Wall art Paint a mountain landscape

Create a majestic, portable backdrop which will add a dose of wilderness to your child’s room

Catherine Melo of children’s bedding and interiors label Burrow & Be designed this epic backdrop for the launch of Burrow & Be’s ‘Woodland Dash’ collection. She took inspiration from feature walls she had seen, and her own view while driving home each day.

“When I drive home at dusk, my view to the Waitakere ranges looks very similar to this, with tonal changes on the horizon. It always looks so calming,” she says.

For the launch photoshoot, Catherine wanted the look of a mural but needed something that could be easily transported and would not leave marks on the wall, so she came up with this portable backdrop. “The advantage is I can use it again for different shoots or in different areas,” she says. “It would be a great option if you were renting a property and wanted to add a feature wall but couldn’t paint the walls.”

STEPS

1

Download Burrow & Be’s mountain template from homestolove.co.nz (search ‘backdrop’) and print out. Or use another image or design your own. 2

Join boards with masking tape down long edge. Turn boards over so you paint on non-taped side. 3 Catherine used an overhead projector and transparency film to project the image onto the boards. If you don’t have a projector, draw a grid over your printout and use this to scale up the design and transfer it to the boards (mark a grid on boards in faint pencil, which can be rubbed out later where necessary). Paint outline of design onto boards using the lightest paint colour and a thin brush. 4 Fill in each area of the image with paint, starting with the lightest colour and working downwards to the darkest. Use wider brushes to fill in the middle of each section and smaller brushes at the edges. 5 When dry, paint a second coat of each colour in the same order. 6

When second coat is dry, use a multi tool or jig saw to cut out the mountain outline at the top of the backdrop. 7

Attach to wall with screws, making sure not to damage the walls.