Mario-themed Rock Climbing Wall

jamsomito said:

Painting the scene

Next up was finalizing the scene and finding the right colors. I drew up a more scaled version of what I was looking for - found out later I messed up the hole locations I was basing everything off of, but at least having major objects to scale was really helpful for laying it out on the wall.

Then I had to figure out colors. I found a couple great references. First, I found actual sprite info from the games that I then took into photoshop to get an RGB code for each color I was looking for.

SMW sprites I found here: https://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/smarioworld/

Then I found another great resource that will tell you which color name to order for a specific color in any particular brand of paint. Check it out!

RGB paint color looker-upper: https://www.easyrgb.com/en/match.php#inputFORM

Sadly I couldn't find exact matches for nearly any of these. Also, I figured I'd probably need a quart of each, and the cost was adding up fast. So I got as close as I could and eliminated a couple. In the end, I wish I would have gone with a little less contrast between the two dirt colors. But here's where I ended up. I decided to go with Behr Ultra interior eggshell because Home Depot is right around the corner from me. Turns out they had to ship everything but white anyway… ugh, oh well. Here's where I landed:

Color name: R, G, B - closest Behr Ultra color name
Light green (bush): 0, 248, 0 - Lawn Party
Medium green (grass): 0, 200, 0 - took this one out to save cost
Dark green (dark border on bush): 0, 128, 0 - Luck of the Irish
Dark dirt: 200, 152, 88 - Burnt Pumpkin
Light dirt: 224, 192, 80 - Little Sun Dress
Black
White

So with that all out of the way, it was time to get it on the wall! Started with some drawing on the wall, which the boys loved, obviously. I took some of the sprites from the first link and edited them down in photoshop to make them perfect 8" x 8" tiles. Some of them I just referenced and others I actually cut out for texture patterns and shapes.

This is where I realized I goofed my hole locations on my scale drawing. I had to re-draw the grass platforms.

Then it was time to paint. I knew this going in, but never trust a comment on the paint can like "covers in 1 coat!" It's a lie. A whopper even. Each color needed 2 coats. The dark green needed 3.

For the clouds, we decided to try tape to make the details square like the pixels in the game. It was definitely time consuming, but the result was pretty good.

Lastly I finished up with a black outline over everything. It was also pretty time consuming and difficult. It's not like drawing a straight line with pencil and paper. You need to keep lifting the brush and refilling, and bristles don't always cooperate. The lines ended up a bit imperfect, we'll say, but I actually kind of like it! It adds to the cartoon-like look of everything.

Lastly, I added a little mole hole from the game for some giggles.

In all, it took probably 20 hours of painting. This was a huge task, particularly because this is in my middle-son's bedroom and he still naps. So I had the time right after he woke up before he got too wild for open paint cans in the room, lunch time when he was out, or on the weekends, right after nap time, again before he got too wild for open paint cans. I couldn't do it before he went to bed because I guarantee he would have smeared anything wet all over the room. So… it took quite some time. But I'm thrilled we got there! Next steps are some decals of mario figures, blocks, and a couple other special extras to top it off. We're getting so close!

Click to expand...

jamsomito said:

Painting the scene

Next up was finalizing the scene and finding the right colors. I drew up a more scaled version of what I was looking for - found out later I messed up the hole locations I was basing everything off of, but at least having major objects to scale was really helpful for laying it out on the wall.

Then I had to figure out colors. I found a couple great references. First, I found actual sprite info from the games that I then took into photoshop to get an RGB code for each color I was looking for.

SMW sprites I found here: https://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/smarioworld/

Then I found another great resource that will tell you which color name to order for a specific color in any particular brand of paint. Check it out!

