Saturday, April 7, 2018

And Now, The Princess Elena Room!

Here comes the second kid's room we did last week for friends! This one is themed to the Disney princess Elena of Avalor.


First the "Before":

 Most of the walls were a pale yellowy beige with one darker accent wall. Not exactly the stuff of dreams for a princess-loving little girl.


Aaaand here comes the "After"!

::Trumpet Fanfare::

If you look closely at the bedspread, you can just see the inspiration flower I used for the wall mural - it's the one by Elena's elbow, and little Ellie's "most favorite flower."  

 Here's the other side of the room:


The wall color is "Fore and Aft" by Sherwin Williams, which we color-matched in a Valspar paint from Lowe's. Some of my photos make it look more vivid and sky blue than it is IRL, but this shot is pretty accurate.

The closet wall, across from the window:
 
(Recognize that baby picture? :D)

I love all the crisp white trim and accents against that rich teal. SO GOOD.


Ellie asked for a "princess bed", but since a big canopy was out, this was a cute way to still give her something princessy. We used thumbtacks to attach sparkly tulle to the wall under a pink resin crown, then swagged it back with pink ribbon (attached with more thumbtacks) and little silk flowers. The tulle has tiny dots of clear glue all through it, which sparkles like diamonds:
 



John and I also decorated Ellie's nursery back in the day (remember my cherry blossom mural?), so those are the same wooden letters I painted & hung over her crib.
Oh! While looking up the mural post I found the butterfly mobile I made for Ellie's nursery. I'd nearly forgotten it, so let's look at that again, shall we?

OoooOOooooo. This is still one of my favorite DIYs!

Right, sorry, back to the new room.

Here's our fancy-pants set-up for painting the wall mural:

We used a digital projector (left over from our book tour days) to get the size and position right, then I traced the design with chalk. I'm holding my arm over the projector in the right pic so you can see my tracing - isn't that cool?

From there it was "only" a matter of filling everything in with craft paint. Which, you know, took a bajillion hours and 5-6 coats and whose idea was this, anyway? (Oh right, it was mine. Drat.)

I enlisted John and Ellie's dad Ray to help, so between the three of us we eventually got all the painting done. [Note to Self: next time use better covering paint!]

Oh, and if you're curious about that picture we were projecting on the wall, here it is:
 
 John took a photo of the bedspread and photoshopped the various flowers - and the bed canopy - onto a photo of the room. It really helped me visualize the wall design. (You'll note we nixed most of the extra flowers though, ha.)


Oh wait! I left out the most exciting part of my flower mural:

IT'S BEDAZZLED. 

Yep, I already had a big bag of plastic rhinestones at home (like ya do) so I used tiny bits of poster putty to stick them onto the flower. They catch the light and sparkle so prettily, and since I only used poster tack, it won't hurt the wall to remove them someday. And don't worry; the kids are all old enough to not try and eat any if they fall off, so it shouldn't be a safety hazard.

My last design feature rides the line between smart and ridiculous - let's see what you guys think. Ellie has an Elena scepter that she loves (it lights up and plays music) and she wanted it right next to her bed. I went looking for the best way to attach it to the wall, and finally came up with this:

Yep, that's a Command broom holder. It attaches with removable tape, and hey, it works!

Ellie loves having it within easy reach of her bed:


The white frames and little shelves are more holdovers from Ellie's nursery. I'm a big fan of using what you have, plus it's nice to have some familiar touches in there.



So that's our Princess Elena room! All the thanks and hugs to our dear friends Julianne & Ray for letting us have free rein (again) in your kids' room. Love you guys!


And here's one last photo using my phone's panorama feature, just for fun:


Hope you guys enjoyed, and maybe have some new decorating ideas to experiment with!


24 comments:

  1. OMG I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO EXCITED ABOUT A BROOM HOLDER! The possibilities are endless! Wands! Faux torches! Light sabers! I NEED THIS!

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  2. This is really cute. I liked your idea of using the projector before painting. I would have never thought of that! Quick question, do you have an email you can be reached at? I looked at your contact page and the facebook and Instagram pages didn't have a message field for you. And I had a quick question about your website. :)

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    1. I rarely look at my e-mail, so a DM on Instagram or a post to the Epbot FB wall is fastest - but you *can* e-mail me at jen@epbot.com. Just be prepared for a long wait, heh.

