So I have been DYING over this adorable Floral Wallpaper from Anthropologie ever since I laid eyes on it… but I’m a dirt cheap type of person… and my DIY skills are a great excuse for my husband to bar me from buying stuff so that we can save money…Well, I was looking at this gorgeous, crush-worth wallpaper, when I had a light bulb moment. You know, the type you try to hide from your husband because it will just confirm what he’s been suspicious of for quite a while… you know… That you are CraZy. Yup. I confirmed it for him. I painted myself some wallpaper. And it’s darn pretty!

Now I can finally say, it’s here! It’s here! It’s finally here! Whew!

After 2 months of working on this DIY Wallpaper here and there, I finally pulled through, pumped it out, and finished it!

I used regular old watercolors (which won’t be super durable for the long run) but I am considering sealing it with a seal on acrylic spray.

Here’s a quick clip so you can see my painting process.

So here is the wall 10-20 minutes into this crazy idea of mine. Honestly, I am not always a big fan of murals… they scream poorly done nursery artwork to me. But I LOVE the sophisticated, subtle look that watercolors give. So I thought it was worth a try to experiment with June’s walls.

All the painting was done free hand, and really wasn’t super complicated or scary (other than you are painting your walls!) But if you feel you need to practice before hand, totally do that! I felt that I got better as I went. I really just hopped all over the place. There really isn’t any rhyme or pattern to it. I painted a bunch of them across the wall with large gaps between them, moving outwards. You can go back and fill in the blank space.

It helps to step back and look at the big picture every now and then. I ended up liking certain colors and flower styles better than others as I went. Thankfully I spread out my work evenly across the room, so that they are all mixed style-wise.

For the Flower Petals, I choose lots of oranges and pinks for my color, along with white to dilute it.

For the Flower Centers, I used a rusty brownish-orange and yellow. I was going for more of a soft, dated look.

For the Stems, I used the same rust color, with a dab of green for interest.

Above is a quick guide to the 6 different flower styles I scattered across my wall, and the two leaf types. I decided to forgo the peony flower on the wallpaper, and go for more of a rose look.

It matches her teepee perfectly!

Originally I was using thicker paint (like with the dark flower in this photo), but as I went, I found I liked the subtle, transparent look. So while I didn’t water down my paints TOO much (we don’t want drippy walls!) I did ease off the thickness as I went.

For clean up, (and for those who may want to prep for repainting OVER the mural) I used diaper wipes & wet paper towels for my “erasers.” Now, the finish on my walls is eggshell. With that said, the paint does still slightly leave a little bit of a “stain” on the original paint, but I tried wiping off a flower that had been up for a month, and it pretty much all came off. So assuming I don’t seal it, I would probably just wipe down the walls in the case of repainting the wall.

I haven’t tried painting on any other texture (matte or gloss) but my guess is that this would work best on eggshell, which is just absorbent enough for the paint to cling to. If you have high humidity (don’t use in bathrooms!) then I wouldn’t use the watercolor paints, as they may get runny over time.

My big fears when starting this were: 1. We are going to be selling our house, so I couldn’t do anything that would leave a texture if we repaint for resale. 2. I didn’t want it to look like a child’s scribbles (like what June does to my furniture when I’m not looking!)

But you know what, I went for it, and it wasn’t that hard (just time consuming) and I am just crazy thrilled with it!

Here’s a close up. This whole method, while I’m sure would work on other light colors, really pops on white walls.

I could seriously stare at those flowers for days.

Today my husband asked June what her room looked like… and she said, “Ummmm, FLOWERS!” LOL! Yep, that’s right…. lots of flowers Junie.

Here it is right before I put the animal heads back up…

And it. is. finally. finished. SIGH! Okay, so that ends my FAVORITE tutorial EVER! THE END.