Having my own studio space is truly a dream come true! Since starting MCreativeJ, I have run this small business out of a tiny one bedroom apartment. And if I'm being honest, I outgrew that space a long time ago. From creating in half of our lil living room, to storing products in a storage closet, to having a bedside table overflowing with projects--I was having to get real creative on how to store products and produce work.
A few weeks ago we closed on our first house and were able to move in! And ever since then, I've been busy turning one of our bedrooms into my studio space. I am extremely thankful my husband made it a priority for me to have my own studio space when we were house hunting, and have been reveling in all the room we now have.
Plus, I have big plans for this new studio space. One of those things being a desert wall mural!
When imagining possibilities for our new house and how I could make it my own, I of course, turned to the trendy image search engine: Pinterest. A few of the many things that caught my eye were painted wall arches and murals. While I haven't painted anything in quite some time, I still felt like this was a project I could do on my own with a minimal downside. I mean, if it turned out terribly, I'd tell now one and repaint the walls, right?! Haha.
So on one of my many trips to Lowes, I stopped by the paint section, picked out a few colors, and had some sample paints mixed. Not knowing how much paint I was going to need for this project, I figured I'd start small with paint samples and then I could get more if needed.
Once home, I took out a pencil and lightly sketched out some landscape lines on my studio wall. At first this felt a little daunting, but once I started, the design came together quickly.
Then came the painters tape and brown Kraft paper to cover the floor. Even though I don't consider myself a messy person, paint has a mind of it's own! I'm very glad I covered our new carpet and taped things off. It would have been a hot mess otherwise.
Next, it was time to paint! This was probably the scariest part of the process for me. I started with the bottom color and filled in the landscape layers as I went. Thankfully, I used small sponge brushes and small amounts of paint at a time. This helped me from getting paint drips everywhere. I painted each layer at least 3 times, waiting for the paint to dry in between, so that I could ensure even color coverage. While this might sound like it took a while, I was finished painting in one day. And it turned out that the sample paint size was plenty big enough for my project!
Needless to say I'm loving how this desert mural turned out.
And of course, now that I've painted one wall, I'm seeing so many possibilities for our other walls! So far, I've added a coral arch to the end of our hallway and might add some more color blocks once we decide on some furniture for a few spaces too.
Looking for decor to compliment your desert aesthetic?
Want ideas on how to style your desert fiber art?
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