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  3. Oh, I love both the rooms! You really need more friends to mooch off your design skills so that we can see all the cool stuff you come up with! (Love the broom holder)

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  4. This might be a really dumb question, but when you say "The wall color is "Fore and Aft" by Sherwin Williams, which we color-matched in a Valspar paint from Lowe's", that means you liked the colour from one brand, but went with another for the final paint correct? What is the reasoning for that? Is Valspar a better quality paint that you would recommend over other brands?

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    1. Sherwin Williams purchased Valspar and they make both brands from the same plants, so I doubt there's much difference in quality between the two.

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    2. Yes, that's right; we have a Sherwin Williams color deck, so we use that to pick shades, then have them color-matched. (Actually Lowe's has all their colors in the computer, so it's not even a true color-match.) Valspar is our current favorite to paint with, plus it's more convenient to buy. (It's a pain making a special trip to a Sherwin Williams just for one can of paint.)

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  5. Our daughter just got a stick horse for her birthday and I’ve struggled with how to store it (omg tripping hazard) - but the broom holder just might do the trick, thank you!! Genius, as always! Love what you did for both the kids rooms thanks for the inspiration!

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  6. That. Is. Amazing! What a lucky girl!

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  7. I love the command broom holder, I have so many of them in my house now, hanging everything from swiffer poles to my long reach grabby things (arthritis is a bitch). Between command's new 5-7 lb hooks which work for purses and jackets, and the command broom holders, my whole house is command central. And sadly, when I bought the house, one allure was so I could put up nails if I wanted to, and since moving in I think I have only used nails t hang maybe 5 hings heh. Even almost all my pictures are hung with command velcro strips!!

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  8. "IRL"? I...R...L? This is I think the second time now I have seen this. Is it that difficult to type it out? Or should I say TIO?

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    1. You're welcome to use or not use whatever shorthand you wish. This is a safe space and we take all types :)

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    2. Nah, but it's no more difficult than learning the common abbreviations used online these days. ;) Btw, I don't mind your constant nit-picking of my grammar, but John will probably come through and delete this later since you've been nasty to other commenters in the past. 'Til then, TTFN!

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    3. I don't know, maybe I'll leave this one. I suppose I'm most surprised by the obsession. Did you know that you don't have to come to this site? You're allowed to move on with your life. Maybe it's time...

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  9. So cute! I know nothing about Elena, but it's adorable.

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  10. The room looks so bright and cheery now! Love what you did with it!

    I've done a couple walls with that projector technique before. During my freshman year in high school (homeschooled) we studied geography, so in the basement on the wall that my bro and I hadn't already painted, we traced a huge map of the world using an old-school projector and as we studied each area, we got to paint it in with different colors. It's still on the wall in my folks' home. And in my young adult years, I repainted "my wall" in the basement with a couple big swirly designs (again traced from a projector) and put a vinyl quote from Lord of the Rings in the middle. Nice to know that professional painters use the same technique. :)

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  11. Yay a pretty Elena room!! I was really hoping there was sceptre but, a sceptre AND a sparkly Command sceptre holder? YESSSSSSSSS! :D

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  12. This came out so great! I love the command broom holder idea. I think I shall politely steal that for my daughter's play area. I am interested in any ideas you guys come up with for decorating a child's area when you cannot paint as I live in a rental, but would still like to make my daughter's space her own!

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  13. Omg, I love the colors ... the teal and the pink with the white trim ... I would have LOVED this room as a little girl. I just painted my LO's room sky blue with a green closet and I am always admiring fun kid rooms <3

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  14. What type of paint do you use for the wall mural? Thanks

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    1. We just used acrylic craft paints - but keep in mind colors like orange and yellow don't cover well at all, so you'll need at least 3-5 coats sometimes.

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    2. TY. After all these years, my big kid finally has permission to paint on the walls. This should be fun!

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  15. I just removed some glow in the dark plastic stars & dolphins from the wall of a room with a painted mural--the previous owners had the room done. We've been here 13 years and I don't know when they did the room--and the poster putty DID take off a bit of the paint & drywall paper when I removed them, even though I was really careful. Something to keep in mind, that stuff is not harmless for an unlimited number of years.

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  16. I've been finding new ways to use those command strips--I put our new wireless doorbell up with a command strip.

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