Family Tree

So a couple years ago we bought our first home and I love it! It isn’t by any means new but that was part of the appeal of the house. When we walked in I didn’t see baby blue walls and worn blue linoleum and turn and run…no, I saw potential for all kinds of changes and updates. I love to dream big so my husband is good at reminding me what is and isn’t realistic. Okay, well that leads us to this post…

 

I have seen so many great family tree ideas, and I really liked many of them so I took all of those ideas and combined them to make our family tree! ( HERE are a few wall decals I liked and some family tree frames)

Step 1: Draw a picture of what you have in mind (I liked so many different ideas that this part took some time combining my favorites and deciding which ones wouldn’t make the cut). Don’t be afraid to erase and try something new.

 

 

As you can see the drawing above isn’t quite the same as what my drawing on the wall looks like but that is okay, it was my inspiration!

Step 2: Decide where you will be putting you tree and clean the wall, I needed to fill  a couple nail holes in and touch up a bit to prepare the space I picked. You will also need to determine how big you want your tree to be.

Step 3: This is the fun part! You will need several erasers and a good pencil – start drawing your tree ON THE WALL! It is so fun drawing on the wall, most likely because we are told to never do that! I had to erase and redraw some of my branches a couple times, but if you don’t press hard with the pencil it is very easy to erase your “not quite right” branches.

 

For the letters on the trunk I used a font I liked and printed an outline of it, cut it out, fun tacked it to the wall, and traced around it.

Step 4: Get ready to paint! I squirted a bit of my brown acrylic paint into a disposable plastic cup so that it was easy for me to hold while I painted. I also used a disposable foam brush to do most of my painting; only a few times did I use a small paint brush just to do the smaller areas where the branches come to a point. You may need to do a couple coats depending on the paint you picked and the look you are going for.

Step 5: The Leaves: I took two small pieces of tag board and cut out the shape I wanted for my leaves. Then I held the tag board up on the wall where a leaf was to go and filled it in with paint using the foam brush.

 

Step 6: You are almost done!!! This step cleans all of the edges up and makes it look much more finished. I used one of those giant permanent Sharpie markers and outlined the whole thing! It also gave my tree a little more dimension.

Step 7: Last one…get frames (I found mine at Wal-Mart for under $1 each) and fill them with your favorite family photos! My husband has a large family and we plan to add more frames to our tree as more of his siblings get married.

Great Job! You did it! You created a one of a kind piece of art that can display your one of a kind family!