It feels like forever since I posted any of my crafts. The truth is, I usually don’t spend much time on crafts in the summer. Warm weather and sunshine seem so rare and precious, I choose them over pretty much everything else. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have any older projects to share! This one came in two parts, and as it often is with my crafts, I started working on it around July last year and then life happened and I got distracted. When I finally completed it, it was… February this year, I think.

Before we get to the project itself, let me just quickly share a little background. As probably many of you did, I picked up some new hobbies and interests over the time spent in lockdowns. One of such new interests are houseplants. I’ve been planning to share a post about all my houseplants for a long time (I went from 3 before covid to almost 50 now), but I haven’t had a chance to get around to doing it yet. This new hobby has spread to other areas of my life though. I have cushions with a botanical print on my sofa, salad spoons in the shape of monstera leaves, curtains with a green leaf print and multiple wall stickers of tropical plants. But apparently, that’s not enough! I had two hooks on the wall above my bed and decided to paint myself some botanical pictures to hang there.

I only have one photo from last summer, when I painted this massive monstera leaf. In case you haven’t spotted yet – I’m by no means a watercolour pro! However, even without great experience and skills, watercolours definitely let you achieve a nice result with minimal effort. Highly recommend to anyone considering painting something for their wall!

The second painting was inspired by my huge Areca Palm. I started by sketching the shape of the leaves and then filling them in with the base colour.

Next, I added more definition to the leaves by adding some darker green to the tips.

Finally, I painted the stem and the picture was finished!

I feel like the pictures would be better if they were a size bigger – they get a bit lost on the wall now, in a bedroom with an exceptionally high ceiling. I might make a bigger version in the future, but I’m happy with these for now! These are a size A3, and getting A2 paper and frames is fairly pricey – not to mention that will my attention span, it would take me like 2 years to actually paint such big pictures, ha!

I took this photo and it’s only now, a few hours later, that I noticed the picture on the right is a bit skewed. Ouch! Sorry to everyone who can only focus on that detail when looking at the photo below, like me. The painting definitely didn’t seem skewed when I looked at it in real life, thousands of times now probably. But then I never actually get to look at them from this perspective (they’re far above my head level). In case you’re about to ask – I corrected it now!

Here’s a little glimpse of how full of plants my flat is, real or fake. Botanical paintings, a ZZ plant on the bedside table and some faux ivy wrapped around the bed frame.

• DIY