Jungle Fever

No no, not that kind of jungle fever. I mentioned that we were going for a jungle theme in the nursery and even though the colors are already definitely beginning to evoke a jungle look, that wasn't good enough for our baby! My plan, from even before we were expecting, was to make an attempt at a mural. The room already had one before we painted over it, so the idea was in our heads right from the start:

We've always liked the idea of wall decor and even have this vinyl up in our bedroom:

I didn't want to do a vinyl in the baby's room. First, because it was a huge pain to apply, with having to carefully push out all the air bubbles for such an intricate design, and second because they can be peeled off and if we had any decals low to the ground or otherwise in reach, what two-year-old wouldn't want to pull them off the wall and try to eat them.

So painting was the best choice. I'm no stranger to painting - way back in high school I actually liked art, and have plenty of not-too-horrible acrylic on canvas paintings to prove it. In fact, I even helped paint a mural on a wall of a store once, so this should theoretically be right up my alley.

First step, find inspiration. Not a problem thanks to the internet:

(Now you're starting to see why the green backdrop?)

Second step, figure out which walls to work on (and since we don't have furniture yet, I had to think ahead to where the furniture will likely go to avoid painting something and then covering it up with a wardrobe or chair) and sketch out a design. Notice the random notebook page? Yeah, that's because I drew this while in a meeting at work...nothing like multitasking!

Third, find some fun characters as more specific inspiration. I was going for cartoon, not realism, so I needed the internet to help yet again:

And a late addition (not in the original sketch) to fill out the wall with the window:

(Yes, I realize that giraffes don't live in the jungle with monkeys, but search for cartoon jungle animals and you get all kinds of not-quite-geographically accurate ideas. And you know what? It's for a baby, so whatever.)

Third, (and this is the most incredible, though it is kinda cheating) - have a friend offer to loan you her projector, which will let you project the pictures directly from your computer screen onto the wall so you can trace them in pencil and create an outline:

I had to fiddle with the furniture height and distance from wall to get the design exactly where and what size I wanted it:

 There's Mr. Monkey, on the wall for me to trace:

 Ta-dah! Can you see it on there? It's pretty light but the pencil lines are definitely in place:

Repeat that with the parrot and the giraffe (oh, and of course there's a tree but I free-handed that) and you have a complete mural ready to go.

The last thing stopping me was paint availability. I needed quantities greater than you can buy in an art tube but less than the gallon or even quart that they sell at most paint stores. And paint samples usually use sub-par paint. So I spend about a week strategically planning how to make the mural with minimal colors (thank you, basic understanding of mixing paints) and a trip to my parents to raid their used paint collection, before hitting Home Depot to pick up three 1-quart cans of Behr Premium Plus Ultra (way cheaper than our Sherwin William's default and didn't seem too bad): yellow, dark brown, and dark green (Flame Yellow, Ancient Root, and Pine Scent, to be specific). Between those, some free samples of Valspar's summer palette I got from Lowes thanks to some coupons in a magazine, and the other colors I have around the house, I should theoretically be able to get everything I need.

So why can't I get started painting?