Monkey in the Mural!

June 5th, 2008 by

Poor Jeff got home from work at 8:30 last night and had little to no interest in finishing the mural… He didn’t seem to think “because I said we would on the blog” was any great incentive! He eventually relented and worked for the next three hours straight doing mostly cleanup work and painting the monkey.

Without further ado, the completed mural:

If you look really closely in the last picture, you can see the little carving in the tree of our initials (AF+JF) in a heart.

So, that completes the monkey mural project, phew!

Commenter Artsy Fartsy asked for some tips on mural painting, but I don’t think we did anything particularly special or out of the ordinary (other than the fact that Jeff is an illustrator and art school graduate so very comfortable with a pencil and a paintbrush.)

So I guess I’ll just outline the steps that we did and the materials we used:

1) Mock up the design in a design program overlayed on a picture of the wall (we used adobe illustrator).

2)  Using your mock up as a guide, block out the general size and shape of the design with low tack painter’s tape.

3) Using a regular pencil with a good clean eraser, sketch your design on the wall.

4) Paint!

That’s really it, no magic here. I will say that the lighter you can make your pencil lines the better because the places where Jeff got too dark were much harder to erase. Some places left smudging that we had to go back and touch up with the background blue wall color.

There were parts that we realized didn’t come out quite right, like branches that were a bit wonky so Jeff just reshaped them using the blue wall color.  If we had messed them up again, we could have gotten out the branch color again, you can touch up pretty much endlessly.

Here are the colors used in the project, I bought quarts of the leaf and branch colors and used sample pots for the monkey colors:

Wall Color:  BM  Crystal Blue
Tree Color: BM Brushed Aluminum
Leaf Color: BM Wales Green
Monkey Fur: BM Kingsport Grey (used a small sample pot and mixed in about two teaspoons of white paint to lighten a bit)
Monkey Face, ears, feet, etc: BM Malton (also a sample pot.)

If you are interested in other tree mural projects, here are two that inspired me:

Kayla’s Beautiful Sideblown Quince 

Rachel’s Seasonal Tree Mural

Now, how to decorate the other two blank walls??

Filed under: decorating, nursery, painting by ariana
34 Comments »


34 Responses to “Monkey in the Mural!”

  1. Dawn, on June 5th, 2008 at 7:20 am Said:

    It’s beautiful! Tell Jeff your blog stalkers thank him and give him huge props for his amazing talent and creativity!


  2. Becoming Mom » The Monkey Mural is Finished!, on June 5th, 2008 at 7:34 am Said:

    […] More pictures over at becoming-home. […]


  3. Artsy Fartsy, on June 5th, 2008 at 7:48 am Said:

    Wow! And WOW! It looks so good…your little one is going to have such a great time looking up at that little guy hanging in the tree, and have all kinds of wonderful playtime adventures with him.

    When my sister-in-law had her daughter, I painted a giant flower scene in the nursery(think Honey I Shrunk the Kids, but not scary). As an afterthough, in the corner of the room, I painted two friendly ladybugs. Now my niece is two, and sometimes, you’ll catch her in that corner,on her stomach, head propped up with elbows, just having a nice little chat with her ladybugs. So cute!


  4. Mom Quixote, on June 5th, 2008 at 7:49 am Said:

    That Jeff of yours is quite the keeper! Talented AND dedicated to the cause. A girl couldn’t ask for more, ha?


  5. Jenny, on June 5th, 2008 at 7:51 am Said:

    It came out amazing. Your little one is going to love it. Love the initials.


  6. Kate, on June 5th, 2008 at 8:17 am Said:

    That looks great! I love how the monkey seems to be looking in the crib!

    PS. I added you to my blog roll.


  7. Fran, on June 5th, 2008 at 8:20 am Said:

    Wow! It turned out so beautiful! I think the monkey is so cute and of course I especially love the initials.

    Fran


  8. Stephanie, on June 5th, 2008 at 8:25 am Said:

    Adorable! I love the way the monkey seems to be peeking into the crib to check on the baby. :-) Couldn’t be cuter!


  9. Laur, on June 5th, 2008 at 8:32 am Said:

    Oh!! it look like the monkey is keeping an eye on the baby for you!!


  10. angelica, on June 5th, 2008 at 10:05 am Said:

    that so so cute, i love it! and the carving, nice touch:)


  11. Liz, on June 5th, 2008 at 10:25 am Said:

    Fabulous, just like the rest of your house!


  12. EB, on June 5th, 2008 at 10:32 am Said:

    It’s absolutely, amazingly, fantastically perfect. So so so cute. What a lucky baby.


