The adventure bedroom: Part 1

John Muir once said, “The mountains are calling and I must go.” Since we can’t always be in the mountains or camping–as awesome as that would be!–I like finding fun ways to bring the mountains home.

Our boys, whom we affectionately call Flash and Dash here at The Touring Camper, have been sharing a room for about two years now. When we moved into our home about five years ago, we slowly began working away at remodeling. (When faced with the prospect of going camping or doing home projects, you can probably guess where Jarrett falls–thus it’s been slow going.) But I had been promising the boys we would paint their room–and I finally found the time to make good on that promise.

The only dilemma I faced was how to incorporate the two colors my boys had requested: green and blue. That’s all the direction I could squeeze out of them–aside from Flash’s suggestion I paint exactly half of the room all blue and the other half all green. Sorry my sweet boy, I think not.

But then I found a mountain mural idea on Pinterest that met the boys’ color requirement and my requirement that it be something they will still like a few years from now. And thus was born their adventure bedroom.

The first step to creating this adventure bedroom was to paint the mountains. I partially followed these suggestions for doing the taping off and I kept repositioning the tape until it looked the way I envisioned. (These first few pictures aren’t great because I took them on my iPhone at night, and I clearly did no “staging.” :))

After the top section had two coats of paint and had finished drying I then had to tape right along the edge of the blue paint so that I could paint the other half of the mural green. I used a high-quality blue painter’s tape that said it could be applied to freshly painted surfaces, and it worked perfect for this project. (And I really pressed it down hard to make sure there wouldn’t be any bleed through.)

Once the mural side was finished I painted the rest of the walls a neutral khaki color that we had left over from another project. (Oh, and I had to paint the moulding–can I tell you how much I hate painting moulding. Which is why I have an entire hallway that has moulding still waiting to be painted. :))

For Christmas the boys received matching comforter sets (they were from Target) that tied in perfectly with the theme of adventure and exploration.

I’m still working on getting more artwork up on the wall. My sis is a talented graphic designer, and she did the artwork that hangs above the mirror. Years ago when we stayed at Vacation Station in Ludington, Mich., I had seen a series of prints displayed in the club house depicting travel and adventure by car, plane, train, and boat. I am hoping to add a camper print to the collection (hint, hint, sis! :)). I also want to find a way to work this quote into the decor: “Let him sleep, for when he wakes, he will move mountains.”

The room is definitely a work in progress. Meanwhile, though, our Sweetpea is plotting her own room revamp and she has her sights set on adventure and travel too–by way of Paris.