Dreaming of far off places

I think ever since B, our oldest son, started learning about the world beyond what the eye can see, he has become obsessed with maps.  Starting with our next 15 min. journey in the car, advancing to following the location of grandparents as they travel through Norway and Sweden, some off to Mexico, and a dear friend in Benin, West Africa.  It is only natural that with his interest in maps he would request one for his bedroom.  Except his request wasn't satisfied with just a globe, or a framed map. He envisioned a whole wall to be filled with the world.

 

Ever since the big switch, the boys room has been in limbo.  A smash up of what was left anchored to the walls before the boys took over this space, combined with everything we moved over from their previous bedroom.  It worked, it wasn't terrible, but their bedding needed to be replaced desperately so therefore justified a whole room redo.  Plus a nine year olds dreams needed to be fulfilled.

 

 

My mission was to give B his wall map in a subdued way that satisfied his dreams but still worked with the direction I longed to see the room go in.  Lets just say it was a win win.

 

My map was printed from my computer, then traced onto a transperancy, and projected onto the wall. (I don't have a projector so therefore my transperancy was suspended in the room with a lamp shining behind it to get the image projected onto the wall.  The room had to be pitch black in order to see the image so therefore the only night that worked was after a nice date night with my man while the kids were away (date nights are rare, kids being away is even rarer).  What better way to end a date night than tracing a map onto the wall?

 

Once I had the map outlined on the wall in pencil I went over those lines with paintable silicone.  Yup, you read that right silicone.  Tip: don't cut your opening too large.    Then the lines were primed and the whole room painted.  One color.  Not in your face world map but beautiful subtle texture. 

 

The color is Benjamin Moore's Black Panther.  My house recieves a ton of natural light so every color I tried in this room read very blue.  I was aiming for a nice charcoal grey.  Couldn't find anything so settled on a jet black.  During the day it appears to be a beautiful dark navy (very classy) and at night deep deep grey.  I couldn't be happier and my two little boys dream of adventures across the world at night.