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Yaleana’s Bedroom: It All Starts With A Large Flower Wall Mural

A couple of weeks ago, I told y’all that my mom and I are redecorating my 10-year-old neice’s bedroom.  Well, Yaleana’s bedroom makeover is finally underway!  Before we can get to any of the building projects, we needed to address the drab antique white walls.

Yaleana's bedroom before - 7

A 10-year-old’s bedroom can’t have drab antique white walls!  So after my mom and brother got everything moved out, we gave them a coat of light aqua paint.  (I can’t remember the name right now, but I’ll get that info from my mom in case any of you want to know.)

wall mural - before

With the walls painted, the next step was the large flower wall mural that will go behind Yaleana’s bed, flanked by two built-in bookcases.  And since my mom is a very talented and capable artist (and I’m still plugging away at my bathroom remodel), I left this part completely in her hands.  I gave her some general guidelines (e.g., we want BIG flowers, and lots of color!), but other than that, I gave her creative license to create this mural.  And here’s what she created…

wall mural - after

Isn’t that amazing?!  I can’t wait to get this wall finished now.  Imagine the bed right in the middle — a twin bed arranged like a daybed with a wide upholstered headboard in a solid color.  And on each side, we’ll have a built-in bookcase painted in the white trim color.  So cute!

And just to give you a real sense of the size of these flowers, here’s my mom in action…

wall mural - 2

This wall mural went through quite an evolution, and there were many, MANY family text messages sent, with all of us weighing in on what needed to be added and tweaked.  She started off with flowers that were much less detailed (like the pink and green below), but she wasn’t really thrilled with how those looked.  So she tried adding more detail to the yellow flower to see how that would look.

wall mural - 1

And then she decided to go bigger and bolder with the yellow.  She also tried this variation of leaves to fill in some of the white space…

wall mural - 3

Those leaves were nice, but then she tried this, drawn with a marker…

wall mural - 4

That version was definitely the winner!  It kind of reminds me of the Schumacher Birds & Butterflies wallpaper that I love so much.

In fact, when she texted that first picture of this version, I told her that’s EXACTLY what I want on my walls (the marker bits, not the huge flowers).  Of course, I was hoping she would volunteer to do them for me since she’s obviously so good at it and has the technique down.

wall mural - 5

Her response?  “Probably wouldn’t be so hard.  Have fun with it. 😀 ”  So I guess I’m on my own.  😀

wall mural - 6

In order to do the twig and leaf bits, she used one of these big markers…

wall mural - 7

I don’t even think they make those markers anymore, but Sharpie has king size markers that are pretty much the same thing.

wall mural - 11

But one thing I love about my mom’s twig and leaf drawings is the texture.  You can see that they’re not solid black lines, and I think one thing that contributed to that look was the fact that she was using a very old (and somewhat dried out) marker.  A brand new king size Sharpie would be completely saturated with ink, and the lines would be much more solid.  So I’m not really sure how to re-create this look with a brand new marker.

wall mural - 8

Anyway, after a bit more drawing, and a whole lot more tweaking (you’ll notice that the green flowers underwent a transformation also), it was finally finished!

wall mural - 10

I told my mom that I think we should turn this into a wallpaper mural and sell it.  Or we could make it into fabric.  🙂

wall mural - after

And now we’re ready for the next steps — the building of bookcases and upholstering a headboard.

 

 

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62 Comments

  1. I’m not sure if you are familiar with valeriemieners art. She is big on Instagram. She works a lot with very colorful backgrounds and then hand letters a scripture over the background. Anyway I was surprised when she did a post on the materials she used. She uses a marks a lot marker because she noticed over time that the sharpie ink faded and marks a lot didn’t.

  2. Offer to make your mom dinner for a week if she’ll do your wallpaper! She did an amazing job on that mural! How special for your niece to have a room designed and touched by loving family members.

  3. WOW! I love it. I am awe of the talent y’all have. I can hardly wait to see the finished product.

  4. Absolutely amazing!! I am blown away by the transformation. The end design is beautiful. I’m so excited to see this room evolve.

  5. Just stunning! Your mother has some real talent! Very colorful! 🙂 That aqua color is really pretty as well! Can’t wait to see the finished product!

  6. Just beautiful – she ought to market it as a mural on fabric! I’d like to know the color/brand of the aqua please.

  7. Love this! Your mama is a talent (runs in your family, obviously!). She could design some amazing fabric and wallpaper. 🙂

  8. Just beautiful, she wi be the envy of her friends! You and your Mom are so talented and have such a keen eye for color! The black sharpie leaves and vines also reminded me of your bird wallpaper.

