How to Paint a Kids Bedroom Wall Mural
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Painting a Kids Bedroom Mural
Have you ever wanted to create a fun, colorful mural for your child's bedroom? Do they love a cartoon character, castles, princesses, space, or animals so much that you want them to give them a cool place to sleep surrounded by those things? It's easier than it may look. This lens is about the mural I painted for my kids' bedroom last Christmas.
Our kids share a fairly large bedroom. I decided for their Christmas present this year (one of them, anyway) I'd make a space theme wall mural for them in their room. In this article, you'll see how I painted this mural with no real experience in painting murals. If you have a little time and some patience, you can paint a mural for your son or daughter too!
Our kids share a fairly large bedroom. I decided for their Christmas present this year (one of them, anyway) I'd make a space theme wall mural for them in their room. In this article, you'll see how I painted this mural with no real experience in painting murals. If you have a little time and some patience, you can paint a mural for your son or daughter too!
Creative for Kids Mural Kits
I first heard of Creative for Kids from my church. They did murals in all the rooms for their Sunday school classes one year, and I asked them about their mural kits. When I looked them up online I found a real variety of mural designs. They're available as a set of transparencies that are shipped to your home or they can be downloaded and printed at home on transparency sheets. There is also an information packet that gives you all the information you need on laying out your design, using the transparency sheets, tips on creating the illusion of depth, choosing accessories and charting your colors. It's a great website. Before You Begin Painting Your Mural
Here are some basic steps to beginning your mural project.
- 1Decide on a theme. You can choose anything that has a lot of colors and that your kids will love. The circus, underwater scape, space, the inside of a princess castle, a pretty garden, anything you can think of.
- 2Find a mural kit. Look online, check out Creative for Kids, or even try a themed coloring book. Any non-complex (preschool) coloring book could be photocopied at home onto a clear transparency film to be projected onto the wall and traced. The kit I used was under $20.
- 3Prep your walls. Clean them, rid them of holes by filling with Spackle. Use painters tape to mask off any areas that you don't want paint on.
- 4Choose some background colors and basic shapes for your background. Keep your background simple. I drew my space swooshes with a pencil to be sure I liked the look before painting.
Painting the Background
The Perfect Background Roller
When painting your background, you'll want to cover a lot of space on the wall with regular wall paint, so a roller works best. Regular sized rollers are a little on the heavy side though to have control to fill in your curved spaces and details. I love using a 6 1/2" long-handled roller to fill in those curvy spaces and not wear my arm out before I get to the fun part of mural painting--the details!
Shur-Line 04920 6-Inch Premium Fabric Mini Roller with 24-Inch Handle
Amazon Price: (as of 06/01/2012)
Lightweight, speedy paint rolling. The perfect roller.
Added Second Background Color
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Lay Out Your Designs
Use your transparencies and your overhead projector to mark out your designs on the walls using a pencil. If you want to move anything around you can. Making objects larger makes them appear closer, making them smaller makes them look farther away. Begin with the larger pieces and add medium sized images and then the smallest. I recommend not drawing on your smaller items until you fill in the larger ones and see what it looks like with the additional colors, you may choose to not add in as many small images once you get the others up on the wall.
See How the Door Frames Were Painted to Extend the Mural
FolkArt Craft Paint for Your Mural Painting
Why I Recommend FolkArt Brand
I read through the information and saw that the artists recommended folkart paint. Even still, I got to the craft store and was sucked in by a half-off sale. I bought half my paints as FolkArt paints to get the right shades I wanted, and half my paints as an off brand. There was a huge difference! The other brands of paints that I tried did not go on as smoothly and did not cover very well. If you choose a darker background color you'll want a smoother formula paint that can cover in one coat, maybe two. Of the paints I tried I would say FolkArt brand was far and above the best performing.
The Perfect Brush
Yes, you'll need more than one brush. I looked all over town for a brush that would work for the majority of my shapes painting. Believe it or not, a 1" brush was about the perfect size for the shapes I was painting. Smaller craft brushes didn't hold enough paint or paint larger spaces very well, and larger brushes were too difficult to control. I highly recommend an angled brush to give you the most control with curved shapes.
NYLON DALE 080210 1 Purdy 1-Inch Nylox Dale Angle Paint Brush
Amazon Price: $3.99 (as of 06/01/2012)
Not too big, not too small, angled for control. The perfect mural-painting brush.
Finishing Your Details and Objects
Now that you have your large and medium sized objects drawn on the wall in pencil, the fun can begin! Here are some steps to finish up your mural.
- 1Begin by painting your large objects. Keep an eye on your color usage. Group your colors on the table together so you can be sure not to put two large yellow objects next to each other, or two large green ones. Try and keep the lights, brights and darks evenly spread around the room.
- 2Use a brush to paint the objects, getting close to your pencil line without covering it.
- 3Paint similar colors at the same time. No one's saying you have to work in a particular order, do what works for you!
- 4Add in second coats of paint wherever needed.
- 5After you're completely done and all your paint is completely dry, outline your objects carefully using a large black marker.
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Space Mural Finished!
The Perfect Outlining Marker
When outlining, you really want a marker that's wide enough to bridge the gaps between the two colors. When you're painting in the lines, it will look sloppy and messy--you'll be amazed at how clean the designs look when outlined. GO SLOW. If you rush this it's difficult to make corrections. In order to see the lines you won't quite cover them up when you paint, so you'll need a heavy duty marker to do your outlining.
Avery Marks-A-Lot Large Chisel Tip Permanent Marker Set, Black, Pack of 2 (18922)
Amazon Price: $1.64 (as of 06/01/2012)
Wide enough, not too wide, draws super even and super smooth on the wall surface. The perfect outlining marker.
Space Signs and Planets
Accessorize Your Mural Theme
Don't forget to accessorize! This adds a lot of fun to the room for your kids. We used toy story themed bedding and some blue rope lights and a space projection clock. The boys loved it! No matter what theme you choose, here are some ideas that can be adapted for the room you choose to do.
Keep Clean with Crafty Aprons!
Spaceships and Planets and Stars!
Passing the Time While You're Painting
I did really enjoy painting for a few days. It's almost meditative to do, sort of relaxing even though you're working hard. In order to pass the time while I was focusing my physical energy on my painting, I focused my mental energy on some audiobooks! I listened to several while I was painting and I can't recommend audio books enough. Sewing, driving, painting, cooking--I listen to audio books all the time.
Does a Mural Look Like More Work Than You Want to Take On?
Here are some alternatives
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What Kind of Mural Would You Have Wanted as a Kid?
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jercow75
Feb 23, 2012 @ 2:34 pm | delete
- Superheroes. No question. A really fun lens. I think I will try this for my youngest son. I need a Cars kit to assist though.
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athomemomblog Oct 2, 2011 @ 6:22 pm | delete
- I wanted to do a firehouse mural on my sons' wall, but their room was too dark for it, so we're waiting until we get to a larger space. I love what you've done with the space theme, it's great!
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cdevries
Aug 2, 2011 @ 4:16 pm | delete
- Murals are easier than they seem - and a lot of fun! I agree with you on angled brushes, though I like 2" wide (depending on the design).
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deanna6812
Jul 6, 2011 @ 9:50 pm | delete
- Very cool! One day when I have children, their room will have a mural, no doubt!
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KM9999999
Jun 23, 2011 @ 12:28 am | delete
- Looks great. Wish I had the artistic talent for that.
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