Painted Birch Kids Room - DIY

Over Thanksgiving I came accross this pin which lead to a conversation with my sister about just painting the birth trees right on Bear's wall rather than dreaming of spending $120+ on them.  I figured I would never ever be able to pull it off so didn't put much more thought into it.  Then this afternoon we went to Home Depot and I decided to just do it.  I am not a pro-painter but I they came out AMAZING!  Bear loves his room!  Before bed tonight we put on his stars night light (projects stars on the ceiling) and lay next to the trees under the stars for a bedtime story, magical.

Painted Birch Tutorial

Materials:
Scotch Masking tape 3/4 inch thick will do ($1.99) - I did NOT use the blue tape because I've found that it doesn't stick well to our walls. The scotch masking tape was significantly cheaper and didn't peel off any of the paint.
Gliden Flat Matte paint ($9.49) - I just got the small container in the trim aisle. These trees will not work on white walls unless you get a darker color paint and do reverse.
Painting Sponge OR Edge Brush ($2.50-4.99) - The edge brush is not a paint brush it looks like a flat roller piece on an orange handle. I used this like a sponge since I didnt have one so a sponge would do fine.

How-to:
Step 1 - Prep your walls. Wipe them down with a dry cloth if fairly clean and if your walls have not recently been painted or are particularly dirty use warm water and let dry.  Plan how many trees you want and where.

Step 2 - Make your outlines.  Starting from the bottom of the wall, tape the base of your tree.  The great things about birch trees is they are very hard to mess up.  They have not many branches and, for the most part, are straight. To make them look like birch, I ripped small strips of tape and placed them randomly over the center and outlines of the trees.  The "knots" in the tree I just made with tiny pieces of tape in a circle.  Work ONE tree at a time so you have a better concept of the amount of space you end up with.

Step 3 - Paint! Sponge paint the inside of your tree in a fairly thin layer but make sure you are covering over the wall color.  Work from the top down and then repeat the process so the color is nice and bright.  The texture from using a sponge is OK because trees have texture.

Step 4 - Peel!  Peel off the tape from top to bottom while paint is still wet.  Go slow and some smudges are OK.  Dont forget all the bits in the middle that were painted over, you may have to gently scratch these with your nail to get a piece up to peel.

Voila!  I only did one wall with three trees today and plan to do the opposite wall tomorrow - and will post the pics :)

Any questions, just comment!

Love,

PlusPeace