The ragged wren : How-To: Football Field Wall

Boys rooms are such a fun place to decorate. It's easiest to decorate around what they love, and if they love it, why wouldn't they want to live in it?! My son would have a whole room of nothing but dinosaurs. He'd love it so much he'd never leave, which is exactly why I didn't do it :)

Summer seems to be a good season for working on rooms "in the house", to stay out of the heat (or at least here in Texas). So I wanted to give you some ideas on how to update, and decorate kids rooms this week.

I know we still have a couple more months before football season starts, but I had to show you this fun football themed room, it is so easy to pull together.

The back wall was painted a turf green to start. With some simple taping, and white paint, you could pull this off in under an hour. See the how-to below.

Over the wall technique some cute scrabble letter tiles were used (from Hobby Lobby).

For the bedding, a simple blue striped comforter was used. A plaid, or a solid, would also work well in here. A green and white blanket sits at the end of the bed, which pulls the green around the room. Football art, and a green beanbag finished out the other areas of the room.

This room was designed, and decorated by the ladies at Dy Lynne Decor.

How-To

The first step in this wall treatment is to paint the wall. You could try "Envy" or Grasshopper" by Sherwin Williams. A flat paint is probably best here, you don't want it any sheen.

For the tape, I used Frog Tape. The wall had a texture to it, and I didn't want any paint seeping through, this tape is the best for this kind of technique.

The trick with this tape, is to wet the edges slightly. A lightly damp rag, rung along the edges of the tape will ensure a clean line.

To mark my lines, I used a measuring tape, and a level. You will need to decide how many lines you want to add. I decided not to do they whole field, the smaller your space, the less you need. If you have a really tall wall, add more. I also put the numbers on every other line, like on a football field.

After marking all of my lines out on the left side of the wall, I made the same measurements on the middle and right side of the wall. I used a level to make a few marks in between. If your wall was small you may not even need that step, but you want the lines as straight as you can get them. I used my frog tape, and lined it up with my marks. After you have them all on, this is when you will run a damp cloth down the tape. Doesn't take long, but it will help the paint not to bleed under.

An important step, it will save you lots of cutting in later.

I did the same thing for the two additional stripes going vertical up the wall. A normal field has little hash marks going down the field, but save yourself some time and stress, and just do a solid line, you get the same impression. If you want the stripes to overlap, you can cut off any excess tape where the two lines meet. I think it looks less like a plaid wall if you leave them separate.

Next take your white paint, and a small brush, and run over all of your stripes. I needed two coats here, to cover over the green.

Once your done, pull off your tape.

For the numbers, you can make a stencil by hand, buy number stencils, or just hand draw each number. I will tell you, it is a bit of a challenge drawing sideways like that. Then paint in your number up the wall. Again skipping a line between them.