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Painting A Closet Door Pink & Raindrops On The Wall

Let’s all join hands and sing “Raindrops & Rose Paint.” Yes, that’s a bad Sound of Music pun. Please forgive me, Julie Andrews. But just look at how festive Clara’s room is thanks to the addition of some bright raindrops that we painted on the wall and a watermelon pink closet door.

Painting Colorful Raindrops And A Bright Closet Door Title Card

Remember when it used to look like this?

Before Photo Of Daybed With Fabric Canopy In Front Of Blank Wall

Well, it’s definitely looking pretty happy these days.

After Photo Of Girl Reading On Daybed With Fabric Canopy And Colorful Door And Raindrop Mural

Although the door color is actually more true to life in this Instragram sneak peek that we shared yesterday (iPhone for the win). And the pink drops are easier to see in real life (they seem to hide in these pics for some reason).

Girl Peeking Out Of Colorful Pink Closet Door Next To Raindrop Mural Bed | Cinco de Mayo

How did we get there? Well, a whole bunch of photoshop-brainstorming here resulted in over 900 truly amazing comments and ideas from you guys. And then we shared all of our original photoshopped versions of the canopy wall with Clara as well as some new ones that we whipped up based on suggestions from you to see which ones she liked best. We never would have thought of all the things you guys came up with, and one that rolled in over and over again was the idea of putting the raindrops outside of the canopy instead of under it like we had originally done in this rendering (which was inspired by this this charming project).

Photoshop mock up of Potential Mural Of Raindrops Under Fabric Canopy Over Bed

We loved the idea of the canopy appearing to shelter Clara from the colorful little raindrops, so this new take on the raindrops was one of the extra ones that we photoshopped for her to see (along with some other fun ones involving constellations, some bold paint on that full wall behind the bed, a few different colors of paint on the closet door to the right of her bed, etc).

Photoshop mock up of Colorful Raindrop Mural Painted Around Fabric Canopy

And let me tell you, Clara’s a decisive girl. After about 2.5 seconds she looked at them all and said “I like the raindrops on the wall outside but I want them to be pink and red and blue, and I want the door to be pink – but not light pink. DARK PINK!” Which led me to making this photoshopped image for “final approval” from Clara.

Final Photoshop mock up of Red Pink Blue Raindrop Mural With Dark Pink Closet Door

I’m obsessed with the door color that we ended up with, so Clara was right!

Dark Pink Closet Door Cinco De Mayo Benjamin Moore With Raindrop Mural

In short, she’s a decorating genius (along with you genius readers and all of your genius suggestions). The cutest thing of all is that when she saw me painting the raindrops she said “Wowwww! Mom I really like it real! Even better than the computer!” And when it was all done (including the pink door, which she incessantly reminded me about until it was done) she walked in and said “It’s….. truly magnificent!” It’s is a quote from one of her favorite books (Room On The Broom) and it had John and I rolling on the floor. Seriously, it was the sweetest moment and I wish we had thought to record it.

The raindrops are actually just painted right onto the wall using a simple cardboard stencil that I made. To make the template for it, I used an old page from an activity book that Clara had ripped out and tossed aside (waste not, want not) and folded it in half vertically and just cut a half-teardrop-ish shape from it and unfolded it. I liked the scale and it was nice and symmetrical since I used the folded technique, so I traced that onto the back of a cracker box and cut it out to create a cardboard template.

Cutting Out Template For Raindrop Mural Shape Using Cardboard

Then I brought my laptop into her room so I could reference my photoshopped placement of the drops (although I didn’t mimic it exactly) and just traced the cardboard shape directly onto the wall with a pencil, randomly staggering them around that wall. There was zero measuring involved since I didn’t want them to be perfectly placed (rain seems to fall more randomly than that anyway) so I just stood back and checked out the wall and sort of eyed everything as I went.

Tracing Raindrops On Wall With Pencil using Cardboard Template Shape

I assumed we’d have to run to the store for some $2.99 test pots of paint in pink, blue, and red as Clara requested – but I looked in the garage at what we had, and was thrilled to find an old dusty quart of blue paint leftover from a few years ago (the color is called Tranquil) and remembered that we had some pink leftover from Clara’s ceiling (Pink Cadillac) and there was also about half of a quart of a bold poppy-red color called Milano Red from a few years back (don’t even remember what we used that for!). But if you don’t have a paint hoarding problem like me, three test pots would do the job for under $9 – so either way this is a simple and low-budget update, especially since you can make your own stencil for it!