  13. ROmi, on June 5th, 2008 at 12:09 pm Said:

    It’s Perfect!


  14. Christina, on June 5th, 2008 at 1:43 pm Said:

    Just happened across youe blog and noticed the monkey in the tree! I had to stop and think of my younger daughter, the monkey!
    Glad I found ya!


  15. marcy, on June 5th, 2008 at 2:11 pm Said:

    That is just adorable. Congrats!


  16. heartartz, on June 5th, 2008 at 2:16 pm Said:

    A-d-o-r-a-b-l-e!!!
    Love the Monkey looking into the crib (watching over baby). LOVE the initials.
    Love the tree.
    GREAT job.

    I sew this toy box on Etsy and thought of you..and you had the mural done…you have the painter..now to find the box!
    Owyn toy box by modmomfurniture
    http://www.etsy.com/view_listi.....d=12303410

    Now Baby has to name the monkey someday!


  17. Meli, on June 5th, 2008 at 5:45 pm Said:

    I LOVE it – it couldn’t be more perfect!
    YAY for Jeff!


  18. deborah, on June 5th, 2008 at 5:47 pm Said:

    just precious! so talented and what a wonderful expression of love to your little to come.
    love your blog and the inspiration you give!


  19. Project Nursery, on June 5th, 2008 at 9:18 pm Said:

    Best Mural We’ve Seen! We’ll done.


  20. Betsy, on June 6th, 2008 at 7:06 am Said:

    So sweet. Love the gentle colors.


  21. TheRightWife, on June 7th, 2008 at 7:43 am Said:

    Wow! Your nursery is amazing! An inspiration! I’ve just recently discovered your site, but I thought I would come out of lurking to let you know you how much I adore the monkey :)


  22. Carrie, on June 7th, 2008 at 12:50 pm Said:

    I love your home. You guys have done a great job working on it. We have some of the same style I see. The mural is super cute too!


  23. Michelle, on June 8th, 2008 at 11:28 am Said:

    LOVE it! And mad props to your hubby for the hard work and the monkey addition. Your little bundle is going to love it.


  24. The Nest Baby New Arrivals : 6/6: Seen this week on the web, on June 8th, 2008 at 8:09 pm Said:

    […] Cuteness: The monkey mural in Becoming Mom’s baby room is finally finished (more cute pics at Becoming Home), and Design Mom shows off a sweet Tiny Sprouts growth chart (sorry, the giveaway’s over, but it’s […]


  25. Baby Mural « While I work, on June 25th, 2008 at 3:41 am Said:

    […] just think this mural from Becoming Home is the cutest thing ever for a baby’s […]


  26. Cindy, on June 25th, 2008 at 9:01 am Said:

    Very cute!! I’m completely jealous… despite the fact that I do not have children… nor am I expecting. However, this would look cool in the upstairs loft area anyhow :)


  27. 50s Pam, on June 26th, 2008 at 7:40 pm Said:

    The mural is fantastic. And you made me LOL about your comment about getting your husband to do it because of the blog. It’s funny when you are blogger – that everything becomes fodder!


  28. Kayla, on July 10th, 2008 at 9:06 am Said:

    Hey, that’s me! I was checking my Google analytics and had a whole bunch of referrals from your site and couldn’t figure out why. I’m glad my mural was able to lend some inspiration. But, I’ll be honest, yours is way better. I’m kind of jealous.


  29. May, on August 5th, 2008 at 10:53 am Said:

    Ari,
    what does BM stand for in the paint colors you used?


  30. ariana, on August 6th, 2008 at 8:40 am Said:

    Kayla, you are way too modest, your tree is gorgeous!

    May, BM is shorthand for Benjamin Moore :)


  31. Christine, on March 7th, 2009 at 8:18 pm Said:

    I know this is an old post, however my husband and I stumbled upon this page through “googling” and fell in love with your tree mural.

    I hope you don’t mind, but we used your mural for our future daughter’s nursery.

    Thanks for the inspiration!!


  32. Mural Project, on September 15th, 2009 at 11:05 am Said:

    I love your mural :) I can’t seem to find a match for the Brushed Aluminum colour you used, was there another name? I love the way it looks with the Crystal Blue.


  33. Amanda, on January 5th, 2010 at 9:20 am Said:

    Thanks for posting these pictures. You have inspired me to try doing one very similar on our new nursery. Thank you!


  34. Lauren, on January 25th, 2010 at 8:06 pm Said:

    Your monkey mural is fabulous! We are expecting this April and are looking for a mural very similar to yours. Where did you get the mural from? We can’t seem to find anything we like as much as yours. Please share! Thank you!


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