Remember that time when I had a baby who was almost 9 months and he was all like dude mom finish my nursery before I go off to college? Real judgey for a bald baby with a booger in his nose.
Ever since we saw this picture from the Ace Hotel, we knew we wanted that mural in our nursery. Plus we are real into doing cool stuff with paint (see concrete floors). The mural was the first step in creating our Ron Swanson Chic nursery. Yep that’s a style people.
Sherwin Williams was having a 40% off sale, so we headed over. We got quarts of each green. Although we could have got samples of the 2 lighter colors – Overt Green and Citrine. The Citrine is a very light lime. It reads more white in photos then it actually is. The Tricorn Black is the same color as our doors. It’s absolutely the most beautiful black ever, so I got a gallon of it. The black is flat and the mountains were mixed as satin. I thought that would add some more dimension to the mural.
Nick was the master of design on this one. He sketched the pattern out on graph paper and drew the lines on the wall with a large leveled ruler. It was one of those projects where we played to our strengths – Nick with the design and me with patience to make it perfect. Dividing it this way was so helpful especially since someone had to watch the kids. We found out you can’t work on a nursery when your kid is asleep in there. Ruling out nap time and nighttime is really constraining.
I taped the lines off with Frog Tape. Then painted. You can see how some of the black needed to be painted over (top right, bottom left). I had to sand the edges off so the lines wouldn’t show up. It’s similar to what you have to do when you’re painting over stripes.
I’m kinda an insane perfectionist, so I can guarantee that each one of these mountain lines is crisp and pretty much perfect. If there was some bleeding, I just used a sponge brush or small craft brush to fix it.
It only took us a few days to complete the wall. You can see the difference between the white wall and the citrine here, but it’s even more apparent in person. I love how the Garden Spot green is beautiful, rich army green. It’s such a solid base color for the mural especially in contrast to the bright and light greens above.
First nursery project done. I love the mural. It’s definitely something that can be easily transitioned to a big boy room too.
Woah, you guys are amazing as usual. Colette is 5 months old with her nursery incomplete too, and now we are starting a remodel.. maybe she will get it someday.
I don’t think we ever really finished Ramona’s nursery. It’s easy to get distracted when you don’t finish it before they come! I’m sure what you have so far for Colette is stunning.
Love the mural – you’re right, it can totally transition to an older kid’s room. Not babyish at all. And the bold color palette is so fun! I’m sure Beckett appreciates it more as a nine-month-old than he would have as a newborn anyway. 😉
He does like to scratch at it when he’s in his bed. That’s a good sign right.
I am continually impressed by everything you do to your house. Keep it up.
Aw thanks Cecile! The rest of the nursery is shaping up to be pretty cool too!
This is seriously amazing and I might have to steal it 😉
Go for it! We stole it from the Ace, so it seems like the natural order of things!
OH MY LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!
THANKS THANKS THANKS!!! Really it means a lot coming from the painting queen herself!
Nice work, as usual! That mural is very versatile. Also, is that a T-bone steak pillow in his crib?
Um it totally is. Ron Swanson demands MEAT!!
It looks amazing! Wonderful job!
Thanks Gabbi!
You had me at Ron Swanson nursery. Love the mural and the colors you chose for it!
I know you love a good green! It’s probably a little lighter than your bathroom. Maybe?
Yes, yes he does! Lol!
love love love this- it looks AWESOME! and it’ll age really well with him too
Yes! I will probably have to move the light, but I have plenty of paint left to patch that when the time comes. Let’s be real if it took us this long to finish the nursery we will take even longer changing it to a big boy room.
Where do we come for FAB ideas? Wills Casa, that’s where
LOVE, freakin’ LOVE what you did here. It’s so fresh and new and awesome and well styled. Did I mention it’s awesome? Beckett is one lucky fellow.
Pinned, stumbled, all that.
You guys are fantastic!
You are the sweetest. Thanks for the shout out to my styling. That and the side table were the huge hold ups to getting this room into the final stretch! Can’t wait for you to come see it when you stay with us!! That’s happening right? *crosses fingers*
That is totally happening
This is fantastic. Marry me.
Done.
He is such a perfect little squishy baby with perfect skin and perfect hair and perfect cheeks. So so cute and I love the serious look!
Adore the mountains so much and it’s so different. I have a trick for making the lines perfect because I’m a perfectionist too and it almost never fails 😉 Paint over the tape with the base color first, so the bleed is the same color. Then paint your actually color.
That’s what I did when I painted stripes in Ramona’s nursery! I didn’t want to wait for the base color to dry in the mountains though. I was too impatient! Weird because it took me over a month after I finished the mural to finish the rest of the nursery.
This is so good. The colors, the design, everything. Will you come do this mural on one of my walls??
Your house is perfect the way it is. However I will totally come paint a mural. Pick a wall!
oh my goodness! Your laundry room floor must be feeling kind of insecure now with this new competition it has for most fabulous painting project! Amazing!
Bahaha we haven’t introduced the 2 yet. We don’t want any sibling rivalry.
Just discovered your blog and really enjoy it! Mural looks great and will definitely transition well into a big boy room. I am loving the Ron Swanson Chic look, he’s a man to be admired for many reasons, but his style is #1 (:
Glad you found us! Who knew Ron Swanson would lend himself so nicely to a nursery? Nick. Nick actually knew that, but we didn’t know how fun it would be to put together.
