Baby nurseries: they are all over Pinterest!
Zoo animal theme. Woodland theme. Under the Sea theme. Fairy tale theme.
Bright, Crayola crayon colors. Light, pastel colors. Deep, dark colors. And everything in between.
I remember actually stressing about Liam’s nursery over four years ago. It seems that everyone wanted to know the theme of the nursery so they could buy us all kinds of cute knick-knacks for it. And I just didn’t know. I couldn’t even decide on a color scheme.
Finally, after way too many hours on Pinterest, I narrowed it down to blue, orange and white and decided I wanted an accent wall for his crib. I found some tree decals on Etsy that came with owls with the exact colors I was thinking. It was all coming together!
I’ll never forget the night Matt and I hung those decals. I hadn’t imagined how many pieces these trees would come in or the fact that we’d have the free will to choose how each tree looked. It became too much for my perfectionist husband. By the end of the evening our wall of five trees was now down to four and we both swore that wall decals would never be bought in the Dietrich household again.
Four years later, I stared at what was going to be Lake’s room and decided I’d go simple. I’d buy some cute bedding, hang some curtains and pictures and be done. But every time I walked into the room I stared at the wall the crib was on and saw how blank it looked.
I was going with a mountain theme (I mean we live in Montana now) so the wall was practically screaming, “Paint some mountains on me!” I scrolled Pinterest and found countless mountain walls. Some very basic and some claiming to be painted by the average person but looking like Picasso did it. I found the most basic ones (meaning only straight lines and few colors) and saved those, still not quite sure that I was ready for such an undertaking and knowing quite well Matt would have no interest in my vision.
So one day I decided I’d at least make an easy first step: pick out a few paint samples and some painters tape. So while Liam was having quiet time, I put some tape on the walls to see if I could even make a decent mountain.
I texted several people picture after picture of different ways to do it until I settled on one. I stared at the wall and thought, “That shouldn’t be too hard to paint.”
My in-laws came the next day . After getting their opinion and help on paint colors, they took Liam out for the afternoon and I enjoyed a relaxing afternoon of quiet and painting. I remember putting the first stroke on the wall and thinking, “That looks way too dark.” And if the ‘lighter mountain’ was dark, that couldn’t be good for the ‘darker mountain’ But I had an entire gallon and I told myself it would probably lighten up as it dried.
Once the wall was finished, I was not in love. I told myself it looked fine but it just wasn’t what I had envisioned. It almost had a brown tone to it and that is what I noticed every time I walked into the room.
Step 1: The “lighter mountains”. The original finished product.
So one day I decided I was going to change it. The plan: to repaint the darker mountains and make them lighter than the others. I had plenty of dark paint left and white paint. So I mixed the two together until I got a much lighter shade (trying to ignore my mother’s warning that if I mixed paint I had better take it to have it shaken)…and then prayed I didn’t completely screw it up.
And the final product I was very happy with:
If only I had completed the wall by putting Lake’s name on it as originally planned. Maybe one day…
I’m happy I finally completed one Pinterest project undertaking! I’d love to hear about a Pinterest project you attempted or completed! 🙂