I started being a fan of monkeys and started collecting them in 2005. I don't know why but I think monkeys are just so cute! So I've collected tons of monkeys since than. I've always wanted to paint our future baby's room and was lucky enough to have a house now to be able to do so! I have always liked the thought of doing a jungle type of theme but I didn't want to paint all the many different animals that came with the jungle so I decided on just doing trees and monkeys, plus I like monkeys more than all the other jungle animals ;) I looked at many google images for ideas on how I should paint this room. All I knew was that I needed to paint the room blue and paint trees, wasn't sure how I was going to do the trees yet but at least I knew what I wanted. So first off I needed to get the blue done.
This is what the room looked like before, with the dots. So I asked Emily my sister if she would be able to come help me paint and she was nice enough to do so.
We found some type of white paint downstairs that Emily used to paint the dots. It was a lot of work to paint the whole room blue. There's putting the tape everywhere for the trim and laying down the plastic. I think the tape was the hardest part, but thanx to Em we were able to get it done.
Than there's painting the trim once the tape was down, which that alone took forever as well.
Now there's the rolling of the paint, which seemed like the easiest part other than that we had to do two coats, it really wasn't too bad. This picture below is to try and show the difference between the wall before. Because in future pictures to show you can't really tell the wall is blue, in the pictures it just looks white or a very light type of blue. Emily was only available to help with the blue, I do appreciate her help and new it would have taken me much longer to get it done without her.
After painting it blue, I didn't want to start the trees until the crib came with the other furniture that way I knew exactly where I wanted the trees. So we had to wait a week or two for the furniture to arrive. Once it did, Jackson and put it together the next day!
I mostly read the instructions while Jackson did the work. Thanx babe!
Cheesy grin by Jackson
Couldn't leave Maximus out on all the fun!
Once we were done it was deciding where to put the furniture, I kind of envisioned what I wanted the trees to look around the crib it was just a matter of deciding which wall would be better. In the end, this is what I decided on. Jackson didn't really care either way. I'm just glad that we put the crib together in the room, because we tried moving the crib out and it won't fit through the door, so it is stuck in that room, till we decide to take it apart to remove it.
As I was heading to work, I was talking to my mom about the room and where the furniture was and how I was gonna start painting the trees on. My mom had a a great idea to draw my ideas on paper, which I'm glad she thought of that, cause I was able to mess around with what I really wanted. She wanted measurements for where the furniture was and where the closet, door, and window where to help her design me a paper format. Since I was already at work, I wasn't able to get the measurements, Jackson was nice enough to do all the measuring for me while I was gone, thanx babe! :)
Now to do the trees! Just needed to do the brown first. After I did all the brown, I wondered if it even looked good or if I was just insane to be doing all this. Luckily Jackson was a great support and kept telling me it looked good, whether it really did or didn't ;) Nah I trust him, because the more I started to paint the more he started to say it looked good without me asking him.
Than the vines, which I was gonna do the vines a light brown, but luckily Jackson said to me, "Vines are green" which just blew my mind away. I never pictured green vines until I looked at more google images and realized Jackson was right. Thanx again Jacks! :)
Now for the leaves, which Jackson was nice enough to let me get a few different greens to work with, which I'm glad he did, I think the leaves turned out better with different greens instead of just one. I also wanted to but some type of bushes on the bottom of the trees.
Now for the monkeys, I really had no idea what I was doing, plus I looked at so many different type of monkeys that I was starting to get worried on whether I could pull it off or not. So here's my first monkey I drew. I have to look at a picture in order to draw them, I can never draw a monkey from out of my head. So this is an exact replica of one found on the internet. I just left the one on the internet as I drew this monkey free handedly. This is the face I used for the main monkey above the crib which I think turned out the best because the other faces were just ones I drew from my head that I tried to make look somewhat similar to it. I also that it was boring to do just smiling faces, but I don't know how to do a different face than just smiling ones, hence the reason the monkey with the tongue sticking out looks kind of weird, but oh well, it was worth a shot.
So now to pain the monkeys, which for the monkey below I knew I wanted a hanging monkey but couldn't find one for the life of me hanging from a tree like I wanted. So the body with the really short bottom legs were my own design, which isn't great, but hey it works. After painting it, I wish I would of painted longer legs but oh well, what's done is done. Anyway, before actually painting the monkeys on the wall. I drew all the monkeys on the wall with a pencil first so I knew where to put the paint. Let me tell you, I was nervous the whole time and didn't want to mess up because eraser doesn't take pencil off the wall, in fact, I haven't been able to find anything that took pencil off the wall. So if anyone knows how I can get a few pencil marks off the wall let me know, for the most part, I have very little pencil showing.
I first painted the white eyes, than the tan color, than the brown. Which luckily I had so many monkeys that by the time I was done with the tan on the last monkey, I could go back to the first monkey and do the dark brown.
Maximus being a good boy watching me paint! :)
I do admit the monkeys look weird without it's pupils but I didn't want to pull out the black and mess with eyes till I was done with the bodies. Jackson thought of the idea for me to have a monkey peek his head out past a tree, and than I thought I should do the "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" phrase, which I didn't know how to paint those faces either, so those faces came out of my head as well.
Than I knew I wanted to do a growth chart. After I drew the three monkeys, I realized I should have just done two monkeys, but there again, I couldn't erase what I drew and just left what I did. The monkey on top is as tall as Jackson, whoops, oh well!
Now for the outlining and the eyes. I first practiced painting the eyes on a piece of paper to see what I really wanted to do. I don't think they turned out too bad for the eyes, yes they look the same for all but than again, I really am a beginner.
Jackson keeping me company, I got lonely in there painting, so Jackson was nice enough to sit there and be bored while I painted. Thanx babe! :)
Now for the finished products of the monkeys!
And finally the finished paint in the room! I tried to put these pictures as if they were taken in a big circle so you can get an idea of what the room looks like!
On this wall below with the rocking chair, I'm gonna find some type of letters that rub on to the wall that say "IT'S A JUNGLE IN HERE!" I haven't found the letters yet. I found the website where I'm gonna buy them but really not sure on what size the letters need to be. Hoping to order those letters by next week!
And to some that may wonder, the monkey above the crib has his arms open because I'm going to have him hold the baby's name somehow. Not sure yet how I will do it, but it will be done whether the letters are hanging on a string or something, but thats the plan for that wall.
So other than the stick on letters and the baby's name, the room is mostly done. I think the painting went rather well, I wish I had more skill to do a better job on the monkeys, but what can you expect, it's a baby's room and luckily it doesn't have to be perfect. For being my first go around of painting monkeys/trees I don't think it turned out too bad. Jackson said he's really impressed with how it turned out, he did wonder how it would all turn out when I first told him my ideas for the room, but he too in the end is impressed with how it all turned out! I still want to hang a few things on the walls like a netting above the rocking chair to hold just a few of the many monkeys I have. And maybe hang some of the monkeys I have with long arms on the ceiling somehow. So we'll see what happens. I'm just glad the painting is done. We still need to get a mattress for the bed and changing table along with a crib set of bedding for the crib but one step at a time!
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