The Nursery: A Mountain Accent Wall

Hi guys! Remember that nursery we were working on? We announced our plan for it way back in October. If you happen to remember what it looks like you'll notice that our end result is a little different. It took a few tweaks here and there before we came to a final design, but it came together in the end. And now we are ready to welcome our little babe into a space fit for a little man or little lady.

 

 

Today we want to share with all of you the accent wall that we created with a wooden stamp. We knew we wanted to stencil "mountains" on one accent wall in this fun little adventure nursery, but we didn't want them to be confused for clouds (like in the design I created for our mood board). I came across this inspirational design from Vintage Revivals, and it was something both dad and I could agree on. Vintage Revivals calls them triangles... I call them abstract mountains.

 

 

 

First, we chose a neutral paint color for the walls. Did you really expect anything else? Classic Gray by Benjamin Moore is a neutral color that looks either tan or gray depending on the reflection of light in the space. We thought it would serve as a great canvas for our accent wall and for the overall design. The Classic Gray would also give us the subtle contrast we were looking for. We ended up using a paint we already had on hand for the mountainscape  - Simply White by Benjamin Moore. (This is the same color as our trim, we just used an eggshell finish which was leftover from our Master Bathroom).

Classic Gray by Benjamin Moore

The process to create the accent wall was easy peasy. I grabbed a scrap piece of wood from the garage and cut it in the shape of a triangle (8" x 4" x 4"). Then I wrapped the wooden triangle in one of Justin's old t-shirts and stapled it tight into place, creating a handle with the excess fabric. It took us one full day to complete this one wall. Including one trip to Home Depot to buy a laser level. Then another trip to the store to purchase replacement batteries for the laser level. A laser level is definitely a necessity when it came to completing this project!

 

For the application of paint, I preferred to brush the paint on the stamp before applying it to the wall rather than dipping. The brush gave me more control over how much paint each stamp used, which prevented the paint from bleeding out of the edges once the stamp was applied to the wall. Although I tried to brush the paint on the stamp evenly, I did it quickly and carelessly because I like the variation the stamp created from mountain to mountain. I think it makes each triangle unique and gives the wall a less 'stenciled' look.

We can't stop gazing at this accent wall. Maybe because we love the sense of whimsy it adds to the nursery..or maybe because I have all these extra hormones right now and the thought that this room is going to be where my little one lays his or her head each night makes me all teary-eyed and happy.

 



 

 

 

As for the countdown to when there will be a little pea napping in the crib... only baby knows. But it will definitely be in 3 weeks or less! This swollen and achy momma is hoping for less...

 



 

 For those that have asked, here's one last picture for you. We are officially 9 months preggo and ready to meet our little one. Any day now!

 

 

Yup, that's me still trying to squeeze my swollen self into non-maternity clothes... I may regret that later when my wardrobe is all stretched out!

Thanks for reading! We'll have more nursery updates for you soon.

Adding Crown Molding to Coved Ceilings

I'm so excited to share this next project with you all! And this is one item on our to-do list that we've been so anxious to scratch off. I feel like I say that for every project. But it's true. We have a very long list of to-do's around here.

Today, I'm talking specifically about crown molding. Our home had no crown when we moved in. Which wasn't common in 1950 ranches, so this doesn't come as a surprise. We love the feel crown molding adds to a room so we plan to install it throughout the house (with the exception of our family room - where we have a vaulted ceiling, and the master bathroom - which has cedar trim instead).

Here's where we are at on our "Crown Molding Install List"

• Kitchen - done
• Guest Bedroom - done
• Nursery - done (we'll share the updates soon!)
• Master Bedroom - done (we'll share more updates soon!)
• Guest Bathroom
• Sunroom
• Sitting Room - keep reading!
• Dining Room
• Foyer

Crown molding is a challenge in itself. In fact, this is one project I'm very happy to hand off to our contractor friend. I've installed crown (the fancy crown) a total of 1 time... and it was the longest installation in the history of crown installations.

Our current home has 3 rooms with coved ceilings. Which are so lovely! But, I wanted to try something different to class these rooms up a bit. See, we've been in the process of adding crown molding to each room in our house and I didn't want the dining room, sitting room, and foyer to feel left out just because they had a fabulous cove. We decided that there was no reason we couldn't use the same crown molding we've been using... and you know what? We love it!

 

Crown molding adds so much detail to a room, and I think it really adds quite a bit of modern class to that classic cove.

 

Installing crown molding can be a little tricky, especially when you don't have a wall AND a ceiling to nail it to. So we added a support brace first to give us more surface area to nail the crown into.

 

 

Like so.

 



The Christmas tree and stockings have since been removed... this just shows how long ago I wrote this post!

 

 

What do you think? Would you add crown molding to a coved ceiling?

 

My little pillow squasher wasn't willing to move for a photo shoot. So welcome to real life in our house. Where the dogs rule the roost and all pillows serve as secondary beds.