Faux Shutters DIY

 A part of our big home project involved getting a new window in the girls' room, which meant that we needed to paint...and to change the location of the beds in the room to better accommodate the window. 

We painted the room "Patriotic White" from Benjamin Moore.  I love the light blue color.  It's light enough that the room feels bigger, but it has enough color to make the kids happy.  

In general I'm not a big fan of hanging things on the walls over beds, especially since we live in an area known for earthquakes.  That wall just looked sooooooo blank that I had to do something.  The kids have also been asking for more and more of their "own" space in their shared space, and I thought this "above the bed" space might be perfect.

I found some old flower boxes in my garage and spray painted them purple.  I  thought they'd be the perfect place to store small stuffed animals, books, and cards.  Above each I placed a bulletin board. (Fun fact, the white trimmed one was actually my moms when she was a little girl!)  Then I painted some shutters, which I'm going to show you how to make right now.  Are you ready?  These were so much fun to make!  Can you guess what they're made of?

These faux shutters are made of foam board (I found mine at the dollar store!) and painted with acrylic paint.  I used a razor blade to cut my shutters:

and then I just started painting.

After it had a good coat of paint I just used a pencil to divide the shutters into three sections, with two vertical boards going across.

I shaded in the edges with colored pencils:

And drew in hinges with permanent markers:

so much fun!!!

My older daughter requested hers be purple with a crown cut out.

I cut out the crowns and then shaded with colored pencils just like I did with the pink shutters.  I first attached them to the wall with velcro circles, but ultimately they kept raising up so I added a few nails (which actually makes the shutters look more authentic!)

What do you think?

Am I worried about it all falling on my kids' heads?  Not really, for two reasons.  Everything on the wall is pretty light, for one.  The other reason though is that for some weird reason my kids are insisting on sleeping upside down (with their heads at the foot of the bed), which means they are even farther from the wall artwork.

Did you notice some of my other projects in their room?  Like the applique house pillow from my Mini Doll Pattern?   Or my rag quilt and bedding?  Or one of my bedbug dolls and bookworm doll?

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and look into my girls' room!  Do you follow my blog already?  Yes, awesome!!!  If not,  please consider following this blog!  I'm really trying to build my followers via email and on facebook, pinterest, twitter, and instagram.