East #12: Nest's Mountain Mural

AFTER

Name: Nest
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Time: An afternoon and evening of the same day. It was way easier than I thought it would be.
Cost: Around $50 or less. Depending on what paint you use, how many colors, etc.

Nest is prolific. She's actually submitted more than one project and is geared up to improve every aspect of her home. We suspect that January is not her only DIY month. Head below the jump for all her pics, tools, and instructions and VOTING...

BEFORE

Tell us the tools and resources you used for the project:

-Home & Garden 1970's Decorating Book for ispiration
-Pad of paper and pen to sketch it out
-Measuring tape to determine the canvas size
-Pencil to do preliminary sketch on the wall
-Painter's tape
-Paint
-Paint Brush
-Gloves (to protect hands from paint. Trust me, totally worth it.)
-Drop cloth/newspaper

MY TOOLS

Share step by step instructions for how you completed the project:

#1-Draw from inspiration from any image or source, start sketching your design onto paper. My inspiration came from the 1970's specifically from a photograph from my vintage Home & Garden's book of a mountain range landscape mural. I sketched it out several times to get used to the design.

*If the wall you are painting on is not primed, this is where yo would add a primer coat to hold and set your paint.

DURING

#2-Start sketching -IN PENCIL- onto the wall, giving yourself an out-line to start from.
#3-After you have your painter's tape set and your drop cloth down, begin painting from the TOP going DOWN. This prevents the paint from splattering onto what you've already painted.
#4-Let the first coat dry.
#5-Paint your second coat.

VOILA! You have transformed a blank wall space into a landscape mural!

AFTER

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Comments (19)

Love the sketch. Love the pic. Don't love the final product.

Conceptually I think it is a great idea. Maybe the colors are a bit bold for my taste? Not sure. I would probably advise someone doing this to wash the walls/closet doors before painting. The smudgy, dirty background gives the OCD in me heart palpitations.

i think its a great color combo. good stuff!

I am not a painter but I think the blue needs another coat.

I would second another coat of paint, but I would also suggest cleaning up the edges and new hardware (specifically hinges that are not painted).

Even though it's not my style (my style being too-much-white), I like the concept.

I like the idea but the final result just doens't look polished.

I absolutely love it. I think it's a fun and interesting way to remember that fun should always be encouraged when dealing with the home. Plus, they are totally all my favorite colours.

I've wished on several of these DIYs that there were a couple more polling choices like 'Am glad they love it, but wouldn't do it' or 'meh'.

Concept is really fun... but creator might have benefited from taking her own advice to prime.

I think the idea was great and I like the color choices. However, the entire closet appears to be filthy. I don't know if it's some unfortunate trick of the camera, or if the top white cabinets and the blue trim really have been smudged so thoroughly with dirty hands? Also, I agree that it lacks that polished look. Curved lines are hard to make perfect with blue painter's tape, but not impossible. And I think they are absolutely necessary for this project to look "WOW!" vs. "oh. wow."

the blue is not working with the bold yellows and oranges. and why did the hinges get painted they way they did? if anything, i would think they should match the color on which they sit, not the color to which they are adjacent.

i liked the birds better, but maybe b/c i'm moving into a birds phase of my own.

super creative. it's pretty difficult to do something interesting with old sliding closet doors and i think this is a great solution! this project looks like it would be so much fun and i would totally do it if i had doors like that. also, i'm a big fan of the colors she chose and her DIY style.

I like this idea, but the outcome looks kinda messy, with blotches all over the blue trim. I'm also not crazy about the white part, which i think just looks like it wasn't painted.

This looks too much like college-student decor to me.

Really neat! A splendid way to have a sunset in the city. Great colors. Those imperfections are from the camera. And who cares, it's a unique and retro piece of art.

Lose the blue. The project in and of itself looks great - those are my colors. However the warm earth-tones of the yellow, orange and brown clash with the blue. If it were my place, I'd paint the blue beige or a complementary shade of green.

Yeah - the birds look better because the black and grey go with the blue: the black is a neutral, and the grey is cool toned, like the blue is.

I always stress to people who redecorate a whole room or a whole domicile to go and get a pad of paper and a 64 or 128 count magic marker set from Walmart or Meijers or wherever, and do a whole room plan up. Pick out all your colors and furniture and whatnot and design your style beforehand, refine it on paper. Once you get it where you want on paper, THEN apply it. Its much easier to make corrections on paper, than after you've bought the wrong furniture or painted with the wrong paint, etc.