R's Nursery Mural

I wanted something unique, whimsical and not too girlie (read: not too pink).

Over the weekend, my lucky husband and his buddies high tailed it out to Vegas to celebrate his buddy's upcoming nuptials. Being ever so pregnant, I stayed home and worked my tail off painting a mural for the nursery. 

Now, this mural didn't come easy. At first realization of being pregnant, I planned the most adorable boy's nursery mural you've ever seen (or I've ever dreamt up). It included planes and hot air balloons and farms and SKY WRITING!!! What baby boy wouldn't want that? All baby boys would want that mural says the crowd collectively - exactly my thoughts, crowd.

Then we found out this little one is a beautiful baby girl and my Davinci'esque mural plans were out the door. I floated several ideas through my Pregnancy-Brained mind. These included rivers and big shady trees and creating a female Huck Fin, complete with a stack of books and fishing line tied to her toe. I might even throw a quote in there. Hubby quickly called me out on my blatant plagiarism.

So I spent hours scouring Pinterest for inspiration- with little luck. I wanted to paint her something that required, um, talent, and Pinterest is chalk full of DIY mural ideas that seemingly anyone can do. I've also noticed a Pinterest trend in neutral colors for nurseries. I've read that baby brain's are stimulated by bright colors and since I'm fully planning on raising the female Einstein, I'd rather stimulate her little brain as much as I can with a colorful mural.

One day, Hubby suggested a beach sunset. His idea, of course, included the ever cliché silhouetted palm trees and all. I was disgusted. "Do you know how many times I’ve painted that mural? I can't bring myself to paint that again."

Then came our San Diego trip, which was full of smiles and love and memories and sea creatures - deep breath, Julianne- and I was reminded of how much I adore the beach. (Megan can attest.) So I decided I would paint the beach after all, just make it look less cliché :)

Here's my journey in pictures:

One of the first questions I asked my doctor, "Can I paint a mural?" "As long as there's plenty of ventilation, you should be fine." I took it to the extreme, kept the windows open the entire time, blasted the air, had two fans blowing and rocked this killer surgeon's mask.  

Step one was painting the background colors. Hubby, who hadn't left yet when I completed this lovely coral mess, mentioned it randomly to me. "So I noticed a lot of coral?" he said. "Don't worry, it's just the base layer. It'll be less obvious when I'm done."

 End of the first day of painting. This portion took about 6 hours to complete. 

At the end of the second day of painting the mural was complete! This portion took about 4 hours to complete. Which, in the grand scheme of my painting murals, a full mural in 10 hours isn't all bad. I once spent 50 hours on a mural that covered 3 walls and a ceiling (the walls were beautiful but the ceiling was highly regrettable...).

Over the past few days, I've showed the mural to a few of my coworkers. Because I also spew details about myself at random, they all heard about Hubby's suggestion for a sunset and my initial hesitation.

One replied, "Well, this looks like a sunrise."

And that's exactly what it is. The beginning of something new, unknown and beautiful. I will officially name it "R's Sunrise" for my baby girl.

So here's my "Proud Mama" selfie in front of my "R's Sunrise" mural. I hope she loves it as much as I do!

All Our Love,

J, J and Little Lady R