Playroom Silhouette Mural – At Long Last!

Many, many years ago, before I even had kids, I saw an idea in a magazine that I fell head over heals for.  It was an amazing mural wrapping a child’s room.  Unlike realistic looking murals, this one was a silhouette.  At eye-level the room changed from green below to white above.  The demarcation was the silhouette of grasses, wildflowers, and animals.  I filed the idea away in a folder (lost somewhere long ago) and in my mind (apparently, quite vividly) to someday recreate in my child’s room.  The day is finally here!

The pirate playroom in our basement, with no natural light or interesting architectural details and low ceilings, was screaming for something amazing.  I knew the silhouette mural would be striking, fun, and interesting.  Instead of grass and wildflowers, like my inspiration which was a girl’s room, I chose to do an ocean scene for my boy’s pirate room.  My silhouette was also much simpler than the inspiration, but every bit as beautiful.

What started as a pencil outline on the wall, transformed into a beautiful mural over the last week.  I spent many wonderful, peaceful hours painting it.  Painting is like therapy to me.  To work with my hands, listen to music, and let my thoughts wander (mostly to what else I want to do in the room).  The most relaxing part of painting…if you screw it up, you can easily paint over it and try again.

My son helped choose the dark blue wall color to use for the lower 2/3 of the wall.  I love the contrast it gives with the upper 1/3 being white.  The blue is Azurite by Martha Stewart Living.  The white is Tailor’s Chalk by Martha Stewart Living.

I chose to hold off on the trim in this room knowing I planned to paint a dark wall color.  Now that the painting is done, I can install the chunky white baseboard and door trim.  The door on the left leads into our home gym and will remain open.  The door to the right is the utility room, which will need a door, but hopefully something fun.  For reference, the wall the mural is on is just over 6 ft. wide.

The scalloped waterline detail and whale are simple, but make a bold statement contrasting with the white.  I chose to have the whale’s tail splash above the waterline.  I reversed the paint colors to make the tail above the water blue and the whale’s body below the water white.

The most time-consuming, and the most amazing, part of the mural is the pirate ship.  It took me several hours to paint the ship.  It is incredibly detailed, complete with ropes holding the sails and ladders to climb to the crows nests.  I love the detail.  Painting it took time, but it was well-worth the effort.  Good thing I find painting, any kind, relaxing and therapeutic.

I am ecstatic to finally have a silhouette mural.  I cannot believe I held on to the idea for so long, even after losing the magazine clipping.  I am so glad I did.  I can’t think of a better way to decorate the walls in this room.  It definitely sets the stage for a magical playroom for my boys.

Later this week I will share how I created the mural.  And, in the coming weeks I am excited to share other projects we have been working on for this room.  Sadly, we are over the halfway mark of summer in Minnesota.  I want to make sure this playroom is ship-shape for the cold months.