'Under the Sea' Room

Many years ago, when Peyton was just a little two year old boy, he loved Finding Nemo. We watched that movie over and over and over and... 

Somewhere along the line, I decided we might as well go all out and make the kid an ocean room. So I started painting. It probably took me about 3 or 4 months, off and on. I started with painting the walls and the ceiling a beautiful shade of ocean blue. Then I slowly added plant life and creatures. I mostly used the little bottles of non-toxic acrylic paint and, every once in a while, a sharpie marker. 

Can you see little baby Ella in Peyton's crib during the photo shoot? She's so tiny!

James was in charge of all the big green kelp around the room:

Here I am finishing the last creature, an octopus, just ONE day before Ella was born. I wasn't trying to fit it all in before she was born (can you imagine the stress?), it just happened that way. This room was a slow, fun process, not a task.

I got the idea for this cute guy from the front of a Softsoap bottle.

I don't have a close-up, but do you see Rainbow Fish? I love that story!

Dory:

Marlin:

and, of course, Nemo:

We found his curtains at Ikea. They are kind of kelp-ish, don't you think? Even though we've since moved a couple of times, we still use those curtains. They work well with all sorts of boy-themed rooms!

And of course we needed some turtles! Mama loves turtles!

And lots of coral and other plant life:

See the canvas art above his chifferobe? I bought 3 white canvases and some paint. I let Peyton finger paint them whatever colors he wanted. We really didn't need a lot of added wall decoration, since we had so much going on already. I think the simple artwork of a 2-year-old was perfect for this room. (Ah,  Diaper Genie pail, how happy I am that you are not part of our decor anymore.)

I got the idea for these striped fish from some stickers Peyton had:

I painted some little orange sea horses above his toy boxes. I also painted some of those $1 wooden initials blue and hung them above his door. The four blue frames you see are little fish pictures I found in the dollar bins at Target.

You can see the ceiling a little bit in this picture of Peyton's closet. I painted it the same color as the walls. Then I added white to the leftover blue paint to make water ripples on the ceiling. 

I miss this room! I used to lie down on the floor and bask in the calmness of it all. Peyton loved his room, too. But he was so young, I don't think he really got the full impact of it. He mostly just got excited whenever I brought in my box of little acrylic paints to make a new underwater creature. I would spend hours painting while he played in his room. It was so fun to create this relaxing and colorful space for my sweet little guy.

I linked up here: 

Embellishing Life