RGB paint color looker-upper: https://www.easyrgb.com/en/match.php#inputFORM

Sadly I couldn't find exact matches for nearly any of these. Also, I figured I'd probably need a quart of each, and the cost was adding up fast. So I got as close as I could and eliminated a couple. In the end, I wish I would have gone with a little less contrast between the two dirt colors. But here's where I ended up. I decided to go with Behr Ultra interior eggshell because Home Depot is right around the corner from me. Turns out they had to ship everything but white anyway… ugh, oh well. Here's where I landed:

Color name: R, G, B - closest Behr Ultra color name
Light green (bush): 0, 248, 0 - Lawn Party
Medium green (grass): 0, 200, 0 - took this one out to save cost
Dark green (dark border on bush): 0, 128, 0 - Luck of the Irish
Dark dirt: 200, 152, 88 - Burnt Pumpkin
Light dirt: 224, 192, 80 - Little Sun Dress
Black
White

So with that all out of the way, it was time to get it on the wall! Started with some drawing on the wall, which the boys loved, obviously. I took some of the sprites from the first link and edited them down in photoshop to make them perfect 8" x 8" tiles. Some of them I just referenced and others I actually cut out for texture patterns and shapes.

This is where I realized I goofed my hole locations on my scale drawing. I had to re-draw the grass platforms.

Then it was time to paint. I knew this going in, but never trust a comment on the paint can like "covers in 1 coat!" It's a lie. A whopper even. Each color needed 2 coats. The dark green needed 3.

For the clouds, we decided to try tape to make the details square like the pixels in the game. It was definitely time consuming, but the result was pretty good.

Lastly I finished up with a black outline over everything. It was also pretty time consuming and difficult. It's not like drawing a straight line with pencil and paper. You need to keep lifting the brush and refilling, and bristles don't always cooperate. The lines ended up a bit imperfect, we'll say, but I actually kind of like it! It adds to the cartoon-like look of everything.

Lastly, I added a little mole hole from the game for some giggles.

In all, it took probably 20 hours of painting. This was a huge task, particularly because this is in my middle-son's bedroom and he still naps. So I had the time right after he woke up before he got too wild for open paint cans in the room, lunch time when he was out, or on the weekends, right after nap time, again before he got too wild for open paint cans. I couldn't do it before he went to bed because I guarantee he would have smeared anything wet all over the room. So… it took quite some time. But I'm thrilled we got there! Next steps are some decals of mario figures, blocks, and a couple other special extras to top it off. We're getting so close!

Click to expand...

jamsomito said:

Painting the scene

Next up was finalizing the scene and finding the right colors. I drew up a more scaled version of what I was looking for - found out later I messed up the hole locations I was basing everything off of, but at least having major objects to scale was really helpful for laying it out on the wall.

Then I had to figure out colors. I found a couple great references. First, I found actual sprite info from the games that I then took into photoshop to get an RGB code for each color I was looking for.

SMW sprites I found here: https://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/smarioworld/

Then I found another great resource that will tell you which color name to order for a specific color in any particular brand of paint. Check it out!

RGB paint color looker-upper: https://www.easyrgb.com/en/match.php#inputFORM

Sadly I couldn't find exact matches for nearly any of these. Also, I figured I'd probably need a quart of each, and the cost was adding up fast. So I got as close as I could and eliminated a couple. In the end, I wish I would have gone with a little less contrast between the two dirt colors. But here's where I ended up. I decided to go with Behr Ultra interior eggshell because Home Depot is right around the corner from me. Turns out they had to ship everything but white anyway… ugh, oh well. Here's where I landed:

Color name: R, G, B - closest Behr Ultra color name
Light green (bush): 0, 248, 0 - Lawn Party
Medium green (grass): 0, 200, 0 - took this one out to save cost
Dark green (dark border on bush): 0, 128, 0 - Luck of the Irish
Dark dirt: 200, 152, 88 - Burnt Pumpkin
Light dirt: 224, 192, 80 - Little Sun Dress
Black
White

So with that all out of the way, it was time to get it on the wall! Started with some drawing on the wall, which the boys loved, obviously. I took some of the sprites from the first link and edited them down in photoshop to make them perfect 8" x 8" tiles. Some of them I just referenced and others I actually cut out for texture patterns and shapes.

This is where I realized I goofed my hole locations on my scale drawing. I had to re-draw the grass platforms.