  9. I love it, and was really fascinated by the progress of the design – thanks for posting that, too! What does your niece say to it, btw? Or hasn’t she yet seen it??

  10. Hi Kristi: That looks amazing. Let your mom know she is one awesome talent, and as far as the new marker goes, try buying one and rubbing a bunch of the inch out on a piece of cardboard until it becomes a new old marker. Just a thought :0)

  11. I love it! Your Mom is very talented and did a great job on the mural. Your niece is one lucky girl to have you and your Mom designing a room for her. Can’t wait to see it all come together.

  12. Let me know if you turn it into fabric. I’ll buy it for a chair I want to reupholster! Beautiful and amazingly talented

  13. So pretty! Love the wall color and especially the mural Mom did. She has a special gift, wish we all were so lucky to have someone like that in our family! Truly should market her designs in some way – share the love! Has she ever done anything for a charity? They could have a raffle for her art.

  14. That wall is simply beautiful! I remember when I was 10 my mother gave me a lavender room and I loved it! And I would have loved to have had a mural like this! Cherish your mother! A great talented lady!

  15. That is a beautiful mural!!! Painting large like that is hard and tiring cuz you have to always be stepping off the ladder and backing up to see the work!! I completely bow down to your mom!!! 🙂 A side note on using Sharpies….I had to paint over marker once on a set piece and it can be a nightmare with bleed through and I needed to go to a lighter color. I found flat white paint to be the ticket over Killz, which i tried first. Just layers of the flat over the marker areas until it stopped showing up did the trick! And I use cheap paint for sets so nothing fancy had to be used!!

  16. Oh I just love this. The color of the room, the hand painted flowers, just everything is so beautiful and girly. This is one lucky girl. I can’t wait to see it evolve with all the built-ins.

  17. Love it and I especially love all the ‘tweaking’ involved! Design is so much a journey I think to achieve just exactly what you had in mind.

  18. Absolutely gorgeous….. I didn’t realize until I started to read your posts how much I’m into flowers now. I wish I could draw cause I would go absolutely bonkers throughout my house.

    1. Well maybe now that I think about it, maybe its a blessing that I don’t know how to draw lol 🙂 maybe going bonkers all around the house is a good idea.

      Still love your mom’s mural… can’t stop looking at it…it’s gorgeous!

  19. I hope your Mom signs her artwork! That is beautiful and it really jumps out from those aqua walls. What a beautiful start to a fun, new bedroom.

  20. WOW!! I love the mural!! I actually had Envisioned something similar in my daughters room and now this has inspired me!! Love it!!!

  21. What a clever Mom you have, fabric like that would be great. How lovely that your niece has two talented Ladies who are creating a room that she will love. It’s a Wow!!!

  22. Amazing! Me and my 10-yr-old daughter are drooling over here. Love the colors and everything about it.

  23. Although similiar to the inspiration photo, I like your mother’s rendition better! So happy for your niece that she will have her own, lovely space. Her friends will be envious. Are you going to work on this project until completion then continue with your home projects or do a bit of both at the same time?

  24. This is so so so SOOOO Amazing!! I love it! I can envision the whole thing…so perfect! Can’t wait to see it all come together.

    Kudos to your mom–quite the talent.

  25. Please make a mural and sell it – I would buy it in a heart beat. I always think go big or go home. I love the huge bright colors and think it would be gorgeous for any age. Yaleana is going to die for her new bedroom. I love her name and y’all are so sweet to do this for her.

    Your mom is so incredibly talented so I can see where your creativity comes from.

    Take care.

  26. Send that photo in to Spoonfower! If you give it a repeat of 21-25 inches I’ll take ten yards!! I’ve been looking for a large scale fabric for four years now for a special quilt I want to make. Your mom is a true artist and your niece is going to be in love with this room! How fun!

  27. I have been dealing with chronic fatigue for the past coupe years and recently started getting sick whenever I eat. The good news is that when I started getting sick, my fatigue improved. All of that to say, I’m trying to get caught up on your blog! lol. Anyway, did your mom ever do anything with this pattern (wallpaper, fabric)? I love it!

    1. So sorry to hear that you’ve been sick! No, she never did anything with the pattern. I should get her to do that. I think people would love it!