How to paint a tented ceiling

First, find the center of your ceiling.
This can be done quite easily by drawing a line from one corner of the room to the opposite corner of the room. You can do this by snapping a chalk line from corner to corner. Then do that again from the opposite two corners - where they intersect is the center of the room.
Mark it securely with a nail.

Second, draw a circle on a piece of cardboard and cut that in half and use that as a template. (You could also use a large paper plate or simply draw around something like a large circular serving plate. The bigger the circle the less work this will be in the long run.) Take the half circle template and place it flat against the wall at a corner with the straight side up against the ceiling. Trace around the template to create your first "scallop" on the wall. Slide the template over, keeping the flat edge against the ceiling just until the you pass the first "scallop" and trace around the template again. Make sure the edges of the scallops touch slightly. Repeat this around the room on all sides of the room.

Third. Once you have all of the "scallops" drawn on the wall at the ceiling line, draw a line from the center of the room to the point where each scallop touches the next scallop. Continue this all around the room. If you have a chalk line - attach it to the nail in the center of the ceiling and snap a line at each scallop. Now you will have lots of thin "pie shaped wedges" on the ceiling.

Fourth - Tape off every other "pie wedge" and paint it one of the colors of the mural. Then repeat with the remaining "pie wedges" with a different color of the mural.

Project Author
Patricia Newton of Elephants on the wall

IDEAS
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