Slow work
One of my first or second entries when I started journaling three years ago was about some friends of ours who wanted us to do some murals in their home. At the time, we were planning on a project that would be finished by the end of that summer. We were ignorant.
The mural project has been going on for almost two years now - granted, both of us, in that time, did have some personal stuff going on that interfered with our abilities! However, it's also just plain fact that this kind of thing goes far, far more slowly than I had imagined, is much more painstaking, and, in fact, well worth the big bucks most muralists charge for their services. The fact that we did not charge those kinds of rates, making the reward barely worth the effort in this case, is probably also a small factor in our lack of timeliness in getting this done. However, the results have been impressive, so I thought I'd share them here:
First project was a princess bedroom for this couple's twin girls. After our first design incorporated castle bunkbeds, Mom liked them so much she decided to double them so that the girls could have sleepovers. I thought four beds in a room was a colossal waste of space, since kids sleeping over are notoriously happy to break out sleeping bags and camp, but she was adamant. Accordingly, we had a friend of ours, a very talented carpenter, build some beds to our specs, which we then faux-finished.
Don't think I wouldn't have killed for this as a child.
After the walls behind the beds were painted this left two blank walls still waiting for murals. We wound up going with that kind of angular, tapestry-inspired style from Sleeping Beauty. The complexity of all the trees, rocks, and cliffs made this project take forever. I spent most of my pregnancy in this room, paintbrush in hand. The trees in the upper corner are bare of defined leaves because our intention is to hang fake branches and silk leaves across that space - the air vent is positioned there and the leaves will rustle whenever the a.c. comes on - neat, huh? If it ever gets done...
Right-hand wall (looking toward the door - see the door? Points if you can find the light switch!).
Left-hand wall,with one unfinished birch tree. There's a closet door in there somewhere. Also some electrical, phone, and cable outlets. :)
So much for the girls' room.
The parents had met and married in Hawaii, so they wanted something reminiscent in their room. Although much bigger, this mural took about half as long as the other. Matt did most of this himself - it wound up being good post-stroke therapy, as the big shoulder movements required in painting clouds were exactly what he needed. This room is much bigger than it looks in the photos, but things got a bit distorted and compressed as I did my best at an uncooperative cut-and-paste job.
We're doing some work on their downstairs foyer, but it's more faux-finishing and going much faster. Problem is that their foyer is two stories tall and we are going to require a lift or scaffold of some kind to do the job - so it won't be finished for a while yet. I'll post more pics when it gets to a point worth taking them.
Honestly, I don't know whether I'd want to do this for a living. The money is good, but the sheer amount of time it takes to do these things is daunting.
The mural project has been going on for almost two years now - granted, both of us, in that time, did have some personal stuff going on that interfered with our abilities! However, it's also just plain fact that this kind of thing goes far, far more slowly than I had imagined, is much more painstaking, and, in fact, well worth the big bucks most muralists charge for their services. The fact that we did not charge those kinds of rates, making the reward barely worth the effort in this case, is probably also a small factor in our lack of timeliness in getting this done. However, the results have been impressive, so I thought I'd share them here:
First project was a princess bedroom for this couple's twin girls. After our first design incorporated castle bunkbeds, Mom liked them so much she decided to double them so that the girls could have sleepovers. I thought four beds in a room was a colossal waste of space, since kids sleeping over are notoriously happy to break out sleeping bags and camp, but she was adamant. Accordingly, we had a friend of ours, a very talented carpenter, build some beds to our specs, which we then faux-finished.
Don't think I wouldn't have killed for this as a child.
After the walls behind the beds were painted this left two blank walls still waiting for murals. We wound up going with that kind of angular, tapestry-inspired style from Sleeping Beauty. The complexity of all the trees, rocks, and cliffs made this project take forever. I spent most of my pregnancy in this room, paintbrush in hand. The trees in the upper corner are bare of defined leaves because our intention is to hang fake branches and silk leaves across that space - the air vent is positioned there and the leaves will rustle whenever the a.c. comes on - neat, huh? If it ever gets done...
Right-hand wall (looking toward the door - see the door? Points if you can find the light switch!).
Left-hand wall,with one unfinished birch tree. There's a closet door in there somewhere. Also some electrical, phone, and cable outlets. :)
So much for the girls' room.
The parents had met and married in Hawaii, so they wanted something reminiscent in their room. Although much bigger, this mural took about half as long as the other. Matt did most of this himself - it wound up being good post-stroke therapy, as the big shoulder movements required in painting clouds were exactly what he needed. This room is much bigger than it looks in the photos, but things got a bit distorted and compressed as I did my best at an uncooperative cut-and-paste job.
We're doing some work on their downstairs foyer, but it's more faux-finishing and going much faster. Problem is that their foyer is two stories tall and we are going to require a lift or scaffold of some kind to do the job - so it won't be finished for a while yet. I'll post more pics when it gets to a point worth taking them.
Honestly, I don't know whether I'd want to do this for a living. The money is good, but the sheer amount of time it takes to do these things is daunting.