To give the alcove a better sense of space, I framed the archway by painting two trees. After painting the trunks and branches, I then used a stencil I got from Michaels to do the leaves using various shades of green. We’re quite happy with how they turned out–originally I thought about buying vinyl stickers from Amazon to do something similar, but all the walls in this house are textured and such things do not apparently stick very well to uneven surfaces.
Then there was the little table I use for the light, Sonos unit, and the tray with which I ferry their food bowls to and from the kitchen. Using the same paint I used for the trees, I spiffed it up a bit. (We got the table as part of the sale of the house–it was one of the four things we asked to be included with the house, as I wanted it for just this purpose. It was in a forgotten corner of what is now Agent Smith’s office when we looked at the house.)
The lovely blinds I ordered from Blinds.com arrived with simple plastic cleats, which you wind the cords around. I wasn’t happy with them, so I started scouring the interwebs for other options. I found a place called ChicCleats.com which, as luck would have it, had the most perfect cleats on clearance, so I ordered three and installed them once they arrived. They are a great extra touch and it’s easy to wrap the cord around them to prevent the boys from trying to maim the pulls–sharp beaks can do much damage.
Just a few days after finishing the room, their new cages arrived. We’d ordered them in September from Animal Environments. These replaced the twenty-year-old California Cages–one of which is now their outdoor cage, so the boys can get to know the scrub jays, mockingbirds and squirrels.
Finally here are some shots of the finished space and a short video complete with one of Thy’s preferred music tracks playing in the background.
Oh, and like the last time I painted, my desire to make things tidy kicked in and I ended up with this:
