Painting Idea: Football Field Wall

It’s easy when you do a sports-themed bedroom to just paint the walls blue and put some clouds. After all, most sports are played outdoors and it fits with the theme.

But I ran across a picture in the customer gallery over at Fathead.com the other day that had just the coolest wall. The kid had an Indianapolis Colts bedroom going on, but instead of painting the wall blue or white, it was painted to look like a football field. So something kind of like this:

Just a rough idea – my white lines are probably too thick – but you get the picture. He then had art and decals hung over it and it worked really well. (Sorry, I can’t put his picture here. Copyright and all that jazz, ya know.)

This is really one of the easiest kinds of paint jobs to do. Paint the wall white, measure out the yard markers and tape a straight line down. The paint everything green, pull off the paint and viola! Two tips here :

1. When using tape to mark off stripes of any kind, there is a risk of seepage. The is when the paint doesn’t lay completely flat and the top coat – the green in this case – seeps under. You can fix that by painting over the tape with the basecoat color – the white here – then applying the top coat. That way, the white seeps under and you end up with a nice crisp line once the tape is removed. Very good idea if you have any kind of texture on the wall.
2. The numbers could be done several different ways. You could get some number stickers and use them the same way as the straight tape – stick to wall, paint green over, remove sticker. You could also get white number stickers and just put them on after the green paint has dried. Or, you could try stenciling them on. I’d lean toward getting white numbers just because you’ll have to do the stencil several times to ensure a crisp white over the green.

What do you think? Something you’d try? Have another great football wall idea? Love to hear it!

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission, probably enough to get a stick of gum. I generally only recommend products or services on this blog that I would use personally and believe you will find cool as well. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Tags: boy bedroom, football, paint, teen, tips

Tips for a white girls bedroom idea

So, I’ve been working on a few ideas for a white girl’s bedroom. (Hate the way that sounds, it’s a white bedroom for a girl, not a bedroom for a white girl. You know that, right?) Several ideas, actually.

There’s no one right way to do a white room, but there are definitely some general guidelines I’ve figured out as I’ve gone through this process. No matter which style of white room you’re planning on, here are a few tips to help you reach success.

1. Neatness counts. But it’s not the messy of chocolate on the comforter you need to worry about. Think storage and lots of it. With a white room, any kind of clutter is going to throw the look off. (Got a messy child? Rethink your choice of theme.)
2. White or white? Not all whites are created equal. Decide early if you want a mix of white shades or a straight, pure white.
3. Accent. It might be a white bedroom, but you can still toss in an accent color. It serves to set off the white and keep the room from feeling sterile. It can be a soft color like baby pink or a bold shade like lime. Just remember it’s the second banana.
4. Details count. Again, we want to avoid a sterile feel so details help break things up and keep the room from being too one-note. White is the one color that you can completely overdo. Layer up everything; you can’t add too much detail and texture.
5. Match with metallics. If you don’t want to bring in an accent color, try adding in some metals. Silver is great with sleek and modern looks, copper or gold with warm and soft.
6. Create a focal point. When everything’s the same color, it’s hard to know where to look. Whether through texture or scale or color, give them a place to look first. A wow bed is a good choice and it doesn’t have to be white. It can be metal or dark as contrast or just over-sized.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission, probably enough to get a stick of gum. I generally only recommend products or services on this blog that I would use personally and believe you will find cool as well. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Tags: boy bedroom, football, paint, teen, tips

Start with a signature piece when executing a kids bedroom idea

You’ve decided on a bedroom theme for your little girl or boy but where to start on actually executing it? After all, when you can get SpongeBob sheets and a SpongeBob comforter and a SpongeBob rug and SpongeBob posters and SpongeBob trashcan … just where does it stop? How much is too much? Ack!

My advice has always been to start with one signature piece and build around it. Generally, this would be the biggest thing in the room, but it could be a collection of small art pieces or figurines. You start there, build out and keep the theme from overwhelming the room.

Great examples of a signature piece would be bedding, rug, wall mural, artwork and furniture. That sounds obvious as I write it, but it’s so easy to forget them. The bedding is an easy one as the bed tends to be the focus of the room and there are so many themed options for that. But what about the other pieces?

With rugs and wall artwork (whether mural or decals or posters), it’s a little more difficult to define the next step. Do you still get bedding with the theme? Do you need to have nothing else with the theme? Two things to consider here in my book – scale and focus.

Scale – This one is all about pattern mixing. (Everyone’s favorite thing!) If your signature piece is big and dominating, you don’t want other articles to be big and dominating as well. For example, let’s say your signature piece is this really cool baseball field mural. Well, you might not want to use a big baseball headboard. But those really cool ones they make out of baseball bats would be smaller and subtler and work nicely. You might then pair it with a pinstriped comforter to mimic baseball uniforms rather than a comforter with baseballs all over it. The other patterns/items go with the main piece without being plain solid pieces. (I now want this bedroom!)

Focus – This is all about where you want the eye to fall. Is that rug so special you want that to be the thing guests go “ooo, where did you get that” over? Or is it just within the theme and the first thing you have? The more focus you want on that piece, the less spotlight you need to shine on other places. That could mean going with solid or non-theme-patterned bedding. It could mean balancing out a big signature piece with small theme pieces like throw pillows or shelf accessories.

The point of the signature piece is to set the theme for the room. Use it as a launching pad to make the rest of the decorating a breeze!

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission, probably enough to get a stick of gum. I generally only recommend products or services on this blog that I would use personally and believe you will find cool as well. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Tags: boy bedroom, football, paint, teen, tips