Then it was time to paint. I knew this going in, but never trust a comment on the paint can like "covers in 1 coat!" It's a lie. A whopper even. Each color needed 2 coats. The dark green needed 3.

For the clouds, we decided to try tape to make the details square like the pixels in the game. It was definitely time consuming, but the result was pretty good.

Lastly I finished up with a black outline over everything. It was also pretty time consuming and difficult. It's not like drawing a straight line with pencil and paper. You need to keep lifting the brush and refilling, and bristles don't always cooperate. The lines ended up a bit imperfect, we'll say, but I actually kind of like it! It adds to the cartoon-like look of everything.

Lastly, I added a little mole hole from the game for some giggles.

In all, it took probably 20 hours of painting. This was a huge task, particularly because this is in my middle-son's bedroom and he still naps. So I had the time right after he woke up before he got too wild for open paint cans in the room, lunch time when he was out, or on the weekends, right after nap time, again before he got too wild for open paint cans. I couldn't do it before he went to bed because I guarantee he would have smeared anything wet all over the room. So… it took quite some time. But I'm thrilled we got there! Next steps are some decals of mario figures, blocks, and a couple other special extras to top it off. We're getting so close!

Click to expand...

jamsomito said:

Ideas for future additions

Having way too much fun with this. The boys and I have way more ideas to keep building on this. Thought I would share the ideas here to document for possible use later, and see if it sparks any other imaginative ideas!

Ideas for future consideration:

1. Custom holds! This is an easy one. With all the t-nuts in the wall already, all I need to do is make a bolt hole in basically anything and mount it to the wall. An easy one would be a "shelf" hold, say 2" square cross section with a juice-groove-like indent on the sides to hold onto. Thinking anywhere from 12 to 48" long. This could be a ledge by the clouds or a vertical on the sides of the hills, or heck even mounted to studs off the side of the rock wall. Lots of ideas here to keep things interesting.

2. Kerf-bending plywood mario pipes! Saw this calculator here: https://www.blocklayer.com/kerf-spacingeng.aspx. The boys have 2 laundry hampers next to the wall and I thought why not make them mario pipes! The boys could each pick their favorite color pipe. They might be kind of heavy to haul to the washing machine, so if that's the case I thought they could be permanently mounted as a pass-through horizontally under the wall to double as a step-off point (questionable safety here though if they fall on it), or off to the side for more imaginative play. Something they could fit in like a life size mario pipe would be so awesome.

Saw this painted trash can for the same use, but I think the boys would break these so that's why I was thinking kerf-bent plywood.

3. Like I mentioned in post #1, they love pretending to save the princess from bowsers castle and bringing her back to the princesses castle. So, maybe print some decals of a bowser and princess castle and put them on either side of the rock wall for more imaginative play. I thought about painting a simple scene with a path leading up to each. Might be a bit more work than I want though.

4. Green mario vines hanging from the ceiling to swing from. Dye some thick rope green, maybe sew on some leaves. Even one near the corner of the wall would be cool, but maybe multiples would be fun.

5. Eventually I plan to build the boys bunk beds for in here. Most rock holds I have left over are red and yellow, so make it bowser themed and have a lava theme rock wall going up to the top bunk. The bottom bunk could be cave themed.

6. Slide from top bunk, but exits through a mario pipe! Kind of like the wood whisperers bunk idea here: https://thewoodwhisperer.com/videos/bunk-bed-with-slide/

That's what I came up with for now… If YOU have any crazy ideas, let me know!

Click to expand...

jamsomito said:

Ideas for future additions

Having way too much fun with this. The boys and I have way more ideas to keep building on this. Thought I would share the ideas here to document for possible use later, and see if it sparks any other imaginative ideas!

Ideas for future consideration:

1. Custom holds! This is an easy one. With all the t-nuts in the wall already, all I need to do is make a bolt hole in basically anything and mount it to the wall. An easy one would be a "shelf" hold, say 2" square cross section with a juice-groove-like indent on the sides to hold onto. Thinking anywhere from 12 to 48" long. This could be a ledge by the clouds or a vertical on the sides of the hills, or heck even mounted to studs off the side of the rock wall. Lots of ideas here to keep things interesting.

