An Accent Wall for Zero Dollars... {Kid's Bedroom}

Five months under our belt, with our little ones, is complete grace. Thank you for all your kind feedback and encouragement, friends, with regards to this post...

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Our youngest is enamored with his birch tree accent wall in his bedroom. Although, he may be slightly disappointed that they aren't trees he can climb.. darn.. but just simply to play, dream, and laugh under. Although, I wouldn't put it past him to attempt to scale this wall.

The idea started here --

... on page 94 of the DIY magazine by Better Homes and Garden. I showed our youngest, and asked what he thought about having trees in his room, and he was on board without any hesitation. The tutorial seemed quite simple. Required for this little project is: painter's tape, scissors, a paint brush, and white latex paint (although, really any paint would do). I had all of these items on hand and could picture this accent on our youngest's far bedroom wall, the wall with the window. I thought it would bring texture, interest, and height to this sweet upstairs room. 

Before I started, I did a rough sketch of my birch trees to use as a guide when I began taping out the trees with painter's tape. As far as taping the outline of the trees, I just eyeballed this part.. no sketching or measuring. I used bits of tape to create detail, by cutting out small squares, triangles, and rectangles. 

After taping two trees, I pulled out my white semi-gloss paint by Behr and a small paint brush, brushing on a light coat. I varied between "dotting" the brush and doing light strokes. Keeping an almost-dry paint brush so that the paint would go on light. 

I removed the tape immediately afterwards, mostly because I was excited to see the results. Plus, doing one tree at a time helped me learn a few lessons for my next tree ie. making wider trunk/branches, including more notches, and taking more risks with details/branches. 

After a bit of time over several days of taping and painting here's the final result -- 

The walls still look a bit empty. Looking back, I may have added more trees to create more of a forest effect. But we'll be hanging art and pictures and making a bright, cheery headboard, so the wall will fill itself in a bit more. 

But I think it's the perfect idea for a little boys room. My eldest is concerned that she doesn't have any trees in her bedroom (oh, siblings).. but it builds on the rusticity of his space (I had no idea rusticity was word until now, I looked it up just to be sure.. ). 

For now, I love walking by and catching a glimpse of this..

A welcome change from what we started with..

This room is coming along really well. We still plan on:

• Making a vibrant headboard to bring a punch of color into the room
• Purchasing a rug to warm up the room, absorb sound, and bring more personality to the space
• Hang a magnetic board I picked up at Ikea
• Bring in art and photos
• DIY a tent like space in one of the corners with fabric and hooks to create a small cozy escape (we're still hashing out this one)

My plywood for a DIY headboard just arrived in the driveway now, thanks to the handyman, stay tuned...