Adorable Boys Nursery with Painted Wall Mural

 And I am so excited to be here on Remodelaholic!!

I guess I've always been a crafter, but I haven't always been a blogger. I started The Willow Bee in January of this year as a place to keep up with ideas, find inspiration, and share with others. It's my happy place!

The project I'm sharing with you today was one I completed before I had a blog, and the very first project completed in our new home...

When we bought our house in December 2009, I was pregnant with our second child. Our son, Spencer. So, of course, the first room we worked on in the new house was the nursery. Here is what his room looked liked when we were getting started...

The inspiration for my baby boy's nursery came from a crib skirt and curtain panel I found in an outlet store. It was a Dwell Studio for Target brand that had already been discontinued when I found it. But I LOVED it and scooped up the lonely crib skirt and curtain panel determined to build his nursery around it.

We started by painting the room a lovely shade of light blue with just a tinge of gray in it. It took us 2 full coats of the Behr Premium paint to get to this...

Nice, but it needed something to give the room some depth, interest, and to really make it special. So, I got the bright idea to take the pattern of the crib skirt and curtain onto the wall behind his crib. First, I taped the curtain panel onto the big window on our front door, taped a piece of plain white computer paper onto the fabric and traced the pattern. The light coming in through the window acted as a perfect light box! I borrowed a projector from a friend, but I found out afterward that our public library rents overhead projectors! (Who knew?!?) Once the image was projected onto the wall, I lightly traced the animal shapes with a pencil. Then began the tedious task of filling it all in. Seriously, guys, it took us a whole week of painting after work and during nap times to achieve this final result...

All of the furniture pieces are hand-me-downs from when my daughter was a baby, so the only things we had to purchase were the paint and supplies, the rug, and a few more accessories. Like this cardboard rhino head from Cardboard Safari...

We added a couple of shelves above the dresser for more storage (never can have enough with a new baby)...

And my mom sweetly came over and helped me turn one curtain panel into 2 panels with the help of a couple of pretty nondescript tan colored panels I had lying around. We cut the animal print panel in half lengthwise, trimmed the tan panels to fit, stitched the two together and then hemmed the unfinished edge. They aren't super full when pulled close, but they do cover the entire window and block a lot of light.

So, that's the story of our baby boy's nursery. I hope you enjoyed reading about how it came to be. And I hope you'll come join me over at The Willow Bee!

Thanks again for having me, Remodelaholic!