Tired of Plain, White Walls?

Well, I was!

 The bathroom in our home is one of the most used rooms. Perhaps it is leftovers from when we were kids. I remember that if I was fussy, cranky, tired, or not feeling well, mom would run a tub. I did the same with my kids. That perception, of the bathroom being the place to go to heal, has stayed with me even into adulthood.

The bathroom is the one place where I can get away from it all. I run a hot tub, turn off the lights, and crawl into the wonderful healing properties of water. Water is a very important part of my life. Whether it is the ocean where I often like to just sit and listen to the power of the waves breaking on shore, or a pristine stream or lake, I need to be around and in water.

  The ocean is my power place. It seems to have a pull that calls to me, perhaps remnants of the voices of the primal earth calling me back home. For whatever reason, the bathroom holds a special place in our lifestyle. Since I don't get to go to the ocean as often as possible, I decided to create an ocean in my bathroom.

  I had read a study which noted that watching fish in an aquarium could lower blood pressure. I also remember the wonderfully amazing experience of the giant aquarium at the Ripley's Aquarium in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina where you actually walk underneath a glass bubble while the fish swim all around you. It is like being in among the creatures of the ocean. I would create me a living ocean right in my bathroom

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I used natural sea sponges to create the living coral reef. It was fun making cave-like entrances for the fish to swim in and out of. I used several shades of color, experimenting as I went to get the effect I wanted. That was the easy part. The hard part was the drudge stuff like taping around the tub and area where the tank would be. I am afraid I didn't do that in some places and paid for it later with having extra work to do to touch up the areas and make clean edges where the edges would be.

The seaweed was a bit harder. The shading to make each strand look like it was undulating along with the ebb and flow of the tides took some time. I just remembered that darker colors were in the shadowed areas and lighter ones where the light landed.

At the point I was read to add the fish, I spent a lot of time doing research and looking at fish pictures. I decided that, as talented as I was, I didn't feel comfortable hand painting the fish. I wanted them to look as natural and real as possible. After studying the problem for a few weeks I hit on a solution I think is grand. Fabric! I found several bolts of fabric that had fish on them. One bolt was sharks and dolphins. Another was tropical fish. I simply bought a yard of each kind of fabric, 4 styles in all, and busied myself cutting out the fish. I used all shapes and sizes and tried to get them in natural settings. I found sea horses, all kinds of marine life to add to my collection.

The colors, on the picture directly to the right, are true colors. This is just about what they looked like in real life.

When I was done cutting them out, I bought a bottle of decoupage glue and went to work gluing them on in various places. I used a damp cloth to smooth out the air bubbles and to wipe the excess glue from around the appliqué. I would rinse my rag and wipe several times.

The light from the window created unusual light spots that looked just like the natural sunlight streaming down from above in the shallow areas of the coral reefs where they are close to the surface. As you can see in this picture (above right), a sand shark is swimming in through a narrow opening in the coral. A clown fish is disappearing behind a strand of seaweed. A dolphin and baby are frolicking in the surf and a great white, way off in the distance, swims alone. The light would change depending on where the sun was coming through the window. Sometimes it came through the skylight. The scene was always changing, just like the natural ocean.

Unfortunately, I did not get to fully complete the mural in the way I would have liked. We sold the house shortly after getting to this point and I was forced to leave it just as it was. However, I am very pleased with the results and plan to do it again in the final home we plan on building for retirement. In fact, I plan on doing walls all over the house...some with tropical themes, some with garden themes. I have fallen in love with wall murals.

This project was something I could do a little bit at a time when I was in the mood. I never worked on it more than 30 or 45 minutes at a time. I would leave it, then go back to it another time when the mood struck. That way, It remained a labor of love instead of something I needed to get done.

Duller colors will cut down the shine from the lighting if that is something that bothers you. I am planning on putting on a clear protective sealer coat when I am done.