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The
basic cloud mural idea
Whatever the age of your child,
you can't go wrong with clouds for a room theme.
You can even create some of your child's favourite shapes in the clouds.
This is my all time favourite mural
theme!
DIY
cloud wall mural
There are many
methods for painting clouds. Below is one way and a description of how to
do it.
There are other methods which you may find more suited to you for instance,
Cloudwash
is a kit that not only teaches you how to paint clouds on walls, but contains
the paints, video, gloves, cloths and tools to complete the project. This
cloudwash kit can be purchased from the
Magic Mural factory
My
Clouds
Personally I
prefer to use water based emulsion paints (acrylic paint/house paint) with
a water based glaze. Available at good DIY stores and craft suppliers.
You will need
- Sky blue, satin finish paint
- White satin finish emulsion paint
- Glaze
- Paint tray
- Measuring jug or cup
- Sea sponges, hand sized and smaller. 2 or 3 pieces of different sizes
will be sufficient
- A piece of cheesecloth, about 18" x 24" inches big enough to
form into a handsized ball.
- A piece of board approximately 3' x 2' or heavy cardboard pieces for practice.
- Pictures of clouds for reference.
Lets get started
- Paint your background sky a lovely sky blue. At the same time, paint a
piece of board to use to practise on your cloud-painting technique. Let your
sky colour dry for 24 hours before starting the clouds.
- Take your white paint and mix it with your glaze using a 4 to 1 ratio
(for example 1 cup of glaze to 1/4 cup of white paint) Mix thoroughly and
pour into paint tray.
- Wet your piece of cheesecloth with clean water and wring out thoroughly.
Keep this near at hand while you paint your clouds. You will use this to
soften your sponge marks.
- Keep any pictures of clouds you have collected handy , so that you can
refer to them for cloud shape ideas.
Wet a piece of sponge with water, and wring it out completely.
Dab it into the white paint, and remove excess paint on the edge of your
tray.
Use your painted blue board to practice forming clouds.
- First, play around with the sponge, dabbing on the paint. See what marks
you can make by vaying the pressure of your dabs, twist and turn the sponge
as you experiment.
- Take a look at clouds, they generally have a flat bottom.
That's where we start.
With your sponge, start dabbing on the board in a fairly straight line for
the bottom of the cloud. Then start dabbing paint above this line, twisting
and turning the sponge as you dab to create texture and variation.
- When you are satisfied with the general shape of the cloud, take your
cheesecloth and make a ball with it. Dab gently over the cloud, softening
the paint to make it more 'cloudy' looking.
- Build up the cloud with more dabbing towards the center adding texture
and fading out towards the edge of the cloud. The centre of the cloud should
be more dense. Soften the effect again with your cloth. Use this technique
with all the clouds.
- When you are happy with your clouds on the practice board, head for your
wall! Don't make your first cloud dead center of the wall. it is not visually
pleasing and looks unnatural. Start off-centre and down a bit either to the
left or right.
The size of your clouds depends on the size of your room, but if you take
a room of about 8x10' you could make your biggest clouds 20-24inches long
and your smallest about 5-10inches. This is just an approximate guide and
you can adjust your sizes to fit the size of your room.
Don't paint the clouds all the same sizes, look at nature, they are all different.
Start with your biggest clouds and dot them randomly around the room. Stand
back and look at how the wall looks.
- Fill in the spaces in between the big clouds with medium ones and then
small wispy clouds. Keep standing back to look at the whole effect.
Paint clouds wrapping round corners, to create continuity, around light switches,
wall lights and whatever other features you have in the room.
Stand back and admire.
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Decorating a Nursery - Combining New & Found.
Finding the right look and feel when creating a child’s room is a fun and
exciting challenge. Trying to pin point the pieces that give the room that
finished look is not as easy as one would think. Choosing the right dresser,
ceiling light fixture, bedside table and artwork will all add a piece of
personality to the room.
Wonderful rooms don’t have to be big and they certainly don’t have to be
expensive. It seems the best childrens rooms are the ones that have the
personality of the people who created them. A collection of the tastes,
history and the love of those who contributed to it. Whether it is giving
life to a hand me down with a new fabric cover or a fresh coat of paint
to a old dresser, adding personality without spending a lot of money can
be done easily.
Painted clouds have that feeling of history and whimsy. Depending on the
layout of the room you can build clouds on an accent wall, above a chair
rail, the ceiling or all over the room. Painted clouds will create a whole
new energy to the room making a wonderful back drop to all of the other
choices you bring in. If you have a sailboat theme create clouds shaped
like sailboats it is easier than you would think.
Watercolor Walls Cloud wash kit includes Blue Colorwash for the sky and
Cloudy White paint for the clouds. It can be applied right over white painted
walls. Using a true colorwash gives depth and airiness that regular house
paint can not, because Watercolor Walls is formulated with pigments floating
in a clear base, it allows light to shine through to the basecoat and bounce
back up to create a broken color effect. With each layer you wipe on the
wall, the sky and clouds will grow in volume and life. Following the video
and easy step-by-step directions is easy and the results are outstanding.
You can buy the cloudwash kit at the
Magic
Mural factory
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Create some cloud shapes
and other ideas
You can bring another theme into the room by including some cloud shapes.
For example clouds and animals, clouds and trains, clouds and unicorns etc.
Create a mural by adding stickers over your clouds for a quick simple
and effective mural.
Click here for ideas
and how to paint cloud shapes and other ideas
TIPS
Keep some extra sky blue paint to touch
up clouds that are too big or paint over ones you don't want.
You can use white
gloss paint for the clouds, but you need to use a glaze designed for gloss
paints.
Good luck, and if you paint room of clouds, please send me photos of
it so I can include them in the website.
Click here to Send
your photos to me
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