Little Boy Bedroom Part 5 - Wall Decal

In the second to last installment of my son's bedroom makeover, we have the Wall Decal...

He's pretty big...measuring about 41 inches wide by 61 inches (104 x 155cm) tall...

Here he is with my son who will be three this weekend, to give an idea of scale..

I created him over at Spoonflower to match the rest of the room, that you can see in these posts:

• Fabric canvases
• Lampshade
• Roman Blind
• Pillowcase

Spoonflower have a maximum decal size of 30 x 30 inches.  Don't let that stop you from creating something big and bold though!  You just need to put careful thought into where your joins might be.

Mr Mikey Robot is actually 9 different pieces...all carefully cut out by me from two 30x30 inch decals.

I took the robot I had drawn, enlarged it to the finished size I wanted it, then broke it into logical parts, juggling it around to make it fit the two decals.

Once it arrived, I cut out the pieces, then "tacked" them to the walls using spare offcuts of the decal background.  Here are some shots I took after cutting it out, and while I was "assembling".

Some tips for designing a large decal that you will be piecing together:

1.  Choose a good contrasting background colour to give a good edge to cut around.  Light grey on white might be a bit hard on your eyes!

2.  Take your time re-composing your design.  Tape it up on the wall before you peel the backs off to make sure you are happy with the placement.

3.  Don't worry about keeping the orientation the same.  Some of my pieces were landscape and some portrait - it really doesn't matter and you can't tell when it's on the wall.

4.  Butt the cut edges together when applying to your wall - don't overlap them.  If you overlap them, you can see the edge of the underneath decal through the top decal.

5.  Don't be afraid to lift and move your decal.  I pulled a couple of mine up more than once to get the joins looking perfect.


Result - one happy nearly 3 year old!

UPDATE:  I've had a few requests to make a version of this available for sale, so I have.  It's too big to fit on one decal sheet - so I've split it in two.  You can find it here.

Little Boy Bedroom Part 4 - Pillowcase

Hello again!

So...we have the wall canvases...the lampshade...the roman blind...now we move on to the bedding.  The pillowcase to be exact!

UPDATE:  This tutorial has been very, very popular, and after numerous requests for me to make this a PDF downloadable pattern - I finally have.  I've included cutting dimensions to give a little more ease on a standard size pillow, and full step by step instructions with photos.  If you would like a copy of the revised tutorial, - you can find it in my store right now by clicking on the image here:

The kind of pillowcases we use here have a flap on the inside to keep your pillow from falling out.  I have recently found out that these are called "Housewife Pillowcases".  As opposed to the ones with no flap, which I believe are called "Bag Pillowcases".  I much, much prefer them with a flap.

I made my pillowcases out of a yard (36" by 42") of fabric.  It might take a little more or less depending on how many different fabrics you want to use, and if they have a "direction".  This example has just one fabric throughout...

This one has a different trim only...

And these ones have different contrast piece and trim piece...

The room is nearly done!  Just the quilt and wall decals to go!

Little Boy Bedroom Part 3 - Roman Blind

Hello again!  Welcome to part three of my son's bedroom makeover.

Following on from the wall canvases, and the lampshade, I tackled a bigger project  for my son's room...

The Roman Blind.  What is a Roman Blind (sometimes called a Roman Shade)?  Roman blinds are soft fabric blinds which when raised, gather into pleats or folds.

Roman blinds originated in Italy and have been used as a window dressing for many centuries, hence the name "Roman".

I like them, because I can pull them up and out of the way - and they look neat and tidy.

This one measures about 75 inches, or 1.9m across.  It was a little unwieldy to sew at it's full length and final weight on my machine, but I did it!

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I looked at the other blinds I had in my house and used them as my guide for measuring and sewing it all up.

This is my own printed design from Spoonflower, using their Cotton Poplin.   You can see the fabric here.  I lined it with a heavy blackout lining which has given it a really substantial feel.

My way of doing it uses no dowels - rather a number of small seams that you sew the cord rings on.  I used Heat'n'Bond to secure the sides of the blinds down, and over the lining, before sewing the seam lines across the backs. 

Sewed a pocket at the bottom to insert a piece of thin timber.  This does two things - it acts as a weight to pull the blind down and it keeps it nice and straight.

Sewed rings on the back, evenly spaced along the seams I had sewn in - about 30cm spacings across.

I covered the ends of the timber I used in scrap fabric before inserting/wrapping them - makes it look nice.

Wrapped my fabric around my top piece of timber, then attached screw eyes to it, through the fabric and into the wood, to thread my blind cord through.

Threaded my blind cord up through each set of rings, and then along through the eyes at the top.  Then plaited the remainder for the pull cord.

 

Then - I got to hang it up.  A very satisfying moment!

 

 

 

 

These photos were taken just after I put it up.  The last few remaining wrinkles have all dropped out now.

 

The room is really starting to come together now...

