How to paint a DIY Wall Mural for Beginners

Full Disclosure: This was my first time painting a DIY wall mural! As a kid, my mom painted murals on our bedroom walls, and she’s part of the reason I knew I could do it and wanted to try it myself. This tutorial is truly from the beginner standpoint. So, if you’ve never painted a mural before, you’re in the right place! ?

Affiliate Disclosure: I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website. 

DIY Wall Mural Materials Needed:

• Measuring Tape
• Paint (Acrylic or latex wall paint)
• Small Paintbrush
• Optional: Paint Pen instead of paint and brush (good for small lines and details)
• Printable Projector Sheets
• A projector or homemade projector

 

1. Measure Your Wall

Before doing anything, you’ll need to measure the height and width of your wall area for your DIY wall mural. This will determine the size and dimensions needed for the design you choose. This wall is at the end of our long hallway and is just under 9ft tall and 3 ft wide.

2. Choose Your Mural Design

Design Your Own Mural

After considering sharpie walls, patterned stencils, and wallpaper, I decided painting a DIY wall mural would be a fun project to try! For those that don’t know, I have a background in marketing, which includes lots of experience working with various graphic design software. So, after finding inspiration from Alli K Design, I looked up a quick how-to and started designing on my laptop based on this tutorial.

Find an Existing Mural Design

Of course, this tutorial is for beginners, so I don’t expect you to design your own mural. Instead, what I’d recommend is to find a design you like. I have some free printable art you could use (download here) . You could also find a royalty free images, patterns, or buy a design. If you’re a beginner, I would aim for a simple design with no more than 2 colors. This will make it much easier to transfer and paint onto your wall.

Make Sure the Design Fits Your Wall

You’ll want to make sure your design fits the wall you’re planning to paint. Since I designed my own mural, I designed it to fit the exact dimensions of the wall. If using an existing mural design, you can adjust the size before printing and you’ll also be able to adjust the overall size by placing the projector closer or further away from the wall.

Along with the size of the design, you’ll also want to consider whether you want the mural to touch the edges of the wall or not. Since I wanted my design to be very organic and free-flowing, I kept some space around the edges of the wall, including both sides, top, and bottom.

3. Clean and/or Paint Your Wall

Before transferring your mural design onto the wall, make sure your wall is clean! Ours had a fresh coat of paint on it, so I didn’t need to worry about this. If you have the option to give the wall a fresh coat of paint before doing your mural, I’d definitely recommend it so your mural has the best opportunity to shine. However, if do not want to paint your wall, I would recommend wiping it down with TSP beforehand to remove any dirt and grime.

4. Transfer Your Design to the Wall

You have 2 options as far as transferring your design to the wall for your DIY Wall Mural:

• Buy/borrow a projector (recommended)
• Make your own projector like I did (not so recommended)

Once I finalized my design, I had to find a way to transfer it to the wall. Although I could’ve had a custom wall vinyl cut, or made custom wallpaper, part of me really wanted to paint it on. So, I looked up how to make a homemade projector with some simple items and tried it out.

Making a Homemade Projector for a DIY Wall Mural

This is where I ran into the most issues. Simple online tutorials will have you believe that you can take a box, cut out an opening for the design, add a light source, point it toward your wall, and VOILA! While this will give you some sort of outline of your design, it’s so blurry up close that you hardly make out anything more than a vague shadow. That’s not easy to trace!

My husband suggested that I use a magnifying glass to magnify the design and make it clearer. This idea was GOLD. Using the magnifying glass made it look perfect on the wall! However, it also flipped the design upside down. You’d think I could just turn the design upside down and it’d be correct on the wall, but that just made it more complicated! To make the image clear at the correct orientation and size, I would’ve needed to have a 2^nd magnifying glass to reverse the image. Of course, I was antsy to get to work, so I tried using my phone flashlight instead of a real flashlight, and that made the image just clear enough to make out the different lines.

*If I were to do this again, I would find a real projector to borrow and use that. It’d be way easier! However, if you want to try the homemade projector method, below is a simple how-to.

How to Make a Homemade Projector:

• Print your design onto a printable transparent sheet. This will maintain the details and sharpness of the design.
• Take a larger sized box and cut out an opening just big enough for the design.
• Add a light source inside the box to project the image onto the wall. *Note: Not all light sources will produce the same result, so test them out and choose the one that provides the clearest image (for me, this was my phone flashlight).
• Focus the image using two magnifying glasses (this may take some adjusting to get it to the correct size on the wall). Why two? One will make it clear, but flip the image. Two will keep it clear and flip the image back to the correct orientation (I believe). *Note: I didn’t have two magnifying glasses to try this, but I’m pretty sure that’s how overhead projectors work. If you end up trying this, let me know! I’d love to hear how it worked for you.

Trace Your Mural Design onto the Wall

Now it’s time to trace the image onto the wall with a pencil! Since my homemade projector wasn’t as clear as intended, I used the vague image on the wall as a reference for the size and placement. Then, with my mural design in hand, I sketched the image on freehand. If you’ve ever used the grid method, this worked similarly but with more specific references. It’s a good idea to take a step back to look at the wall as you go to make sure it’s turning out how you want. Since I had never done a DIY wall mural before, I doubted it would turn out while transferring the design, but once I took a step back, I was pleasantly surprised!

5. Paint Your DIY Wall Mural

This part can be a bit intimidating if you’ve never painted a mural before, but it’s one of those things that you just need to go for it and trust that it’ll all come together.

When I painted the first flower on the wall, I started from the center out (exactly as I originally drew the design). However, that made it difficult to paint the left side of the flower since I am right-handed. The rest of the mural, I painted from the top left corner to the bottom right corner. This allowed me to rest my hand against the wall for balance without fear of smearing around wet paint!

I used the leftover flat black paint from our bedroom wall and did one initial coat, then touched up any areas I felt needed more solidity. I liked the more organic look of the paintbrush strokes, so I didn’t fill it in perfectly. That left some nice dimension that’s seen up close, but it looks solid when standing back. Depending on your design and personal style, you may want more solid lines or want to keep the look of brush strokes.

6. Step Back and Enjoy Your DIY Wall Mural!

That’s it! I let the paint dry and admired my work. Since I used wall paint, I didn’t need to seal it or do anything further. Depending what type of paint you use, you may need to use a sealer to keep your mural perfectly intact.