Posted byMy son loves animals. Since he was three he has wanted to be one of three things: A dolphin trainer, a shark trainer, or a zoo keeper.
At one point he even wanted to marry a T-Rex.
Me: So when you get older what do you think your wife will be like?
Him: She will be huge with little arms and sharp teeth.
Me: Wow! She sounds pretty scary.
Him: Oh she is! She’s a T-Rex, mom. She could eat you.
Me: Well, I hope not!
Anyway a few months ago I wanted to change up his room — do something fun, but not too expensive. So I decided to paint an underwater scene, something from one of our favorite books “Way Down Deep in the Deep Blue Sea.”
I penciled in the characters and then started to paint…
Here’s my advice: Get the “mistake” paints. I found these at three or four hardware and department stores. They are paints that people ordered but never came back to pick up or realized they were the wrong color, or didn’t match the sample and – good news for us – they are WAY cheaper!
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Also an employee whispered on the sly that outdoor paints can be used indoors – which meant I had TONS of paints to chose from. I didn’t get EVERY color exactly the way I wanted (and I did break down and buy a can of white and black) but the rest of the paints were bright, fun and half the cost.
The project took awhile because I painted in stages but it was fun for to work together to decide where the shark should go and how big the sea turtle should be.
I finished the project with a sea horse lamp from IKEA, giving my son’s room a brand new look for less than $100!
The room loos great! and you can look back on these photos and remember that ,yes, once upon a time, the room really was clean…
That is intensely cute. Be proud. Be very proud.
It looks amazing and like such a fun place to be!!! The octopus is my favorite!
Amazing! Great job. The T-Rex conversation made me laugh. At least he is not hung up on stereotypical ideas of female beauty lol 🙂
Thank you everyone! It really was sooo much fun to do – and my son recently pointed out that when he is in bed it looks like the octopus' arms make a heart. <3
Great job and fantastic Mom.
Very cool!
That kid with the dolphin looks very much like the little boy on the pic with Mom?
Pura Vida!
Awesome, awesome room and I agree w/ Brenda – Amanda's a fanastic Mom – a great daughter-in-law too!!! 🙂
That is amazing! I can't imagine a more perfect room for a kid. Hell, I want a room as awesome and crafty. XD
Hey! That was my idea for coming-soon baby!
Only we're gonna do all the sea life on canvases
and just paint the walls a blue
because we predict a lot of moving,
and we wanna be able to take it with us.
I love the idea of using book illustrations, through!
You did such an awesome job! How cool and colorful, way to stimulate the imagination factory.
I wanted to congratulate you on these super-cool murals and keeping it to such a small budget! I featured your blog post (and designs) on my Squidoo page about Underwater-themed Kids rooms with a link back to your blog.
http://www.squidoo.com/underwater-kids-room
Kind Regards,
Laura Schofield