The nursery is my favorite room in our home. I wouldn’t necessarily say this is a good thing, in fact I would argue that it’s more important for your own bedroom to be the favorite, but his room is hard to beat (if only it were acceptable for adults to have interactive nature scenes painted on our bedroom walls). Remember as a child reading “The Wilds Things” and dreaming of your room slowly turning into a jungle in front of your eyes? That is the ultimate childhood fantasy… and it is surprisingly easy to make that fantasy a reality! Today I’m excited to share one of my FAVORITE pre-baby projects with you all –  how we made Brooks’ DIY Geometric Mountain Mural! This geometric mountain mural is an easy and budget-friendly way to drastically enhance your son/daughter’s special space!

Before I share the simple steps we took, I want to give you a little insight into how we chose our nursery theme. I’ll start by saying we didn’t agree. I wanted adventure, Matt wanted sports, so we compromised and went with adventure (Matt is getting really good at this marriage thing…). But in all seriousness, we ruminated over several theme ideas before settling on adventure: woodlands theme (close second.. this was almost a forest mural), outer space, minimalist, Texas country, explore/maps, sports, safari, and a few more… but we ultimately chose a theme that we knew we could deliver with the canvas and budget we had. So, “adventure awaits” became our not-so-original theme, but in my opinion his room is a fun and original piece of art that his dad and I poured many hours (and dollars) into! To see his room in it’s entirely, check out Brooks’ nursery tour!

Above all, we wanted Brooks’ room to spark creativity and curiosity. We built a floating library gallery wall to proudly display his books as the MVP’s they are, refurbished a hand-made old rocking horse his dad once enjoyed, and hung a reading lamp on the end of a thick climbing rope in the corner. All of these things contribute to the excitement and curiosity we hope to inspire in him as he grows into this space, but what really ties it all together is the mountain mural.

We didn’t intend on making a mural. We were tossing around several ideas for a fun interactive wall (chalkboard wall, giant interactive map, etc), but one morning as I was boxing up all of our leftover paint samples, the lightbulb went off. I loved all those colors – we had picked them out as possible room colors in the first place – so we should find a way to put them to use! Matt sat on the couch and enjoyed his slow Saturday morning while I busily ran into the garage and rummaged through his toolbox for painters tape. Before he even finished his coffee, I had already taped up the free-handed mountain range I wanted, and with a little help from my loving husband, my vision came to life within just a couple of hours!

Here’s How…

DIY Geometric Mountain Mural

PS – I decided to go with geometric because I am no artist and it’s hard to screw up straight lines. So, this wall is doable by anyone no matter what level of artistic ability you posses! 

Step 1 – Pick your Paint!

To mimic our pattern, you will need 4 colors + white for the snow tops. The colors should be similar in tone but slightly different in shade! Choose the shades/colors you prefer and test them on the wall – then rank the shades from darkest to lightest and assign them number (1 as darkest and 4 as lightest). We went with shades that were “gray” base with a slight tinge of blue or purple (our primary or “darkest” shade was Sherwin Williams “slate tile” – we went lighter from there!)

 

Step 2 – Tape up Your Mountain Range

This part is the hardest of the entire process and it is still SO. DANG. EASY. It is nearly impossible to mess this up because it absolutely does NOT need to be perfect! I didn’t use any sort of measuring tape or ruler… just free handed the thing and all the slight imperfections in angles/sizes actually made it look perfectly haphazard and geometric! Simply grab your painters tape and start “drawing” your mountains. Start with your BIG (first layer) of mountains and, once you’ve taped those, begin adding the background layers. The only thing you need to make sure of is that your lines are straight… and maintaining flush tape lines will achieve this for you! Continue taping until your 4 “layers” have been taped and finish by taping your zig zags on top of the biggest mountains to act as “snow caps”! Wrap your mountain range around the corners of the wall to make it pop and add a bit more dimension to the room. Feel free to copy our pattern exactly, but this is surprisingly easy to free hand! I started on the left side and worked my way over to the right, stepping back every so often to check that the “weight” of the range was relatively even on each side!

 

Step 3 – Color (paint) by Number

Number your mountains according to the pattern above with the numbers assigned during step 1 (darkest – lightest). Having the darker colors in front and the lighter colors in the back (smaller mountains) gives the illusion of depth as if the smaller, lighter mountains are “in the distance”. Then, paint the spaces starting with the lightest first (this way you don’t have to clean the brush between each new color – Matt didn’t do this but it would have been easier…). Begin by painting the snowcaps with your chosen shade of white and work your way up to the #1 shade!

Step 4 – Let Dry & Remove Tape

We let this dry for about an hour before we got impatient and wanted to see how it turned out (whip up a batch of my healthy peanut butter cups while you wait)! Once removing the tape, we debated whether or not to keep the “lines” or to paint over them with the #1 shade. We decided to go ahead and keep them because we liked the “geometric” look. We were so pleasantly surprised with the finished product and love it still to this day!

There you have it – and this is just the beginning of the magic that will unfold in this special room! Now to enjoy the fun of playing it up with your furniture and introducing your sweet babe! We did our best to keep this wall relatively empty and free from major blockades as we think those would take away from its beauty and intrigue. I would like to find a tepee to place along this wall – I think it would be the perfect playful addition to this space (and Brooks could go camping “in the mountains” whenever he likes)! Our hope is that Brooks will be inspired to play, dream, and imagine with the help of this special mural. Isn’t that what we all want for the little minds entrusted to us?

If you decide to paint your own mountain range, I would love to see your creation! Share by tagging me (@kelsiebrownblog) on Instagram OR leave a comment and photo below!

For more baby-prep inspiration, check out my “Baby” page on the drop down menu! Here you will find everything from nursery décor ideas to tips for preparing your marriage, fridge, mind, and home for your new bundle! I’ve also compiled all of the baby products we have used and loved on my Amazon Store (in case you are like I was and desperately need some help setting up your registry!)

Kelsie