After digging those out, I shook them up, and popped the lids off all three of them, and just laid them out on the white dresser top in her room to see how the colors worked in there (it helped to see them on a white surface since the wall is white so it gave me a good idea of how they’d work together – although paint dries darker so I knew the light pink would show up more on the wall). One happy accident about finding all of these colors in the garage was that they all had varying intensities (see how the red is the boldest one and the blue is sort of the mid-tone and the pink is light and soft?) which I realize now in hindsight might have helped the whole project come out slightly less busy than if all three colors were super bold and sort of compete-y with each other.

Open Paint Cans Of Three Colors For Raindrop Wall | Pink Cadillac | Tranquil | Cinco De Mayo

I was sold, so I called John and Clara up to see them and they both gave me the thumbs up and left before I could put them to work (smart people), so I dove into filling all of my pencil-traced raindrops on the wall using a very small craft brush.  I worked with one color at a time, doing all of the blue ones first (I consulted my photoshopped image but went rogue a few times if I thought a different color order would look better in some spots) and then moved onto the light pink ones and finished with the bold red ones.

Hand Painting Blue Raindrop On Wall Mural With Small Brush

Each color ended up needing two coats, so by the time I finished the red ones I went back in and did the second coat on the blue ones and then did the second coat on the pink and then the red. Total time spent tracing them onto the wall and painting = less than two hours. Oh and my favorites are the ones that drip into something (like the door frame or the canopy) just because their cut-off shape is so playful. It really does feel raindrop-esque in there now, and I’m so glad that Clara loves it as much as we do (she did admit that the red raindrops are her favorite, but she “likes them all mixed up like that because it’s like a rainbow”).

Girl Playing On Bed Under Final Raindrop Mural Over Fabric Canopy Bed

Then it was time to paint the door, so after holding up a bunch of swatches to try to find one that was slightly pinker and darker than the photoshopped image that Clara had otherwise signed off on, we headed to the store to grab a quart of the winning color: Cinco De Mayo. The hilarious thing about that color name is that I thought “since I have so much leftover paint that I can’t even remember in the garage, I should go through it to see if I have some of that color by some paint miracle” and I found one can that said Mardi Gras on it and totally did the happy dance and then my brain said “Cinco De Mayo and Mardi Gras are not the same paint color” (oddly enough they were kind of close except Mardi Gras was a little more neon).

So we ran to the store and bought a quart of Cinco De Mayo and it just took two coats (and a third pass of just touch ups) to get it done with a small foam roller and a small angled brush to get into the frames of the door (you can read more on door-painting here). We did both sides of the door just so that whether it’s open or closed there’s that pop of color over there.

Girls Bedroom With Colorful Raindrop Mural Around Canopy Daybed With Closet Door Open

Oh and to everyone who recommended painting that door, you were totally right! Initially I worried about the wall feeling unbalanced if we painted it, but the polka dot wall of curtains (there are four of them) to the left of the canopy seems to visually balance the bright door so it’s not an issue at all. I also worried it would look weird to have one colorful door in her room (that’s her closet door) while the door to her room (from the hallway) remains white, but it’s not a big deal in real life. I just had to get over my matchy-matchy thing (all of the doors in all of our houses have always been white)… but once I saw this one on Pinterest I was all over it. I’ve always wanted to make that closet feel like a little playhouse within the room for Clara, and the bold door is the first step to that.

Side View Of Colorful Dark Pink Closet Door Painted With Cinco De Mayo Color

Of course we still have a big blank spot over her bed (we think maybe hanging a white paper pendant might be fun, sort of like the lamp in the photoshopped version) and her room is still full of white walls everywhere else (we chose one of our favorite white paints). We can’t wait to hang some art, do some projects with Clara, and eventually get her crib outta there so we can have some fun with the wall where that lives. But it’s a whole lot happier with those raindrops and that colorful door in full effect.

Close Up Of Painted Colorful Raindrop Wall Mural In Girls Bedroom

What did you guys do this weekend? Any stencil making? Or door painting? How about cry-laughing when your three year old says “magnificent” – that might have been my favorite part.

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Comments

  4. Stephanie says

    That looks wonderful, and I love the vibe you get that Clara’s canopy is keeping her warm AND dry. What better place to curl up and read a book or play? Too cute!

    Reply

  5. Megan says

    This is adorable! I would have loved this as a kid. It’s all working together great, and the pink door is perfection.

