by Roland McShane

Created on: August 21, 2008   Last Updated: September 07, 2010

Decorating our son's bedroom to provide a fun sanctuary was the goal.  The challenge was to keep the project within a limited budget.  Since he liked to play with his toy cars and stuffed animals, we tried to think of a way to incorporate both of these interests into one project.  We are not artistically gifted.  We wondered whether our creation would cause pleasant dreams or disturbing nightmares! We were pleased that the space we created by rearranging furniture and painting animals on the wall transformed a boring room into a zoo and an ordinary bed into an ark. It became a special space filled with adventure by day and sweet dreams by night. This is how we met the challenge and achieved our goal:

Instead of paying for expensive wall hangings, we decided to paint a wall mural. We started by painting the walls a neutral colored, using stain resistant paint. We placed the bed up against the wall and lightly marked the width of the headboard on the wall. We found an illustration of animals and used our printer at home to print the picture out on a plastic film used with overhead projectors. Because wanted the finished product to match the width of the bed, we adjusted the size of the picture by moving the projector closer to or further from the wall to get it just right. Using a projector we borrowed from church and a regular pencil, we traced the lines from the picture onto the wall.

Once the design was traced, the painting took only a few hours. We also added a black border around the edges of each animal which helped mask imperfections. One tip:  make sure that you let one color dry completely before starting with the next color so they don't bleed into each other. Once completed, we used a clear varnish to seal the mural. When the bed was placed up against the wall, the animals appeared to be coming right out of the headboard. Feeling a little emboldened by the experience, we used the remaining blue and white paint to create clouds on the ceiling.

We arranged the furniture to create a large open space between the bed and window. For the floor, we purchased an inexpensive area rug which looked like a road through a green wilderness area. This way we combined our son's interests cars and animals into one play area. The final addition we made was to sew simple green curtains for the window covering.

Another coat of paint several years later returned the room to its previous empty palette. When he was older, our son told us how much fun he had playing in his ark. Hours spent in play with imaginary friends or with a favorite toy is the right of every child. With a few inexpensive changes, you too can create a special place for your child.

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