I spruced up my doors!

Actually, I BIRCHED up my doors!

Here is the before pic. This is the coat closet next to the entryway we use the most. It goes right into the living room, which is very bright and contemporary. I wanted to keep consistent with that style, but bring in some warm, natural elements. I had been looking at birch tree decals on Etsy, but they are pretty pricey (considering they are gigantic 8 ft tall pieces of sticky plastic, I know I'd charge lots to make and ship them). If I were renting and wanted something removable, I would have splurged. But, I'm at the point in life that my doors are mine to mess up (I have to be careful, though...seems like every time I do something crazy with paint, we get relocated).

I had a few different sizes of blue painter's masking tape down in the basement. I used it to make tape trees with different trunk sizes. The bigger trees are made with multiple widths of tape. To make the trees look more natural, I worked in a bit of a curve as I was taping.




I made branches by cutting long lengths of tape diagonally. Each cut yielded 2 branches (which is a good thing, because I was just about out of tape).




I cut leaves from my last little bits of tape...




...and added them to the branches.

I used my fingernails to rip away bits of tape at the sides of the trunks and branches to make them more "birchlike." For longer tears, I just kept picking. I made a couple in the centers of the trunks to look like knots.

I slapped on a couple of coats of a green enamel that I found in the basement. From the dried up stuff on the outside of the can, I thought it was going to be an olive-ish color. It turned out to be more on the side of minty.

After I took the tape off, I was happy with the design, but not the color combo. The trees were too stark white, and the green just didn't work with the other colors in the room.

I went over the whole thing with a coat of Golden Oak Minwax stain (also in my basement). Since I put it over enamel, it took a while to dry, and it isn't totally homogeneous. I actually really like the textured look. Oh, and you can probably tell that a bit of paint bled under the tape. Again, I don't mind a bit because I think it adds character.

So there you have it - another un-blanked space in my home...so far so good with that New Year's Resolution (just please don't ask me how the diet is going...)!