Smurfs have moved into our house.

They've taken up residence in our hallway.

I have been wanting to paint this ever since I saw this toadstool wall decal on Etsy. She has so many wonderful designs in her shop!! I'm currently coveting this scrolled bird cage by another designer which would look perfect in the empty space next to our TV. 

I digress - so I saw the toadstool and gnome decal and thought, I would love that on our tiny hallway wall but it would look so much better in color, with flowers, etc. So I decided to paint it. It was actually really easy. I used some old acrylic paints I found while cleaning out the garage last weekend (which will get it's own post soon - it was an incredible feat!). Come to think of it, those acrylic paints must be at least 15 years old...you can buy similar ones at Michael's, JoAnn's, etc. Wal-Mart even sells them in the craft section. I sketched it out in pencil first, didn't like it. Wiped the wall with the spray kitchen counter cleaner stuff and re-sketched then got down on the floor and started painting. All told it took about an hour including the sketching. I don't think it needs to be sealed. We'll see how it holds up.

This is good practice for the room mural I intend to paint if our family increases in size. I've been dreaming and sketching the baby/kid mural for the last few years and it will be awesome when it's complete. I haven't wanted to jinx us by painting it ahead of time so we'll see if a real little baby smurf comes to lives with us one day.

As for willy-nilly painting in the house - I'm no stranger to that!

Here's the mail slot by the front door. You can see Chester's nose smudges as he tries to get the mailman when he drops mail in there.

The paint chips above the stove are for flames that I will get around to painting one day. I hadn't realized how high the backsplash of our stove was when we bought it a couple of years ago. Since then it's dampened my urge to paint since so much of the wall is covered by it however, I have the paint and I will do it one day. Maybe just a few little flames.

Here is the bathroom. I did this a few years ago when we redecorated the living room (shortly after we re-did the kitchen). All of a sudden I think the bathroom was feeling left out so I gave it some waves. The waves go around the whole room.

Have you done any painting projects in your house? I'd love to hear about them, please share.