I Painted a Wall Mural

I painted a wall mural in the front entry of our townhouse and I love it, but…

Well, first of all, I’m using the term ‘front entry’ fairly loosely. The front door at our townhouse is not really much of a front entry at all… From the outside, it’s obviously the entry, but from the inside, it’s not more than of a small spot of wall space in the corner of the kitchen 1 foot deep by 5 feet wide. My goal was to magically create a separate front entry in that 5 square feet.

I knew by visually defining this small area could get the eye to convince the brain this is a unique space of it’s own.

At first, I seriously considered a wallpaper mural, like I used HERE and HERE at our last place. After perusing many murals online I changed my mind and decided to try my hand at painting a wall mural.

I figured if I totally screwed it up, it’s only paint and I could always just paint over it. No stress!

Well, a week and 4 migraines later, I did it… THREE TIMES OVER!

Here’s what I did right but mostly what I did wrong…

Tip 1: Measure the furniture and try to get the main elements of the mural to work with the furniture placement.

I chalked on the wall a few grid lines and placed the bridge in my painting so that it would be above the bench that would sit in the entry way.

So far, so good…

Tip 2: Paint dries darker!

I used only Fusion Mineral Paints for this mural. With many colors of Fusion left over from other projects and because it’s a very durable paint I figured it’d be a perfect option for this project.

The issue was I didn’t use just straight up colors, I needed to mix a few together to get the right color. However, it looked lighter when it was wet.

That meant a lot of trial and error to get the shade just right. Finally, I wound up just mixing up a bit that I thought would be the color and started by dabbing a small amount on the wall to dry to test the color before proceeding.

Tip 3: A cheering team sure helps.

My husband came home and saw the mural at its worse. In his gained wisdom of being married to me for nearly a half century, he asked me, “So… how are you feeling about your painting?” Pretty sure he was wondering if what lay before his eyes was actually my plan.

I can only imagine the relief he silently felt when my reply was, “Uh, I hate it? It’s not even a sketch of what I want.” I was feeling the defeat a bit, but still laughing at his careful way of asking about it.

He’s got so much faith in me, more than I deserve and certainly more than I had in myself that night. By the next morning after I gathered my thoughts and told him I was going to start again, his reply was totally chill, “I know it’ll be beautiful when you’re done with it.”

Aw…

Tip 4: Be willing to give up the inspiration picture.

I had an inspiration picture I was working from, that was both good and a problem. It gave me inspiration, but then it started to actually block my own creativity and the painting just wasn’t working. After the third day of struggling with it, I was ready to give up.

Once I set that picture aside, I started to study my favorite style of painting, impressionism. By looking at some prints I have of a few classic impressionist artists, but not trying to copy them, instead study them and still paint my own creation, I could start to feel the creative juices flow.

Tip 5: Have another eye to give you input!

It’s really hard to see your own painting after staring at it for 4 days!

Add to that, a wall mural is so large that it’s hard to see it when you’re painting it because of the scale. Taking photos helps, but also, if you have someone else that has a good sense of design and you can glean from them some input, it is really helpful.

Once I finished the mural, (the first time) I put the furniture back into place and sent a couple pics to my daughter. She has a great eye and I knew she’d be honest with me, in a nice way.

She said how much she loved it, then asked the question that had been in my head but I was trying to ignore… “Are the trees tall enough?”

On to mural number two.

Tip 6: Refer back to tip 1!

Seriously! Don’t forget how it will look when the furniture is back in place. I forgot this tip as I was correcting the first painting.

I knew the trees needed to be taller, I didn’t want them the same height as the door, so they needed a lot more height added.

To fill in some of the lower space of the now taller tree trunk area and to try to create depth, I added a few lighter colored bushes between the bridge and tall trees.

But…

When I got the furniture back in place, the lighter bushes looked awkwardly cut off and sort of like they were sitting on the top of the bridge.

Tip 7: Give it some time and don’t be afraid to fix it if you need.

I gave mural #2 with the taller trees a day or two, trying to convince myself it was okay, then I brought all the paints back up and decided I needed to fix it.

One thing I loved about the painting was the water. I didn’t want to mess up the reflection of the sky and trees in the water, so the changes needed to still be cohesive with the water.

There were some major issues with mural #2…

• The light colored bushes were awkwardly cut off and sitting on the bridge.
• The now taller trees looked huge to be in the background.
• I somehow lost the perspective by trying to fix one element and not looking at the whole composition.
• I didn’t really like the four trees lined up in the background, it didn’t look natural, and the landscape didn’t look like a formal garden enough, so what was it?

On to mural number three! Well, not exactly three whole new murals, just major tweaks to get to the third and final mural, or so I hoped.

My thought was to erase 2 trees and bring the large trees forward in the painting to be in front of the bridge.

Tip 8: Don’t forget to look at references.

Willow trees!

We live by the Willow River and have many willow trees around. I thought that would be lovely to be hanging in front of the bridge. So I started, just going from memory of what willow trees look like.

Willow trees are kind of hard to paint. My first attempt looked like Grandma Moses painted some sad palm trees. My daughter said they reminded her of trufulla trees from a Dr. Seuss book. Then she sent me some photos of actual willow trees… Oh yeah, that’s what they look like.

Finally, after the third go at it, I was liking the color, balance and feel of the mural.

And, with the furniture in place? Yep, I still like it. Phew!

The style of the painting is somewhere between primitive and impressionist art. I guess it’s my style… and that’s good with me. When we sell this townhouse I don’t know if the next owner will like it, but the beauty is, it’s just paint and super easy to paint right over it.

There is the suggestion of a third tree to the left of the front door.

One more thing to make this an official front entry…

A coat tree of sorts.

How cool is this wall mounted coat tree? HERE is where you can buy it. It can be mounted either vertically like I did, or horizontally. Each ‘hook’ is adjustable, just unscrew the end a little and swivel it around to where you want it. The coat rack is heavy duty too, holds up to 44 pounds and it feels very sturdy.

Mixing in a touch of modern is a fun juxtaposition to the maximalist, creating a fun grandmillennial style.

Millie loves to photo bomb. She’s my buddy, always by my side. I think she’s actually mostly waiting for me to turn my back so she can see if there is something I have set down she can sneak off with and chew on or mostly gobble up before I tell her to drop it.

So, how about you? Have you ever thought about painting a wall mural?

Thank you for stopping by, I appreciate you reading along.

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