Starfish, seaweed, and the marine life of the Salish Sea.

These symbols of the Peninsula ecosystem will adorn the exterior of 7th Haven — a near-finished affordable housing project on Hendricks and Seventh streets funded and managed by Olympic Community Action Programs — and some of Jefferson County’s youngest artists had their hand in decorating the facility’s front entryway.

Kids with the YMCA of Jefferson County’s youth enrichment program recently created personalized sea star mosaics to ornament Peninsula-based and Centrum resident artist Jennifer Kuhns’ kelp forest mural.

Inspired by the delicate relationship between sea stars and kelp forests, Kuhns asked the youngsters to fashion individualized starfish creations to join the front entryway mural, with the kids adding their names and personal touches to the marine invertebrate mosaics.

After all the starfish ornaments are finished, the Peninsula-based artist will start on the second, and larger part of the mural, in which she’ll paint the accompanying kelp forests on parachute fabric to stick onto the wall, Kuhns said.

The kids will also help to paint the kelp forest portion of the mural.

Beyond the sea star and kelp forest mosaic, 7th Haven will host an animal-themed art mural on the west wall of the property. Regional artist Jean Bradbury will paint the piece, which is set to include a wide range of fauna from seals to schools of fish to jellyfish.