Word Mural How-To

As mentioned in my last post, I have been attempting to freshen up and add color to our school room.  As I was standing in the room last week, just looking at the walls...you do that too, right?...I got a wild hair to paint some large words on the wall.

This is not that unusual for me.  I co-owned a business painting wall murals for five years, so they are sort of my go-to decorating idea.  So, while murals might be out-of-the-box for most people, it's really not at all for me.  As a matter of fact, I should probably be thinking more out of the box myself when it comes to decorating...

Here are a couple murals I've painted in our home elsewhere...

J1's nursery

Girls' room

So generally, we would start with a sketch, transfer that to an overhead projector, and project the image on the wall as we began a mural.  But for something so simple as a word, I used a much simpler method.

First, I used a level to measure out and draw guidelines on the wall.  It's hard to see them in this picture, but that is EXACTLY what you want!  Draw your lines lightly, because you will be erasing them once you've painted over your word.  I like to draw 3 lines...think like you're back in Kindergarten and you are writing on a writing tablet.  Then I just used my own handwriting (but I took my time and was careful to be pretty and consistent), using my guidelines.  The last thing you will want is a crooked word on your wall!

Next, I thickened up the letters using pencil.

I used this paint straight from the bottle, which made it easy since I didn't have to keep stopping to mix paint.  I use acrylic paint, but when you purchase acrylic paint you will want to take note that it is sold in gloss as well.  If you are not painting on glossy walls, you will probably not want the gloss paint.

This is our new art display center.  I bought these clipboards for $1 each and drilled one screw through the top center into the wall.   Now the kids have a place to hang their artwork in the school room.

This was painted above the doorway, so the kids can read this as they leave the room. :o)

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School Room Art: A Copycat Tutorial

I recently found the above artwork for sale online for about $130.  I really loved the idea for my school room, but had no intentions of paying quite so hefty a fee for school room artwork.  I decided that I would keep my eyes out for wood materials at craft shops and such to recreate it myself.

Alas, I found myself months later still staring at a blank wall in my school room and having not found the perfect wood material.  I had had enough.  I was going to create the art work.  Today.  With whatever I could find in my house.

 

Here's what I found:

A large piece of white cardboard.  (It was thicker than posterboard but not quite as thick as foam board.)

Acrylic paint.

Paint brushes.

A Pencil.

A level and ruler.

An exacto knife.

I measured and cut nine 10" by 10" squares.

For my first board, I used two colors.  Yellow and grey.

First, I quickly applied the grey brush strokes.

Acrylic paint dries much faster than oil paints, but you will still have some time to apply the yellow paint and blend the colors together until you have the desired effect.  You will want your brush to be slightly wet, but not too wet.  If it is too wet or you apply the paint very thick the cardboard will start to curve.  Don't worry too much about it though.

I like an assembly process, so I then repeated this painting process for the background of each board.  I used the color scheme of the original artwork.

Next use your pencil to write the words.  I think the easiest way to do this is to use your own handwriting for consistency.  But to make sure each board is the same measure out your letters.  For example, on each board I started the first line 2 1/2 inches from the top, but I only wanted my letters to be 2 inches tall.  I placed a ruler at the top and bottom of where I wanted the letters to be and used it as a guide as I was writing the words "teach me".  The words "how to" were also 2 inches tall, but the last word was 4 inches tall.

Once I completed writing the words on each board, I simply went over each word with white paint.  It took a couple coats.

The only thing I actually had to purchase for this project was this Scotch mounting tape.  It cost me about $6 for 2 packages.  Simply peel and stick to the board and then peel and stick to the wall.

You'll definitely want to use your level.  Pre-measure your wall space to decide how far a part you will want to place your boards.  I spaced mine 3 inches apart.

Hope you're inspired!  Be sure to let me know if you complete this project as well!

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