Diane lived in one of the most beautiful Craftsman-styled homes in Las Cruces. She, like me, loved William Morris. Using some motifs from her bedspread (that she made!) and taking inspiration from the extensive William Morris fabric and wallpaper patterns, I designed a floral and fauna border that would wrap around the room above the picture rail (a picture rail is molding placed lower than where the wall and ceiling meet to allow you to hang frames from wire and a hook, much like what galleries do!)
The initial draft and the colored draft. I used the painted draft as a guide for the final work and to confirm the color palate.
Little Ana was only a few months old when I took on this project. I was expecting that she would be taking a bottle by the time I began. Turns out, every child is different (who would’ve known?!) She preferred her mama, so she was my painting buddy for a couple of the days. This system was okay for doing the initial work of doing the base coat of color etc, but it became tedious and stressful when it came time to transfer the designs. I was bending, crouching, measuring, and up and down on my ladder constantly. All the things you don’t think too much about until you have a baby strapped to your back.
I am so grateful that my husband was willing and able to be extremely flexible. We ended up doing some schedule shifting and late-night painting to make this project happen. Lucky for me, Diane was out of town so it gave me much-needed flexibility.
On the backsides of my printed templates, I attached transfer paper that transfers white instead of black chalk when pressure is applied. I used a metal stylus to draw over the designs.
Words cannot describe the immense relief I felt when placing the last few transfer panels, and they actually lined up pretty well. There was a little adjustment needed, but it could be corrected easily. I had been terrified I would calculate the room’s measurements wrong which would’ve ruined the entire thing and required an enormous amount of time to fix. I would have needed to go back and resize the panels digitally, re-print, clean off the wall, and re-apply all of those panels tracing the design one by one several times. My arms hurt just thinking about it.
The ceilings in this home were tall and the colors were rich. I just adore the warmth and depth the border adds to their bedroom. It is a fairly busy pattern but it fits right in with this home’s delightful old-world charm. This is one of my proudest works.
