Teenage Accent Wall
3 Materials
$10
2 Months
Easy
I'm really sorry I neglected to take pictures of the entire process, but I got so much paint on my hands it was hard to stop to take a pic. But I think you can see enough of the process with just the finished product. Overall this took me a couple months because we've been busy unpacking, trying to enjoy summer, and I needed sunny days to do this outside in the driveway. I'm sure it would take someone else much less time.
Here's the story. My son never liked using his top sheets; he'd just shove them down to the foot of the bed. So I stopped making his bed with his top sheet. Hence, they stayed nice and crisp and never faded. I had a brainstorm to pin this outer space top sheet to his wall, and it just fit!
We pinned up the sheet with pushpins every 18" or so. It would look even better with some trim tacked up to cover the edges of the sheet...or maybe use the trim to tack up the sheet. But we rent and don't want to do much more to the wall. Then I re-painted these very basic wooden shelves my kids have had for years to match the outer space background. I got a very dark navy blue in flat (not glossy so that the dark blue would absorb, not reflect, light) for the base color, and a tube of white acrylic for the stars. I just used a little of the white, watered down a little bit in a small cup.
My first attempt looked more like splatter paint than stars, because I used the same paint brush and just flung the white paint at the shelves which gave me lines I didn't want. I still had some of the navy blue left, so I painted over the areas I didn't like and got an old toothbrush instead, and that worked much better. I think I see a spot I might have to redo...
I made sure to paint the backs and undersides of all the shelves because kids --even teenagers -- like to get down low and look up at things, and just in case anything gets moved around differently. Unfortunately, our driveway now has white splatters all over it and we don't own it, so we'll probably have to powerwash it. I recommend laying down a large piece of cardboard or a dropcloth. Also? Splatters travel farther than you'd think. I think my car got some tiny white dots on it, too. But it's a junky old car so I don't care.
This last pic shows the shelves with his rock/mineral collection, dragons, toys, and books on them. Looks like they're floating in space! We even pinned a teeny tiny little X-wing fighter onto the wall somewhere, and we're still waiting for him to notice it.
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2 of 5 comments
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Thanks!
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Very creative!!!
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