    Reply

  6. Steph Nelson says

    So between the “rain” on the walls and the “oceans” on the floor, Clara has a water theme going on. :)

    I used to hang out in my closet as a kid. I loved getting in there with a bunch of pillows and read.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      That’s just how it’s pronounced in our region (she was named after John’s grandma who pronounced it this way as well). All Clara’s and Sarah’s are said that way in the south, but up north it’s totally Sah-rah and Clah-rah – so Nonna slips and says it that way sometimes. Haha!

      xo,
      s

    • Tara S says

      This string of comments made me laugh. As a “Tah-rah” from NJ, called “Tare-ah” when I went to grad school at UVA (WahooWa!), and then a “Tah-ha” during my post-doc in Montreal. Fun times! :-)

      Love everything about the room. Clara is adorable and reminds me so much of my 3 1/2 year daughter, Grace. They would totally be best friends. I went ahead and ordered the Room on a Broom on amazon prime. I will get it before Halloween. I love when people give book suggestions. Maybe you can do a Young House Love post about Clara’s favorite books and people can leave comments with suggestions too. New books (and new pajamas) make Grace so excited. Easy to make her happy.

    • YoungHouseLove says

      That’s so funny! Three different pronunciations = the trifecta! As for books we love, that would be a fun post for Young House Life! Off the top of my head, we love Secret Pizza Party, Dragons Love Tacos, Room On The Broom, Not An Ordinary Dragon, Knuffle Bunny and old Berenstain Bears Books (leftover from when I was a kid).

      xo
      s

    • Tara S says

      Thanks so much for the book suggestions. I will definitely check them out. Grace’s favorites these days are the Press Here, Beautiful Oops, the Pete the Cat series, and we now read poems from Where the sidewalk ends. She laughs so hard at some of the poems. Though some are quite strange and hard to explain. Dirtiest man in the word is her favorite poem. Oh kids!

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, we love Press Here and Pete The Cat, so we have to check out Beautiful Oops and I think I have an old copy of Where The Sidewalk Ends somewhere!

      xo
      s

  10. Jennie says

    I dont know if anyone has thrown this idea out there yet, but turning an umbrella into a hanging pendant light under the canopy could awesome!

    Loving the rain drops and the hot pink door!

    Reply

  11. Bridget says

    My favorite part was when she called it “magnificent”. My three year old is loving the Fancy Nancy books and so is always saying that things are “divine”.

    Reply

  13. Jessica says

    I love this! It’s fun but simple. I also feel like it’s going to be something that Clara won’t out grow in a few months, which makes it 300x more awesome. I’m completely smitten with Clara’s choice in colors, especially the door.

    PS- So glad my 3 year old isn’t the only one that literally runs back and forth while I’m trying to talk to her!

    Reply

  14. Amanda says

    You were right, Clara is a genius! This is so adorable. Makes me want to get busy in my boys’ rooms. Even in a rental, something like this would be totally do-able. I hate to waste paint and effort for a whole room since I know we’ll only be here a few years (military=lots of moving around …) but the idea of just a few shapes on the wall is great.

    Reply

  18. Sam says

    It looks great! I love it! Quick question though (and sorry if you already answered it in the 300 or so preceding comments…) would it not have been easier to just paint using the stencil you made rather than outline it in pencil and then fill it in on your own? I don’t have a steady hand and I’m always looking for shortcuts. (Which is maybe why my DIY looks REALLY DIY!)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I definitely think making a true stencil would work if you had thick plastic or acetate on hand (I wouldn’t trust cardboard since paint gets around the back of a stencil sometimes and it seems like it would be harder to wipe it off cardboard than plastic – so you might have muddled edges).

      xo
      s

  21. Leiann says

    Oh my gosh, I absolutely LOVE this! It might be the cutest thing you guys have ever done! I would have cringed at the mention of a pink door but it looks SO awesome! It makes the entire space. :) I would love that room for myself!

    Reply

  22. Jennie says

    Dudes, it looks awesome! I love what you did with Clara’s wall / canopy setup! As a side note, apropos to nothing, I walked around with a Cheerio, courtesy of our toddler, stuck to my thigh / butt for most of the afternoon. And yes, I saw people. Lots of them. Then I remembered your strawberry cream cheese / Target story and felt a little better about the whole thing :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, I’ve totally been there Jennie! The other day I had two different earrings on at a school function. Nobody told me, but it was SO OBVIOUS! Haha!

      xo
      s

  23. Hannah says

    Wowee. I love it! It turned out AWESOME. I love how decisive Clara was in knowing what she wants. Been reading Making It Lovely and Eleanor is a gal that also knows what she wants!

    So perfect you had those 3 colours together in the garage – ahh! And the coral-ish door, mmm. Love it!!

