I've been wanting to play with paint and frog tape for so long, so I figured that the perfect place to test what I could do with this mix is our hallway. Today I show you how I painted straight and organic lines using this little green-magical tape.
If you follow me on Instagram, you already know that for the past week I've been working on fixing up our hallway on the second floor. This leads to our bedroom and the nursery, it kind of hurt my eyes every time I walked to our room or conner's room, especially the window with the horrible dirty outside.
The window in the hallway is right bellow out top deck so there is really not enough light to care for plants there (the previous owners had cactus there, but I'm not a fan of them) So I decided to use artificial Ikea potted plants to give that window a little bit of pop.
I wanted a soft but noticeable texture for the main wall, and since we live in the mountains, trees were my obvious choice =]
To complete the look, I framed 4 of my favorite pictures of us, the first one of our engagement session, the second of when I was 38 weeks pregnant, the next was the one that never made it to our Christmas cards (because we never sent cards) and the other is Conner just being cute.
We change the light fixture, but we are going to have to change it again because the attachment system doesn't work very well.
I started by painting the whole hallway a very light cream color.
I also painted the doors and baseboards to blend the dark brown, after that, I freehand taped the trees on the wall, added a few branches, and measure the lines for the opposite wall.
The taping process was very therapeutical, I really enjoyed the tree wall. The lines took a little more time because of all the measuring (not so fun) but after that it was alright =]
As I mentioned before the window was super dirty on the outside because it's right below our deck so in the winter the water and snow run right on top of the window getting all kinds of dirt stuck on there.
To make things worse that window was almost impossible to reach from the outside, my studio's deck is right below it. Thankfully I have an awesome husband and with the help of a super long ladder, he managed to clean the window! now you can actually see the trees on the outside =]
The painting was very fun too, after finishing the trees I realized that the looked a little stiff, so I added a little bit of texture with a brush and a sample color we had for our living room. You can see the painting process in the animation below!
I used a total of 2 1/2 rolls of frog tape, a lot less than what I thought I was going to use! just like when I painted the walls in my sewing room, I had to press the tape with an eraser because of the wall's texture.
Even though it was a little more time consuming than using the tape just like it is, it was worth it at the end, because I had cleaner and sharp lines even in the bumpy places.
Conner was definitely happy with the huge ball of frog tape we ended up with after I cleaned the walls. He loved that it was slightly sticky but he could toss it around and chase it, definitely not a toy he sees every day.
I was very excited because we managed to give the hallway a fresh new look on 3 days and while staying on a budget =]
I hope you all are having a lovely day!
Elizabeth Ortiz
Saturday 13th of July 2013
WOW! Otra fantastica idea Joy! Yo quisiera tener valor para intentar esta tecnica. La verdad mi esposo y yo somos mas conservadores, y con el constante posibilidad de tener que mudarnos nuevamente me doleria mucho tener que dejar una pared a la que le inverti tanto tiempo :? LOL! en fin, tu esposo y tu hicieron un trabajo genial, me encanto la idea de las flores/plantas artificiales. Nunca he visitado una tienda IKEA pero esta en mi "bucket list" ;) Una vez mas, gracias por compartir tus ideas! que tengas un lindo dia!
Joy Kelley
Thursday 15th of August 2013
Muchas gracias Elizabeth! Estoy planeando hacer todo un poco mas moderado en cuanto a texturas =] fue muy entretenido poder jugar con estas paredes! Muchas gracias por leer! Una abrazo!
Roberta
Wednesday 10th of July 2013
Thankyou very much for your fantastic ideas!!! Today i've Made your trees on the wall of my baby girls badroom!!!
Joy Kelley
Monday 15th of July 2013
I am so excited you tried this! YAY! Thank you so much for letting me know <3
Christine Nolan
Wednesday 10th of July 2013
I absolutely love what you did with your hallway! Oh, to have half the talent that you have. Can't wait to see what you do next!
Joy Kelley
Saturday 29th of June 2013
Thank you so much!! <3
Chad Pfeffer
Friday 5th of July 2013
You emphasize a great point that I like to make with homeowners: A little can go a long way. Your hallway is not that big but you made a tremendous impact on the small space by just paying attention to it. Paint and an artistic flare is sometimes all you need to make a big change.
Joy Kelley
Saturday 29th of June 2013
Thank you, Chad! It was such a cheap project considering how much we changed that little hallway =]
Bob Warner
Wednesday 3rd of July 2013
Whoa, this remodel is quite spectacular in its own right. Good job you guys!