How to Paint a Mural for Your Child’s Bedroom

child's bedroom mural

Painting a mural for your child’s bedroom can create a unique environment for your son or daughter. The choices for mural topics are endless. My wife and I have painted murals in two bedrooms in our house. If you would like to do the same, please consider the following tips based on our experience.

Tip1: Choose a Theme for the Mural

Themes can range from bumblebees to trains to Disney Princesses. The sky is the limit! However, when painting a mural for your child’s bedroom, consider how long the child will enjoy the theme. Your five-year-old daughter may love Little Einsteins now, but will she two years from now?

When our daughter was born, we painted a jungle theme for her bedroom, complete with a pink elephant and a yellow giraffe on the walls. Our daughter is almost four and still loves her bedroom. We just finished another mural of Mulan in the spare bedroom because we are expecting another daughter in three months.

Tip 2: Get your Equipment

Painting a mural for your child’s bedroom is so much easier when you have access to an overhead projector. Using an overhead projector allows you to draw your mural on a smaller scale, like 8 ½ inches by 11 inches, which is much easier than drawing on a wall free hand. Also, using an overhead projector allows you to just print a template off the internet, if you find something you like.

I am a fairly artistic individual, but when painting a mural in my daughter’s bedroom, it still would have been difficult for me to get the proportions correct when drawing large figures on the walls. Using an overheard projector allows you to get these proportions correct and also allows you to appropriately space out figures, trees, and other objects on the walls.

Tip 3: Trace in Pencil

Yes, it is quicker to just start painting, but my tip is to trace in pencil first. This is time consuming, but so is painting a mural for your child’s bedroom in the first place. If you wanted to save time, you would have just bought some border and some large wall clings and called it a day instead of spending hours working on a mural.

Tip 4: Pick your Paint

Many different paints can work when painting a mural for your child’s bedroom. Much of the decision boils down to personal preference. We have used both Dutch Boy Dirt Fighter acrylic latex paint and Apple Barrel acrylic paint. Both paints applied well, but they required two coats, as expected. We used a variety of brushes, including traditional brushes, rollers and sponge brushes. My tip is to buy a variety pack, especially if your mural includes very intricate details.

Tip 5: Outline Correctly

Unless you are going for a bold, comic-book type mural (think Superman bashing through a wall), do not outline the characters and details in black. The outlines will be too harsh. For a softer, more organic feel, mix the color with a little bit of black.

In our daughter’s bedroom, the pink elephant is outlined in a darker shade of pink. The yellow and orange giraffe is outlined in a dark orange. This technique works with all but the darkest colors. With very dark greens, browns and blues, you may need to use black to outline the details.

I hope you consider these tips when painting a mural for your child’s bedroom. Your child will appreciate a special bedroom of her very own!

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