I cut my custom wall mural in half…as one does

After contemplating 137 (give or take) ideas for creating a new guest room (Part 1), I finally had a clear plan. I found a lovely custom wall mural: a soft, romanticized version of what I see when I look out my back window.

What could possibly go wrong?

Have we met?

With two queen beds and miscellaneous accessories, I overthought myself into the discovery that the room didn’t want one mural.

It wanted two.

That’s the moment I took a fantastically easy project and complicated the heck out of it (well…somewhat).

And–surprise, surprise–not in a way that would make sense to anyone but me.

I decided to take the perfect wall mural and split it in half.

Ordinarily this install would be a piece of cake

I originally found the “Land of Milk and Honey” mural on the Anthropologie website.

It’s a lovely print where the background image looks like an historic etching or engraving (think of the illustrations on currency). In the foreground, pale, rose-hued butterflies add a small pop of color and whimsy to the otherwise monochromatic scene.

Although you can purchase it from several vendors, if you order directly from the manufacturer, Woodchip and Magnolia, you can customize the mural for your specific room dimensions. It also comes in other colorways and with/without the butterflies. (I would LOVE this in a nursery, but alas, that ship has long ago sailed.)

The paper itself is very thick, and quite forgiving. And the pattern match is the easiest one I’ve ever experienced.

Moreover, applying it right out of the box is SUPER EASY…(IF you’re a NORMAL person).

Prime the entire wall and let dry. Then use a brush or roller to apply wallpaper adhesive to strip-width sections of wall as you go. Bing, bang, boom: match and hang the strips from left to right following the numbered order…and that’s all there should be to it.

But I am no normal person.

Let’s complicate it

I should probably back up a smidge in the process. The plan for this particular guest room features two queen-sized beds. In between the beds, of course, would be a nightstand with a lamp and likely a mirror hung above it. One large mural could have been just fine… but it seems kind of silly to hang a custom wall mural only to hide 30 to 40 percent of it with furniture and mirrors.

Sounds like a questionable value proposition.

And THAT’s when the mulling began. (No surprise to you, I almost always have a mulling phase.)

So instead of one large mural installed corner to corner, I decided to create framed wall mural panels behind each headboard; putting one half of the mural on the right and the other on the left.

That’s not so complicated, right?

I noted earlier in the post that ordering directly from Woodchip and Magnolia opened the unexpected door of customization. For example, the pattern itself would repeat depending on how wide it was, and if you enlarged the scale to also make it taller, there is also less repeat (you with me so far?). IF I made it too small, the design would repeat and look more like a wallpaper print than a mural.

We’ve long established that I am no mathlete, so to figure out the size and ideal image I wanted, I plotted out variations of the mural on my computer, noting the size of the headboards (in red), one-foot wall increments (in black), and the ideal center of the mural (in blue):

THEN…Woodchip and Magnolia sent me this email…

You know who was one step ahead of me and was as invested in my success as I was? Woodchip and Magnolia! When and where in the modern world does this ever happen??!! (And, NO…This is not a sponsored post. I paid for the mural with dollars from my own cobweb-covered wallet.)

THEY EVEN OFFERED TO REPOSITION THE BUTTERFLIES!!! Thus, no insects were sacrificed due to my design shortsightedness.

You want to know HOW invested they were in my success. They gave me FOUR versions. And added more butterflies. Free butterflies, free design help, and phone convos with a lovely british accent as an added bonus. (It’s a thing with me that I envision everyone with a British accent as wearing a crown while sipping tea.)

Lady Emma of Woodchip and I did our best to solve all design problems in advance. And we all know I RARELY solve those in advance, I tackle them as they appear. Is this what they mean by “Great” Britain?

Someone is getting a little ahead of herself

I believe I noted earlier that I was going to put framed boxes around the mural(s). Had I built them yet?

No. I’m afraid I couldn’t entirely confess to her Ladyship that I typically make things up as I go along and was approximating the sizes based on my Extensive Math and Computer Skills. Further complicating things, of course, is that they speak metric across the pond, and I speak imperial when it comes to measurements.

Eventually, it was time to stop counting with my fingers and start building my frames on the wall.

I chose this molding profile:

Sanded and prepainted the sections:

A laser-level noted that our homebuilder was not concerned about the ceiling being “true” so I had to fudge a little between level and actual height on the right side.

And after adding all the pieces of molding (“moulding” for Her Ladyship), I went back with a nailset (to make sure the finish nails did not protrude), filled the holes and corner joins with caulk, then taped and repainted one last time.

FINALLY… I was ready to hang the mural strips…which ideally are hung in numerical order from left to right. OF COURSE they are…unless I do it.

I absolutely wanted to focus on the right side first, because I wanted to make sure I displayed as many of the deer as possible. I wanted to get it done fast, so I completed it in 22 seconds:

AND then, Part 2… For the LEFT side of the wall, the bushes on the far right were also expendable, so I went back to the hanging the panels as directed, from left to right… Oh heck, why don’t I just SHOW you!

I was very careful to hang the panels with the exact same margin to cutaway at the top, so the engraved landscape would line up properly on each side.

What would I do differently?

Ready for a first? Nothing! I actually love how it turned out! Oh, Gosh!! Is that vain? (Haha, see the last post for more on that topic.)

Eventually, I’ll pick curtain fabric and add a few other appropriate accessories for guests, like luggage benches. Full disclosure, there is also a craft/project area on the other side of the room that’s still in progress…but with two closets on that side, I can at least keep the view tidy…as long as no one opens the closet doors 😉.

The room has already been occupied by several guests: my niece and her family, my daughters, and even Mr and I had to use it for a while when work in our bathroom spilled into our bedroom.

To date, however, the guest room is most frequently occupied by Allie, who spends her evenings looking out the window scanning for passing deer.

She’s a VERY easy guest…no turn-down service required…and–added bonus–she never messes up the bathroom.