Over the last week or so I've been slowly redecorating my daughters' bedroom. They are 8 and 3 years old. They don't see eye to eye on a lot of things, but lucky for me my 8 year old LOVES all of my suggestions and the 3 year old doesn't have the attention span to look at or talk about any of my suggestions....
Last weekend I painted their room. Before it was kind of an ugly almond color -- that of course I loved when we painted our entire house that color almost 5 years ago. Here is how it started out... gotta love the original color, right????
I wanted to do a fairly neutral blue/green. It turned out a little more blue than green, but I LOVED it!!! Here is how it turned out...
So much better than the almond, right? I think it looks absolutely beautiful. It's a calm, cool, and relaxing color, and the white really POPS up against it! ♥
Now that the painting is done, it was time to start actually decorating the room. I've had an idea pinned on Pinterest for a really long time and today I made it happen! Here is the pinned image:
What I love is the combination of the blue, pink, and gold... and the "I love you" canvas sign. So, I made one of our own for the girls room. Here's how I did it.
Supplies:Estimated Time: 2-3 hours
• art canvas - mine was 20"x24"
• white and black craft paint
• 2" sponge brush
• q-tips and a paper plate
*optional:
• light brown paint for distressing
• rough dry paint brush
- - - - -
Step 1: I had my 8 year old paint the whole canvas white. Not only did it mean she got to work on this project a little bit herself, but it also meant that the paint job wouldn't be perfect... which is PERFECT! I wanted an old, rustic texture to it. (that white paint in the sun is blinding so she borrowed my hat, sun glasses, and my apron)
Step 2: Grab your paper plate, q-tips, and black paint. I didn't measure anything... easy, right? I used the end of the q-tip to "write"/paint the letters onto my canvas. They aren't perfect, they aren't straight, and that's the beauty of it! I found that if I dipped my q-tip into the paint and dabbed it on my plate before starting to paint with it, it didn't glop the black paint on.
When I got to about the middle of my canvas I tried to plan ahead to make sure my last rows were fairly evenly spaced....
Step 3: Let it dry. Then distress if you want. I used a very light brown/gray craft paint from Martha Stewart, and a really tough bristled dry brush. I got a tiny bit of paint on my brush and dabbed most of it off. Then I carefully brushed very lightly on the edges all the way around and in the middle of my canvas.
Once you are done you can admire your work! It is a really easy project, and one that even older kids could do themselves!!!
**I realized after posting that I goofed on the sign. I should have made all the lines (after the first one) say "love you, I love you, I". Whoops!! My OCD may kick in and I will redo it at some point...