 



Next - the pillowcase that you can see in this photo, and yes, there will be a tutorial for it.  :)

Little Boy Bedroom Part 2 - Lampshade

Following on from my last post - about the wall canvases, I moved on to the next task...a new lampshade cover!

This is what I started with:

Not quite right for a wee boy is it?!

The supplies I needed to fix this were:

• Paper
• Pen
• Scissors
• Spray on glue
• Card or a dropcloth to protect your surface while spraying!
• Fabric
• Wide bias binding to match fabric

It was fairly straight forward to do.  I needed to first make a paper template, in order to cut the fabric out right.  To do this, I found the seam on my old lampshade cover.  I placed that on one edge of my paper, and rolled it around, drawing along the top and bottom of the cover as I rolled.  I stopped once I got to the seam again, having drawn the complete circumference.  I then added an inch to one end as a fold over to get a neat finished seam.

This is what my template looked like after I cut it out - with the lampshade placed so you can see how I rolled it.

 

Next, use your template to cut out your fabric. 

If you are using bias binding both top and bottom (I didn't - I only used it for the bottom), then cut the template out exactly as is.  If you do as I did - and only edge the bottom with binding - then cut the top edge (smaller semi-circle) about an inch wider so you can wrap the edge over the top of the lampshade neatly.

Go somewhere with some ventilation for the next part.  I laid an old cardboard box down on the lawn.  I placed my fabric wrong side up, and gave it a good spray with the adhesive.  I couldn't get any photos of doing this, as I had to work quickly in the heat of the day before the glue dried!

It's as easy as wrapping the fabric around the lamp as smoothly as you can, matching the bottom of the shade to the bottom of your fabric.  When you get to the side end, overlap the starting edge a little, then fold the rest of the fabric under to neaten the raw edges, add a little glue, and stick it down.

I used spray adhesive for this, as I was worried about bumps and lumps on the shade if I brushed glue on...  The spray gave a lovely even light coating, and has stuck well.

I folded the remaining fabric over the top, and down into the inside of the lampshade.  I decided it was busy enough without adding binding to the top, but I wanted it on the bottom.  To do this, I cut an approximate length of bias binding, sprayed the back of it with the glue, and ran it evenly around the bottom - up about half an inch from the edge.  I started at the same seam line as the rest of the shade, and ended it by tucking a little under again for a nice edge.  Once I got all the way around, I then folded the overhanging binding into the inside of the lampshade, completely covering the bottom cut fabric edge.

It then looked like this...

Really quick, really simple, and really easy.

 

 

And it matches the bedroom!

The fabric I used is this one...

Next...the Roman Blind for the window.

Little Boy Bedroom Part 1 - Canvases

Ok...so quite some time ago I started work on my 2 year old's bedroom...  I wrote about it way back here.  I have two more things to finish, then I'll show you the complete room!

Until then...the first in a series...the wall canvases!

I decided he needed some art to match the rest of the room I was creating for him.  My son loves robots, so I designed a range of fabrics for him, and his room, over on Spoonflower.  I started with the canvases - for a quick project to get underway with.

I didn't stretch canvas over frames.  I took the simpler option of buying pre-stretched canvases from a local art store.  Mine measure 8 inches by 8 inches.  This allowed me to use a regular weight fabric (I used Spoonflower's Cotton Poplin), rather than a heavier weight canvas-type.  You could use any fabric at all using this method - regular quilting cotton would be just fine.  The best thing is that I could get an exact colour match to my curtains, quilt, etc, etc, by using the same fabric type.

Here are the finished canvases on his wall:

For each canvas you will need:

• One pre-stretched plain canvas (I used 8 inches by 8 inches - 1.5 inches deep)
• Scissors or rotary cutter
• Staple gun, or hammer and tacks
• Ruler or measuring tape
• Masking tape
• Fabric (I used my own panels here - which are four different fat quarters on a yard)

To calculate how much fabric you need...take your canvas width and add two times the depth to each side for wrapping.  So for my 8 inch square canvases, that are 1.5 inches deep...8 + (1.5 x 2) + (1.5 x 2) = 14 inches square cut fabric.  From a fat quarter you can cover a maximum canvas size of 12 x 15 inches, at 1.5 inches deep.

Use your ruler to measure out your fabric and then cut it to your desired size...

Place the fabric over your canvas so that the canvas is centred underneath.  If you have stripes like I do - you need to be careful with your positioning so that they are straight.  I found the pre-made canvases were not perfectly square.

Once you are happy, flip it over

Pull the four sides in and tape them in place temporarily - pulling them in firmly, but not too tight that you would warp the print.  Flip it back over once you've done it to make sure you are still happy with the placement on the front.

 

Start by stapling (or tacking) in the centre of each side through to the wood.  Then move to each corner, folding them in neatly.  Here are some shots of how my folds look:

 

 

 

So the back is not perfect, but not too bad for an amateur!

The front - very happy with, and so is my wee boy!

 

 

I love how they look in his room.

 

Next on the list to share with you...the lampshade!