I finally convinced my husband to attempt some simple wall murals using DIY Paint! I figured the best place to start would be our covered outdoor patio because it is already my favorite place to unwind. I come out here with the latest copy of The Turquoise Iris Journal and curl up in the warm sunshine with a big glass of iced tea. I have never painted a mural before so I knew I needed to start with something simple. To me, flowers and leaves are just about the most beautiful and easy things to paint so that gave me a place to begin sourcing design inspiration.
Simple Wall Murals with DIY Paint
I’ve been thinking about turning this space into my personal paradise in the heart of Oklahoma ever since I painted a tropical-inspired secretary desk for the Journal’s fourth volume, so I shared some inspirational photos with My Creative Connection membership group and asked for their input. Once I showed Matt how many people liked my mural idea, he agreed that it wouldn’t be too much work to tackle over the course of a few afternoons.
Painting Simple Wall Murals Using DIY Paint
To get started with this easy wall mural, choose your DIY Paint color scheme. I chose well-balanced complementary colors in greens, pinks, blues, and oranges to match some of the existing decor I already had.
DIY Paint Colors
All of these paint colors are from DIY Paint, the highly-pigmented, clay-based product I use for just about everything!
When I’m using DIY Paint on furniture I always use a topcoat to protect it from wear. In this case, I knew I would be painting on a covered exterior wall and that the clay in the paint would cure to our finish, so I opted not to use a top coat. If your mural will be on an exterior wall that is not covered, then you will want to look into using a clear varnish to preserve your art when it is exposed to the elements.
DIY Trick for Outlining Simple Wall Murals
I am not a professional mural artist, so I needed a really fast and easy way to get my designs up on the wall. I knew I was going for a leafy, tropical theme so I collected some fake plant stems to inspire the right leafy shapes of for some suuuuper simple wall murals. Matt used a yardstick to make a DIY oversized protractor (which I later learned is called a “pantograph” when used for drawing) for tracing the outlines of the leaves at a larger scale to fit the wall! We used a chalk paint pen to do the outlining because it was easy to wash right off the wall if we made a mistake.
Matt’s tool helped me with some of the more complicated leaf shapes but I wouldn’t say it’s necessary for the project. After tracing a handful of shapes before painting, I decided to free-hand a few big leaves just to see how they turned out… And it was great! Tropical leaves like these have very forgiving shapes and are relatively easy to paint, so feel free to skip the tracing and dive right into outlining your shapes.
The outdoor wall we painted for this mural is made of a type of faux-stucco and the rich pigments in the DIY Paint melted into the exterior beautifully. I was absolutely hooked by the very first brushstroke!!! This was such a simple and fun project that I’m already planning more wall murals using DIY Paint. In fact, I think I hear a wall in my family room calling my name…
Did you know? Members of my Creative Connection can watch the entire tutorial!
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