Why Orlando, you ask? Well, we love Orlando mostly because we love Disney World. We are Disney Vacation Club members and we visit at least once a year. Bug-a-Boo also loves it there and we hope that by the time we retire she will be in college and then if we are lucky she will one day have a family of her own and what better place to be for our future grandchildren than Disney World.
Every once in a while Prince Charming and I will check out the real estate websites to see what types of properties are out there and to get an idea of areas, etc. that we may enjoy. While searching one day I saw several properties that people rent out while they are out of town. Some of these properties are heavily decorated in a Disney theme and marketed towards families looking to rent a place for their Disney Vacation. I thought this was a great idea and started dreaming about a magically, tastefully, Disney decorated home in our retirement.
As the days went by I couldn't stop thinking about bringing the magic of Disney into our home and started wondering why I couldn't do it now. If I was going to do this now though it had to fit with what we already had and it needed to be tastefully and subtle. Unfortunately, all I kept finding online was extremely bold Mickey Mouse type stuff. Then one day while on Facebook I saw this post from Disney Pixar (which I am a fan of):
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| It's not the adventure that matters as much as who you spend it with. |
This was the inspiration I needed. Our Family Room is decorated in a travel theme already, so I thought what more perfect movie to use as inspiration than Disney-Pixar's UP!
I started a mad search online for ideas on how to incorporate elements of the film into our decor. I started with artwork. In the film, Ellie paints a mural of Paradise Falls above the fireplace.
We have a large map framed above our fireplace with pins in it marking the places we've been so instead I printed out a 4 x 6 photo of Ellie's mural and it sits on our mantel. We didn't have binoculars but we did have a very old telescope that belong to my grandfather during the war and I found a decorative camera that also fits with the vintage travel theme. In addition, I found an artist on Etsy.com that makes fantastic replicas of Ellie's Grape Soda badge. I have that along with Russell's Wilderness Explorer Assisting the Elderly Badge and I plan to frame them in a small shadow box frame.
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| Our mantle |
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| Ellie's mural |
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| Ellie's Grape Soda Badge and Russell's Assisting the Elderly Badge |
The other artwork I found were in the style of vintage travel posters. There were several out there but I made sure that the four I chose had an element of the movie in it, primarily Carl's house being floated by balloons. I printed them out 5x7 and bought frames at Michael's and hung them up among our personal travel photos.
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| you can see silhouettes of Carl, Russell and Kevin in this print. |
The final two prints I found fit the theme perfectly. Charles Muntz was Carl and Ellie's hero and the reason they wanted to travel to Paradise Falls. Even though he turned out to be the villian in the story I felt like he needed to be represented.
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| Charles Muntz concept art |
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| made by Rogie |
In order to make a Paradise Falls jug I needed the jug. I looked at about 5 different stores and had no luck. Finally, I knew I would have to break down and go to the grocery store. I bought a 1 gallon jug of Carlo Rossi wine. We now have our own Paradise Falls jug.
Another important element of the film is Ellie's Adventure Book. Being a scrapbooker and a traveler I knew that we needed to have a replica of the book that we could fill ourselves. I found an amazing artist at Etsy.com who makes them.
Along with the Adventure Book I also purchased The Art of Up by Tim Hauser and the Wilderness Explorers' Guide by Ellie O'Ryan to use as "coffee table books".
Another simple thing I did was to take some photo coasters that we already had and I printed out stills from the movie.
My final project for the family room involved Russell's Wilderness Explorer Badges. In the movie, Russell has one more badge to earn in order to become a Senior Wilderness Explorer, the Assisting the Elderly badge. It is what brings him to Carl and a huge part of the story.
I knew that I wanted to do some how incorporate the badges into the room but I just couldn't figure out how. I knew how I was going to make them so that they looked real (thanks to Chariots of Ire blog). I purchased 8-1/2"x11" transparent sticker paper by Avery and 1-1/2" felt pads (used on furniture). I printed out the badges, cut them and stuck them to the felt pads. Since the stickers were transparent you are able to see the texture of the felt through them and they really look authentic.
Now I just had to figure out how to display all 47 of them. I was stumped and then one night as I was drifting off to sleep it hit me. We have a storage ottoman in our family room that serves as both a place for Bug-A-Boo's toys and a coffee table. In order to actually use it as a table I had to purchase trays that could sit on top of it. I could line the bottom of the tray with the badges and have a piece of plexiglass cut to set on top. It came out awesome! (You may notice this empty space, that's for my Assisting the Elderly badge) I love it!
I absolutely love the little additions to our family room to bring the love, adventure and magic of UP into our home.
The best part is that nothing is obtrusive. Everything is very subtle and most people probably won't even notice.
Next up...Ratatouille kitchen!
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