Nautical Nursery DIY Silhouette Art

Things are really starting to come together in our new home. Rooms are starting to fill up with furniture and beginning to develop character. While we still have some empty spaces, it definitely is starting to feel like home. 

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to taking new photos of each room to share an updated home tour. Retirement has been busy. But it's coming soon! Instead, this week I wanted to share some little pieces of art I've been working on for our little boy's room. 

I was really inspired by these silhouettes and pieces I saw on Pinterest and Etsy, however with each one I found myself saying, "I like that... but I wish it was simpler/nautical/different colors." So instead of settling, and instead of spending, I just made some myself, and made them to my liking. 

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I used stencils that I printed and cut from my Silhouette printer, but you can still make these even if you don't have a Silhouette. Just find the image you want, and cut along the edges to make your own stencil {or you can purchase a stencil, like these similar versions}.

We are going with a nautical theme in our boy nursery {as is everyone else it seems, understandably, it's adorable}. We chose to use a whale, ship, crab, and an anchor as our stencils.

I picked up some small blank canvases from Michael's, then painted them with some leftover sample paints we had for our walls. We've used Sherwin Williams {color matched at Home Depot} colors. I will talk all about that in an upcoming post.

To paint the image onto the canvas, I started by tracing it using chalk.

The chalked outline makes it so easy to follow the stencil pattern when painting, and easily wipes away when you're finished.

Before removing the stencil, I'd gently run my finger back and forth along the chalk to smudge it in. As you can see in the picture above, my piece of chalk didn't exactly make it to the edge of the lines. By smudging it in, I was able to get a more accurate outline.

After I had my outlines, it was just a matter of filling them in with paint. I painted each canvas in a dark blue, then used gray and red for the silhouettes.

After the paint was dry, I used a small towel to wipe away the excess chalk. I wasn't going for perfection on these, but I did want them to at least look nice, so I went back with a small brush in a couple spots to remove where I had gone outside the lines a bit.

Using 3M command picture hanging hooks, I hung them up above {what will be} our changing table.

The nursery is slowly coming together, and adding these pieces just makes it feel a little more cozy. Part of me wants it to all be finished right now, but the more realistic side knows we have plenty of time so I have to keep telling myself to relax a bit.

Do you have any personal artwork in your home? Don't be afraid to try your hand at it! It means so much to me to know that the artwork in our baby's nursery was made by me. It just gives the room an added personal touch.

I promise to share more updates on the progress of our house next week. But for now, I'm going to get ready to host our first guests this weekend, eek! Wish us luck!

Thanks for visiting!