Mario Theme Room

I look at theme rooms in magazines and online and I think, "I want one". I got tired of "wanting" one, and decided to Make one! The Mario theme room has become more than I thought it would be. Hunter has asked for a Mario room for a year now, ever since we moved in to this house. His room had pink flower wall paper, and he was a good sport for putting up with it. Taking down wall paper in this house isn't easy because it's a 100 year old house and the walls are made of plaster. Even if you use a steamer, wall paper doesn't come down nicely and often times the plaster crumbles. It's best to take down the plaster walls and put up dry wall. At least, in Husband's mind it is. He has dry walled the living room, dining room, and now Hunter's room. He has plans to do Drew's room some day as well. In my opinion, there's nothing like having the blank canvas of dry wall to slap fresh paint on.

{Picture of Hunter helping tear down the walls. He got to make the first hole with a hammer.}

The Mario room didn't take a lot of planning. We took Hunter to Lowe's to pick out paint, and Husband already had an idea of what he wanted to do. Conveying it to Hunter (and Mom) was a little difficult, but after we saw his vision (versus Hunter's vision of a fiery Mario world complete with Bowser castle) we picked out shades of blue, green, and brown to bring this Mario world to life.
Back at home, Husband slathered a layer of primer on his dry wall, and we were ready to go.Husband taped the different levels of the ground. The very bottom is brown, the little middle area is green, then the big top area is blue.
Husband did most of the painting. I am better at edging because I can paint a straight line easily enough. I don't like using tape on edges since I can free hand it. I took advantage of the Picnik photo editing website to map out how I want each wall to look. These are all rough drafts (mostly because Husband came home for lunch and saw these and said "oh, and don't forget to add this, and how about we change this to that!"). The window wall is the side of the room where Hunter's big slide bed is. I would like to do a green pipe on both sides with a Piranha Plant coming out. Maybe one with mouth open and one with mouth closed. I think that will give a nice balanced look when you first enter the room.

To the left of the bed (when facing it) is the wall with his closet. The slide comes down this side, so I don't want to put too much detail in that corner. I will keep the pictures high, such as some clouds with maybe a flying Koopa (turtle), and a few Goombas (mushroom guys) down low. We will also hang a pegboard on this wall. I made a pegboard for Louisa's room last summer and she uses it a lot. Husband thinks he can cut the pegboard in to a cloud shape. That would blend in well if he can. (Note, clouds and vine are photoshopped, the wall is actually blank right now.)

The next wall has Hunter's door. I don't think I'll paint anything on either door, but we'll see. Husband thought maybe vines going around each of the door and window trims would look nice. I also have to keep in mind that A) we won't be in this house forever, and B) Hunter won't want a Mario theme forever.
So here we have a wall that I will put some Blocks and Coins on. I will also put two Koopas on the bottom, not a Goomba and a Koopa since, as Husband pointed out, Koopas travel in pairs. He also suggested I put the coins in an arch. Notice above the door, Hunter asked us to make sure we added a "score" and "lives" somewhere in the room.

The last wall I didn't add any pictures to so you can see how nicely it's painted. Hunter wanted what he called "stairs". We need to add black lines on the foremost level of the "stairs" so you can tell it's in the foreground. I think I will do Mario on this wall, jumping from the ground to the upper level. I promised Hunter he could paint a Yoshi Egg on one of the two platforms.
Again, Husband did all the planning and taping to make these lines and levels possible. I was so impressed when I'd seen the final result. I had my doubts, to be honest. I will never doubt his painting skills again! He's done me proud. Hunter is one lucky little boy, and I hope this is a room that will give him years of fun and imaginative playtime.

I will update as I begin my contributions to Hunter's Mario theme room.