An Orchid Reward for a Garage Door Mural

Last fall, we painted the exterior of our 80’s ranch house in the last mild window of dry weather before the rainy season started. My Pirate did all of the heavy lifting and I followed my lifting limit at the time of 15 pounds. My surgeon has warned me that lifting anything heavier than that means certain death. Great.

When we reached the garage door, I felt tempted to paint a mural on it. I’ve always wanted to add a mural to our garage door and in August I had added a 9 koi fish hopscotch on our front sidewalk. My Pirate looked mortified at the idea of the garage door mural. And I knew that I didn’t have much time to get it done and that the ladder was too heavy for me to move alone. But, after a couple of days of brainstorming I decided to trust myself and try it. I’m grateful that I did.

I constructed a life size cut out of Bella’s profile using a combination of her measurements with a projector image from a photo for her profile. I might add her somewhere else in the garden, I don’t know yet. Then, I hand drew all of the rest in about fifteen minutes with a sharpie pen. I painted the mural with exterior house paint from Sherwinn-Williams. I used their Latitude series because it was later in the season and it worked in cooler temperatures and dried faster allowing me 2 coats a day.

Here’s Bella looking out through a six pane window at the Tetrapanax papriferus ‘Steroidal Giant’ and a bomarea inspired vine in the garden.

It took almost 40 hours to complete due to the wooden garage door absorbing so much house paint. Looking back, I would have added a second coat of primer before starting the mural. It would have saved me hours and many coats of paint.

(The biggest surprise of this project is how much the neighbors and pedestrians love it. We’ve received so many compliments. So, if you’re thinking about adding one to your garden, I would. And I’m happy to answer your questions about it.)

To reward myself on the completed mural, I went to Trader Joe’s and filled a shopping cart with orchids. And that purchase kicked off the great indoor plant hunt that has filled this winter. Five of those orchids planted in the chunkiest mix are still blooming and that observation has led me to wanting to learn about making my own soil mixes. My orchids are about to receive a glow up of a new soil mix and terracotta pots. My Pirate hates the look of terracotta indoors, so we’ll see what solutions I can come up with. Maybe aging the pots outside first? Any suggestions? 

Thanks for stopping by!