    Reply

  24. Timothy says

    you guys are so awesome! if i was a 3 year-old Clara i would just literally sit in there on the floor and stare at everything! i cant wait to see what you guys do with the other wall once Clara decides her wonderful canopy bed is more comfy than her crib :)

    P.S. come to Charlotte for a book signing!!I want to meet you guys!

    Reply

  25. Timothy says

    i also was just looking back on the pictures and the door being painted pink really makes the trim look more white in the before picture the trim and door look kinda creamy…

    Reply

  27. Maureen says

    It looks fabulous! Seeing that door painted Cinco de Mayo gave me just the push I need to paint the interior of my front door. I had been debating between emerald green and coral and now it looks as if Cinco de Mayo will be perfect!

    Reply

  30. Melissa R. says

    That is soooooo cute! I think the painted door is awesome! I may try the same thing in my daughter’s room. Her favorite color is purple, and I think she would love a purple door.

    Reply

  31. Becky says

    Really cute for not much time spent. Nicely done!

    This weekend, I put out our fall decorations around the house. I recently had the loft upstairs made into a bedroom, so that’s pretty much has me tapped out for improvements this year. Love how it turned out though!

    Reply

  34. Christy says

    What paint finishes do you use in your home with a toddler? We have two young boys and I’m wanting advice as to whist to use on our walls so we don’t have little smudgy fingerprints all over the place? Thanks!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Eggshell usually does the trick since paint is so much better these days (easier to scrub, especially if you go with a good brand). We did satin everywhere at our last house and it was kinda overkill, so eggshell here so far has been great (satin in baths and kitchens though).

      xo
      s

  36. Whitney Dupuis says

    Oh. My. Gosh. I am so in love with this! We are in the process of moving and I can’t wait to do it now because I can’t wait to give my three year old son a totally new and fun room. Bold will definitely be the order of the day!

    Reply

  37. Annie says

    Oh my gosh, I LOVE this! I seriously get that rare, crazy happy feeling in my chest when I look at the pictures. It’s incredibly sweet without being too babyish, and the colors have such a great balance of little girl mixed with a slightly retro color sensibility. It just feels like Clara. :)

    I think it’s essential for little girls to have their own voice, their own preferences, their own power. Because they really are going to need that for their whole lives. So amazing she envisioned a darker pink door and you helped her realize it! You guys rock!

    Reply

  38. Britt says

    I can’t help but wonder how the inside of the canopy would look painted the same soft ceiling pink. Pink overload or relaxing bed time oasis?

    Reply

  39. Abby says

    I love this idea!! It looks awesome! Y’all should think about painting a window under the canopy!! With more rain drops outside the window or a tree or whatever Clara likes.

    Reply

  40. Lori says

    Hi Sherry,
    Clara’s room looks beautiful! I love that door color. While I was reading your post I remembered a paint related question I’ve been wanting to ask you. How long do you wait to paint a second or third coat? Do you actually wait the recommended amount of time or is it ok to paint as soon as it’s dry to the touch?
    Thanks!
    Lori

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      If I’m doing something like cabinets or built-ins (I use Advance paint for that and it has specific how-long-to-wait deadlines that really matter) I follow the rules, but when it’s a wall or a door, we have always done dry-to-the-touch before the second application and it has worked out well for us so far!

      xo
      s

  46. Susie says

    Hi, your daughters room is adorable! Did you get the idea for the pom canopy from Meredith and Gwyneth The New Yorkies blog?

    Reply

  47. Sandy says

    That turned out so adorable! Clara definitely has decorating talent like her parents. It makes it so much more special when they are involved in the selection process. One question…I notice you use foam rollers a lot and I’m wondering how you get a smooth paint surface with them? Whenever I’ve tried using them they always leave a bubbly textured surface? What am I doing wrong? Thanks!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We have heard that from other folks but have never had that issue – it makes us wonder if it’s the type of roller (maybe some foam rollers are smoother than others? we get ours in a clear package from Home Depot, and they’re the very small ones for the smaller roller arm). It also makes me wonder if it’s the type of paint (some seem to be thinner and rollers typically rile them up more (creating bubbles). I would try the HD rollers and nice thick paint and rolling slowly so you don’t get the paint all excited and bubbly, haha!

      xo
      s

  48. Ilse says

    Hmmm, I think the pink should be way more saturated. Also think it still looks an awfull lot like in the image that inspired you.

    Reply

  49. Sasha says

    That looks so cool… A little jealous ;) Itching to go paint colourful raindrops over my bed, too bad I can’t in my rented apartment… Added to the to-do list for my future home :) loving the bold door too :) Clara when will your consultancy firm open? ;) Such a talented girl for sure :)

    Reply

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