2. Kerf-bending plywood mario pipes! Saw this calculator here: https://www.blocklayer.com/kerf-spacingeng.aspx. The boys have 2 laundry hampers next to the wall and I thought why not make them mario pipes! The boys could each pick their favorite color pipe. They might be kind of heavy to haul to the washing machine, so if that's the case I thought they could be permanently mounted as a pass-through horizontally under the wall to double as a step-off point (questionable safety here though if they fall on it), or off to the side for more imaginative play. Something they could fit in like a life size mario pipe would be so awesome.

Saw this painted trash can for the same use, but I think the boys would break these so that's why I was thinking kerf-bent plywood.

3. Like I mentioned in post #1, they love pretending to save the princess from bowsers castle and bringing her back to the princesses castle. So, maybe print some decals of a bowser and princess castle and put them on either side of the rock wall for more imaginative play. I thought about painting a simple scene with a path leading up to each. Might be a bit more work than I want though.

4. Green mario vines hanging from the ceiling to swing from. Dye some thick rope green, maybe sew on some leaves. Even one near the corner of the wall would be cool, but maybe multiples would be fun.

5. Eventually I plan to build the boys bunk beds for in here. Most rock holds I have left over are red and yellow, so make it bowser themed and have a lava theme rock wall going up to the top bunk. The bottom bunk could be cave themed.

6. Slide from top bunk, but exits through a mario pipe! Kind of like the wood whisperers bunk idea here: https://thewoodwhisperer.com/videos/bunk-bed-with-slide/

That's what I came up with for now… If YOU have any crazy ideas, let me know!

Click to expand...

jamsomito said:

Ideas for future additions

Having way too much fun with this. The boys and I have way more ideas to keep building on this. Thought I would share the ideas here to document for possible use later, and see if it sparks any other imaginative ideas!

Ideas for future consideration:

1. Custom holds! This is an easy one. With all the t-nuts in the wall already, all I need to do is make a bolt hole in basically anything and mount it to the wall. An easy one would be a "shelf" hold, say 2" square cross section with a juice-groove-like indent on the sides to hold onto. Thinking anywhere from 12 to 48" long. This could be a ledge by the clouds or a vertical on the sides of the hills, or heck even mounted to studs off the side of the rock wall. Lots of ideas here to keep things interesting.

2. Kerf-bending plywood mario pipes! Saw this calculator here: https://www.blocklayer.com/kerf-spacingeng.aspx. The boys have 2 laundry hampers next to the wall and I thought why not make them mario pipes! The boys could each pick their favorite color pipe. They might be kind of heavy to haul to the washing machine, so if that's the case I thought they could be permanently mounted as a pass-through horizontally under the wall to double as a step-off point (questionable safety here though if they fall on it), or off to the side for more imaginative play. Something they could fit in like a life size mario pipe would be so awesome.

Saw this painted trash can for the same use, but I think the boys would break these so that's why I was thinking kerf-bent plywood.

3. Like I mentioned in post #1, they love pretending to save the princess from bowsers castle and bringing her back to the princesses castle. So, maybe print some decals of a bowser and princess castle and put them on either side of the rock wall for more imaginative play. I thought about painting a simple scene with a path leading up to each. Might be a bit more work than I want though.

4. Green mario vines hanging from the ceiling to swing from. Dye some thick rope green, maybe sew on some leaves. Even one near the corner of the wall would be cool, but maybe multiples would be fun.

5. Eventually I plan to build the boys bunk beds for in here. Most rock holds I have left over are red and yellow, so make it bowser themed and have a lava theme rock wall going up to the top bunk. The bottom bunk could be cave themed.

6. Slide from top bunk, but exits through a mario pipe! Kind of like the wood whisperers bunk idea here: https://thewoodwhisperer.com/videos/bunk-bed-with-slide/

That's what I came up with for now… If YOU have any crazy ideas, let me know!

Click to expand...

Don t tell the wife. That s a discussion for another day, hahaha.
- jamsomito

Click to expand...