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July 20, 2007 Frances Friday: Beds 
"So what do you want for supper, Frances?" "I don't want anything!" She rolled on the sofa. "I want to watch Max and Wuby." "But you have to eat supper," says her crafty Mummy. "I was going to take you out to look at beds for the new house after supper. So you have to eat supper, you see, before we can go look at beds." "Ok!" she shouted, bounding for the kitchen. "I want a grilled cheese!" A grilled cheese it was, then we went to look at beds at Sears and the Brick. And yes I realize that these establishments are not bastions of my normal values or preferences. But Frances needs a bed and dresser, and I need to not spend several hours driving all over town looking at them. Mind you, this could hardly have been more exhausting than the reality, which was a small person who exclaimed, upon entering the furniture store, "I want to run in here, Mummy!" And so she did. She ran and she ran and she ran. She ran more. She kept running. She said, "You'll never catch me!" She climbed on beds, she climbed on couches. Then she ran. Again. I think, in between all the running (and running and running) that we settled on a fairly plain white mates bed with a bookcase headboard and drawers underneath the mattress. Its plainness should help to offset the overwhelming girliness of the rest of the room, and also carry through many years because she won't outgrow it along with the princess phase. And it has a lot of storage. It is also several inches taller than she is, so we may have to look at bed rails. Here is my question for you today, Dear Readers: If you wanted to paint an approximately 2 1/2 foot diameter cherry-red flower on a light pink wall, how would you go about it? Assume you are not an artist and can't draw. Posted by Andrea at July 20, 2007 7:27 AM under Frances Friday EMAIL this entry (comments fields are below this section) Comments To get past the lack of artistic ability, I used this trick once to paint a VW Bus on my wall in high school. Find a graphic you'd like on the wall and photocopy it onto transparency paper. Then find a place you can borrow an overhead projector from, (I borrowed mine from my school) and project the image on the wall and trace it. The projector will allow you to make it as big as you'd like. Posted by: Dallas at July 20, 2007 7:40 AM
The projector idea is a good one...remember those ones that would project an actual picture from paper, not on a transparency? Or you could just lightly draw it on with pencil until you get the size/shape you want, then paint-trace it with a thin paintbrush and fill it in with a larger one. OR...look into wallies. There are these: http://www.wallies.com/item/W15301.htm?tab=big_murals&page=2 Kind of pricey, but I bet you could find some on eBay. TT got some for M's room on eBay for pretty cheap. Posted by: Tanya at July 20, 2007 7:49 AM
A projector is a good idea. I'm just not sure where I would get one from. Anyone local have a projector they are dying to lend out? And it has to be paint, not wallies. For reasons that will become clear when it's done. Posted by: Andrea at July 20, 2007 7:59 AM
I've done similar things by finding clip art, making it the right size, printing, cutting, and tracing. However, you would need to have access to a printer that could do that size. Otherwise, I say go with the projector. Posted by: ccw at July 20, 2007 8:16 AM
Definitely a projector, or you could buy a poster with a flower you like and cut out the outline and use it as a stencil. Posted by: liz at July 20, 2007 8:56 AM
What I would do is this: Hope this helps! Posted by: Lee at July 20, 2007 9:15 AM
Shoot. The program's called Rasterbator Alternately, I've also mucked images up onto several letter size sheets of paper using graphics programs. But that can be a pain to do depending on the program. Let me know if I can help in any way. Posted by: Lee at July 20, 2007 9:18 AM
That's awesome, Lee. Thanks. Sorry about the link--I have it set to strip links out of comments to reduce spam. Posted by: Andrea at July 20, 2007 9:25 AM
What a perfect bed! Bookcase headboard and drawers underneath are exactly what I had hoped to find for the kiddo's bed (didn't, made do with a plain bedframe, but am loving Frances's!). Posted by: Genevieve at July 20, 2007 10:06 AM
If you want it really simple, I'd cut a petal template out of a piece of cardboard (kind of a tear-drop shape) and use that to trace the flower onto the wall and then "colour in" the petals with the paint. Certainly not intricate or fancy, but would get the job done! Posted by: Peanutbuttersmum at July 20, 2007 12:11 PM
Combining two suggestions: if you plan to make more than one flower, find a graphic online somewhere that will give you the right dimension and shape that you want. Print it out, and glue to cardboard to give it a little more durability. Trace around image onto wall, and infill with paint. This way, you can make more than one. Another trick that you can use, if you want to go the overhead projector-type route, but can't find a projector: you can position a flower (real or template) and backlight it with a lamp or flashlight. Aim the shadow at the wall where you want your design to go, and trace around the shadow outline with a pencil. (I once helped a friend do this with a large plant on her walls -- she transformed her attic space into a jungle room.) Posted by: KLee at July 20, 2007 2:54 PM
Pbsmum has had the same idea I did-cut a petal template out of cardboard and put a circle in the middle. Posted by: yankee,transferred at July 20, 2007 4:02 PM
Stencil! Of course, this doesn't help you with the drawing of the flower, but with the painting, given the size. Posted by: ~Macarena~ at July 20, 2007 11:23 PM
Coming out of lurkdom for this one! You could also do it without a projector or computer-enlargement. It's basically doing the same thing Rasterbator (which looks amazing!) does, but by hand. Find a picture you like and draw a grid on it. Draw the same grid, but larger, on your wall (with pencil, or tape maybe?). Then just copy the image square by square from the small to the big grid and erase the grid afterwards. No drawing skills required at all, it's surprisingly easy. Good luck with the new place! Posted by: Maria at July 21, 2007 2:51 PM
Find a simple picture you want to copy, draw one inch squares across the whole thing, lightly pencil bigger to scale squares on the wall, and copy cube by cube... Posted by: ewe_are_here at July 21, 2007 4:22 PM
I like K's idea about tracing out a petal, that way they are kinda uniform. the circle part is easy to make Im sure it will look great! Posted by: Tanya at July 26, 2007 4:52 PM
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