Panther Room Coming to Life!

After finally getting to A's Mario Kart room, it was time to turn my attention to the football field I had promised to paint in J's room. Yes, Daddy is a Bear's fan and Grandpa is a Raider's fan, but we support our son's choice to pick his own favorite team. The method to his choice? He likes wild cats (we have been studying them, so feel free to ask him about cheetahs, caracals, tigers, leopards, lions...) so he wanted to pick a team that had a cat for their mascot. I must admit, I am slightly relieved he didn't pick the Detroit Lions or Jacksonville Jaguars. North Carolina has family connections and the Panther's colors are black and turquoise...not bad as team colors go.

Now, if I had this to do over again? I would have used 1 1/2 inch tape to make lines on the white primed wall and then painted the green over the top. But, since I hadn't thought of that until now, I had no choice but to paint the white lines over the green. It meant marking off both sides of the 1 1/2 inch lines, making the corners sharp and applying three coats of white enamel.

I repeated the process for the yard lines, all nine of them (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10). Then came the fun part! Applying the decals we had purchased six months ago when planning was first underway for his room. Each end zone has the teams name and a panther head. The fifty yard line has a large panther head that reaches past the forty yard lines on each side. He had such fun helping mommy paint and put of the decals, he even painted the yardage himself. That proud smile makes it all worth it!

Now, mommy just has to paint the accompanying score board above his bed and figure out where to put the rest of the decals!