This looks so fabulous! Love, love, love it! Can’t wait to see more.
Thanks Anu! We will have everything up next week. I can’t even believe it’s finished!
The title of your post had me rolling!!! Love the wall design and it’s becoming a super cool nursery! xo Kristin
Thanks Kristin! Glad I could provide a giggle and can’t wait to show you more of the space! I could use your styling skills though!
I love this idea! Fun statement wall, but not too busy that it demands all of the attention.
With the white walls and 2 huge windows next to it, it keeps the mural from being too overwhelming! (Thank goodness because I love it!) It is crazy how little we needed to hang on the walls around since it is such a statement!
YES! I have been waiting for this reveal! It’s absolutely unbelievably awesome! RonSwan-tastic! Get that baby a bushy mustache stat!
Ha we actually talked about that, but I think he would just hate us!!
Paint is a lying whore and yet somehow you guys ABSOLUTELY nailed it. The colors are ah-ma-zing. DIY or die!
This is probably the first time we loved the colors we picked with the exception of the white we used in the house. Picking paint color is the worst!
Oh my gosh it looks so good- perfect color choices!
Thanks Caroline!
Such a fun and cool space! Love it!
Angela @ Number Fifty-Three
Thanks Angela! Now if I could get my memory card recovered to show the 2nd DIY in here!!
Love the nursery!! Where did you get the light on the wall? Thanks!
It’s a West Elm light that we bought at the Pottery Barn outlet back in January.
WOW. WOW. and another WOW for good measure.
The colors are amazing. The design is awesome. This is seriously epic.
PINNING until I can pin no more.
Aw you’re so sweet Kim!! Thanks!
You guys are disgustingly talented. I’m feeling increasingly uncomfortable about you seeing my actual house. We might need to cancel.
Bahaha so false!! I’m just glad no one can see the rest of the house! No turning back now. The Wills are on their way.
Can you come paint me a Ron Swanson themed bedroom? I’ll give you complete design control of our new master bedroom if it will turn out even a fraction as good as this. Also, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I demand more Beckett pictures. I can’t get enough of my future son-in-law.
I’m in love with every aspect of this nursery. You certainly have the talent of Emily Hernderson & Vern Yip’s love child.
Your last master bedroom is a million times better than any we’ve ever done, so I wouldn’t leave that in our hands. I can’t compete with the amazing Evelyn pictures, so I’m going to route of just not taking pictures. #secondchildproblems
THIS IS AMAZING! And just what my husband and I were looking for our sons Utah inspired nursery right down to the colors! We are going to attempt something similar this weekend due to your awesome inspiration- we are no where as talented as you guys but we will do our best!
You are so sweet!! It’s so easy. You will do an amazing job! You can’t mess it up I promise!
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Thank you for the inspiration! We followed your directions and our baby has the most amazing nursery! I’m actually jealous that he/she has the coolest room in the house. I am trying to figure out how to post a pic here, but in the meantime, THANK YOU again for the awesome step-by-step process that you posted. We are totally in love with how ours turned out!
That is awesome! I had a serious case of jealousy after we finished his room too! It however did not motivate me to do anything to my bedroom, so there’s that! Glad you love your nursery and we played some part in that!
Loved this and have spent the last 9 months putting off starting our own copy of your mural. We used different colours because my wife didn’t want such a dark sky but it looks really cool I think. Just adding the final touch of adding tiny stars using glow in the dark paint. Hope it doesn’t ruin it after so much hard work.
That’s awesome! I bet it turned out great! Hope the little one enjoys it!
I’m obsessed with this nursery! Where is that accordion lamp from?!
Thank you! It’s from west elm. We got it at the Pottery Barn outlet in San Marcos, Texas.
LOVE this. Am getting started right now (like, I’m procrastinating by leaving this comment). Am a little intimidated by the drawing of the glorious mtns, but love the strategy provided. Am really excited for the greens and mtns in my gender unknown’s sleeping quarters – thanks for the inspiration!
So fun! Congrats on the baby and good luck on the mural!!
I love this!! How long did you let each paint coat dry before taping it up again? I’m starting the mural this weekend:).
I was painting it around napping schedules, so it was probably a few hours between coats. Check your paint label to see what the recommended dry time is! Good luck!
We started this a few days ago and are about to start painting the lightest two greens. I need to tape off the sky which is navy in our version and already painted and tape off the bottom green. How long did you wait from the time you painted the green and black to the time you applied tape to the green and black to pant the remaining two colors?
I probably waited at least a day. You want to make sure it’s fully dry since you are putting tape over it. Check your paint instructions to see when it says it will be dry.
Thank you thank you thank you for such an inspirational room and a great tutorial!! Hubs and I were totally coming up dry when thinking of our fella’s nursery and it was getting me down terribly UNTIL we saw this post and both of us were like “DONE!” We had to paint the walls and ceiling as well as the mural so it’s taken us evenings and after bedtime for the past ~2 weeks but boy is it cool. And sweet lord the textured walls and the bleed through nearly broke me. I ended up hand painting all the lines. Dude better appreciate it!!! lol Thanks again. Oh and also thank you for posting the pics in high rez… my super fantastic hubs borrowed a projector and we simply threw your mural up and drew it right on from the projection!! Holla!