrated but Craig wisely suggested we take a break.

After a nap and a snack, my hormones had settled and I went back to finish it up. I freehanded some leaves from two different greens and put them in place while Craig wiped down the starch that had dried on the wall. It looked a lot happier with the leaves. After a few hours it was dry enough to move the changing table back into place and put a nail over one of the branches. I speared Hoot the beanie baby owl with a large safety pin and hung him on the nail. Ta-da! A tree for Nigel!

The total cost was about $11 which includes the three fabrics, liquid starch and roller. Not bad. This project was a lot easier than I was anticipating and I’m now in love with fabric “wallpapering.” When we move I can simply wet down the fabric with water and it will peel right off, ready to be reused if we want. This would be a super easy way to decorate a kids room with flowers, bugs, or even simple car or truck shapes.

Be sure to head over and visit Amanda at Putting Down Roots, home of the Make Something Monday!