In September of 2014, my husband and I got married. There are 2 things I distinctly remember as being awesome from the wedding planning process: cake tasting and gift registry. We registered at Bed, Bath and Beyond, Macy’s and Crate and Barrel. It was the best! The little kids in us came out as we dashed around the store fantisizing about all the wonderful things that will fill our new home. One of my favorite things I registered for were these set of serving dishes by Kate Spade from Macy’s. It was called the Hopsotch Drive About Town Collection. And wouldn’t you like to know… every single piece from that collection was gifted to us for our wedding!
So I don’t know about you, but how often do you use your serving dishes? I mean you use your utensils, dinner plates and cups everyday… but not your big pretty porcelain serving plates. I was sad that they stayed in the cardboard box homes in our cabinet majority of the time. So we bought these cool wall shelves from Target and mounted them in our dining room bar area. So there they stood in all their cuteness and glory. But wait…. we needed more! We loved these dishes so much we decided to recreate one of the dishes on our dining room wall as a giant hand painted mural.
Step One: Picking the perfect colors
We took our dish of choice to Home Depot, picked the perfect paint swatches that resembled the palette Kate Spade declared, and guessed how much of each paint we needed. Luckily for us, Home Depot sells these awesome tester paints which only contain 8oz! Perfect!
Step Two: Bust out the ruler
Luckily Kate Spades illustration is free formed structure – perfect for a hand-painted mural. It called for the use of lines (which are easier to paint than organic shapes), repetition and an imperfect handmade quality. My husband, Shelby was the architect and I was his “Paint by Numbers” go-to girl!
Step Three: The ‘Field of Dreams’ effect
It took us 1 week to complete our floor to ceiling wall mural. Every night we chiseled away at a new section. It was hours of ruler measurements, hightened anticipation, paint drips on our new hardwood floor and tight corners. After all is said and done… we take a step back to admire our work. What we have created is not just a replication of a serving dish. It’s a conversation starter, its our first homeowner memory, its something that makes our home unique.
Step Four: Clean up
We used a lot of pencil to draw in the design before painting. How do you remove pencil marking from your wall without removing your paint? Well, let me introduce you to a little something called the Mr. Clean’s Magic Eraser. That’s the answer. It truly works like magic!
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