Nursery Craft 1 - Wall Art

Greetings, Blogosphere!

 

I am so excited to share this post with you! I have completed my first craft for the bambino darling's nursery! (Anyone else ever seen or loved Rock-A-Bye Baby starring Jerry Lewis? If not, go watch it as soon as possible! It is amazing!) Before I was even pregnant, I saw a print on Pinterest that I loved of six giraffes. It was yellow and gray in color, and all of them were on one image. I pinned it right away knowing that I would want to use it as nursery art. It sold really fast, but I knew it was something I could recreate and make it more condusive to using as wall art.

 

Don't get me wrong, I am not doing a giraffe themed nursery. I didn't want there to be a single theme for the room as I wanted it to be as neutral as possible going forward. Prince Charming and I are hoping to have our kids close together, within a year or two of each other, so the room needs to be usable for multiple babies. Keeping it as neutral as possible, I feel, will allow me to change the little things: accessories, art, etc., to customize the space for future bambinos.

 

My intention for the giraffe art is that it will hang in a trio above the crib on the wall. This could change once we have furniture placed, but I knew that I wanted to do three canvases by breaking up the original print I saw on Pinterest into groups of two. I also knew that I wanted the center canvas to be larger than the other two canvases. I picked up a few canvases from Michael's, and I took with me to the store the fabric sample I have from Carousel Designs to choose the paint colors. I picked a few acrylic paints, grabbed a few brushes, and headed home to get to work. I did this project in one single day. I worked indoors to avoid the sweltering NOLA heat and humidity, and it worked out well due to the size of the canvases.

 

I started by freehand drawing the images I saw on the print from Pinterest in pencil on the canvases. Then, I filled in the outlines with solid colors and painted around them in white. I varied the shades of yellow by adding in bits of gray to the yellow paint so there would be some contrast in the design's color pallette. This is what the canvases looked like at the halfway point.

 

 

While I thought the giraffes were very cute solid, I wanted to stay as true to the concept of the original design as possible and add some shapes to the figures. Below are the final draft canvases.

I am truly so excited for how they turned out. I am sure that in a nesting frenzy, I may at some point go back and tweek the design here and there, but I am very pleased overall with how the nursery is coming together. (At least in my mind!) Below are the design elements we have picked out so far.

 

The floors, a porcelain tile that is made to look like wood, are being installed in the next couple of weeks. That should be fun! We have three bedrooms to empty of all furniture and items into our dining room, including ours, and the floors will be installed in around 4-6 days. We will probably go stay down the street at the in-laws to avoid sleeping on the floor, and I cannot wait to see how the rooms look with the new floors.

 

One craft down, and I am sure I have numerous crafts to go. We have ordered our crib, and we will be hunting for a dresser that will double as a changing table tomorrow. Please feel free to leave some feedback on the design or ask any questions you may have about anything regarding the products. I will look forward to seeing you back here soon. Have a fantastic Friday, friends!

 

Y'all Come Back Now, Ya Hear?

Brittney