Our boys love history. I think it is their favorite subject. This year, we are taking our study of Medieval times to the next level. Both of our older boys decided to forfeit birthday parties and gifts in order to receive sweet new room decor. We are turning their tiny lair into a royal castle.

Painting your child’s room like a stone castle isn’t that difficult, actually. I mean, it is a lot of work, but it’s easier than you might think. Here is how we are doing it, although we are not quite finished.

• First we painted a medium-brownish-grey base coat. 
• Next we outlined stones with chalk, maintaining a somewhat natural and non-uniform look. 
• Then, using 1 and 2 inch foam brushes, we painted in each of the stones using a light grey (medium-grey mixed with white) and a darker grey (all of these in the same grey family). In each stone, we used light grey in the upper and right quadrant as well as in the middle. We used the dark grey to create shadowy effects in the bottom and left quadrants and also toward the middle. 
• We are finishing each square by blotching what we have painted with wadded up plastic grocery bags. This is a messy job!

We are obviously not done yet. We will have to touch up the “mortar” with our base color paint. Lastly we will let it all dry completely and wash off any remaining visible chalk marks. Then we can begin the next step in the process.

You may look at this and think that one might begin to feel closed-in with these stone walls. But we will be breaking them up with wall decor.

Right now Ikea has some really cute “wall torches” in stock. At our local resale store we found plastic silver-coated chargers which we will place right behind each torch so that the light reflects off of it and creates even more light. I’ll let you know how this works out! In addition to the torches we have found some neat medieval style tapestries and banners. We plan to hang two shields as well.

The other day we came across a very special find: a replica of William Wallace’s sword, vastly marked down to a price that was actually affordable. (Don’t worry, it will be horizontally mounted over their closet far out of their reach!) We removed the closet doors and will hang royal red curtains (another fabulous sale find at 60% off!) that will match their window curtains, both of which will be drawn back with braided gold tassels which I found for a fairly cheap price at our local fabric store.

Have you ever thought of taking your history lessons to the extreme? How did you do it?

Nan is the sassy wife of a hot reformed pastor. She’s an American expat living in Canada. Her four sons make life like a veritable lunchbox. She blogs regularly at Life is Like a Lunchbox