And Now, The Princess Elena Room!

Here comes the second kid's room we did last week for friends! This one is themed to the Disney princess Elena of Avalor.

First the "Before":

 Most of the walls were a pale yellowy beige with one darker accent wall. Not exactly the stuff of dreams for a princess-loving little girl.

Aaaand here comes the "After"!

::Trumpet Fanfare::

If you look closely at the bedspread, you can just see the inspiration flower I used for the wall mural - it's the one by Elena's elbow, and little Ellie's "most favorite flower."  

 Here's the other side of the room:

The wall color is "Fore and Aft" by Sherwin Williams, which we color-matched in a Valspar paint from Lowe's. Some of my photos make it look more vivid and sky blue than it is IRL, but this shot is pretty accurate.

The closet wall, across from the window:

 

(Recognize that baby picture? :D)

I love all the crisp white trim and accents against that rich teal. SO GOOD.

Ellie asked for a "princess bed", but since a big canopy was out, this was a cute way to still give her something princessy. We used thumbtacks to attach sparkly tulle to the wall under a pink resin crown, then swagged it back with pink ribbon (attached with more thumbtacks) and little silk flowers. The tulle has tiny dots of clear glue all through it, which sparkles like diamonds:

 

John and I also decorated Ellie's nursery back in the day (remember my cherry blossom mural?), so those are the same wooden letters I painted & hung over her crib.

Oh! While looking up the mural post I found the butterfly mobile I made for Ellie's nursery. I'd nearly forgotten it, so let's look at that again, shall we?

OoooOOooooo. This is still one of my favorite DIYs!

Right, sorry, back to the new room.

Here's our fancy-pants set-up for painting the wall mural:

We used a digital projector (left over from our book tour days) to get the size and position right, then I traced the design with chalk. I'm holding my arm over the projector in the right pic so you can see my tracing - isn't that cool?

From there it was "only" a matter of filling everything in with craft paint. Which, you know, took a bajillion hours and 5-6 coats and whose idea was this, anyway? (Oh right, it was mine. Drat.)

I enlisted John and Ellie's dad Ray to help, so between the three of us we eventually got all the painting done. [Note to Self: next time use better covering paint!]

Oh, and if you're curious about that picture we were projecting on the wall, here it is:

 

 John took a photo of the bedspread and photoshopped the various flowers - and the bed canopy - onto a photo of the room. It really helped me visualize the wall design. (You'll note we nixed most of the extra flowers though, ha.)

Oh wait! I left out the most exciting part of my flower mural:

IT'S BEDAZZLED. 

Yep, I already had a big bag of plastic rhinestones at home (like ya do) so I used tiny bits of poster putty to stick them onto the flower. They catch the light and sparkle so prettily, and since I only used poster tack, it won't hurt the wall to remove them someday. And don't worry; the kids are all old enough to not try and eat any if they fall off, so it shouldn't be a safety hazard.

My last design feature rides the line between smart and ridiculous - let's see what you guys think. Ellie has an Elena scepter that she loves (it lights up and plays music) and she wanted it right next to her bed. I went looking for the best way to attach it to the wall, and finally came up with this:

Yep, that's a Command broom holder. It attaches with removable tape, and hey, it works!

Ellie loves having it within easy reach of her bed:

The white frames and little shelves are more holdovers from Ellie's nursery. I'm a big fan of using what you have, plus it's nice to have some familiar touches in there.

So that's our Princess Elena room! All the thanks and hugs to our dear friends Julianne & Ray for letting us have free rein (again) in your kids' room. Love you guys!

And here's one last photo using my phone's panorama feature, just for fun:

Hope you guys enjoyed, and maybe have some new decorating ideas to experiment with!