How To Paint a Mural: An Inexpensive Wallpaper Alternative

Learn how to paint a mural the easy way with this simple tutorial. This DIY accent wall is a great and budget-friendly wallpaper alternative!

how to paint a mural on your wall…

Wintertime in Seattle always makes me want to brighten things up with fun color. So in the spirit of being bold and colorful, I decided to paint a mural on my powder room wall! It did take some time, but it really wasn’t difficult. And I did the whole project for around $30! To be fair, I did already have the tools and some of the paint on hand.

Today I’m going to show you exactly how I painted my botanical mural. One word of caution: Once you start creating cool accent walls in your home, it’s hard to stop! This is my second one, and I’m already eyeing one of the walls in Peter’s office next! Shhhhhh I haven’t told him yet and he’ll be happier if he doesn’t know!

here’s what you’ll need:

pen and paper
interior wall paint
paint roller & tray
1.5″ wall paintbrush
interior wall paint samples in several colors for mural (see the colors I used in the graphic below)
Large black Sharpie paint pen
2-3 small artist paintbrushes

I recently got Nature Drawing & Watercolor, by Peggy Dean, and I used some of her techniques to create the plants in my mural. Not required, but I’m really enjoying this book!

1. Make a plan

I was inspired by this photo my friend Cara Newhart at Never Skip Brunch posted on Instagram a couple of weeks ago. It’s a cool modern botanical wall mural at a grocery store.

I drew a plan on a piece of paper, and cut out little pieces of paper to represent the things that will go on that wall- the toilet, vanity, mirror, and light fixture. I wanted to be sure the most important parts of the design wouldn’t end up behind the toilet or vanity. I also wanted to create a balanced look across the whole wall, which means no huge blank spaces.

wall mural plan line drawing of botanical mural with dandelions, leaves, grass, etc, and small pieces of paper representing the toilet, vanity, and mirror in a small powder room.

2. choose your paint colors

Next, I used some acrylic paints I already had to experiment with colors. As you can see below, I started with the background shapes, and layered the colors as I moved to the foreground.

line drawing of plants and flowers with leaves painted over it as part of the planning process for a DIY wall mural

I knew I wanted to use several different greens, and since the rest of the walls were already painted a dark blue, I wanted to bring a little bit of that color in as well.

hand-painted botanical wall mural plan drawn and painted on a piece of paper with greens, yellow, and blue flowers

Next, I headed to Home Depot for some paint samples. These Behr paint samples are around $3.50 each, and they’re the perfect size when you just need a small amount of each color. You’d probably be horrified if you saw how many paint samples I have in my garage!

hand drawn and painted botanical art held up in front of paint swatch rack at Home Depot, with hand holding several paint swatchws in greens, yellow, and blue

Here are the colors I ended up using. Hills of Ireland was a little too bright once I got it home, so I toned it down by mixing in some Classic Avocado.

Mural Paint Colors: several open paint samples and lids showing brightly colored paint for botanical mural. Greens, blue, yellow,and cream

3. Remove everything from the wall

This is actually phase two of our powder room makeover, so we had to remove the mirror and light fixture from the wall before painting. The pedestal sink is going away too, but I wanted to get started, so I didn’t wait for it to be gone.

4. paint the wall

I painted the background Polar Bear from Behr (Home Depot’s paint brand). This took two coats, since it had been a medium blue color before.

powder room with wall painted Polar Bear white from Behr in preparation for a feature wall mural

5. paint the background leaves

I wanted to have some foliage in the background that wouldn’t be outlined in black to create some depth in my mural. So I painted some grass at the bottom of the wall and some leaves in the upper corners.

powder room wall painted white, with green leaves and grass to begin a hand-painted botanical mural

6. paint the stems

Next, I painted the stems with a small artist’s brush. This was all about getting everything placed where I wanted it on the wall. Once everything was in place, I ended up with a giant gap in the upper middle of the wall. So I added a second, taller stem of the plant with the yellow flowers.

hand painting green stems on a white wall to show how to paint a mural

woman painting a mural accent wall in a small powder room with leaves and flowers

Outline the leaves and foliage

Once everything was dry, I used a bold-tipped black Sharpie paint pen to outline everything. I was originally planning to use a regular Sharpie like I did on the girls’ bedroom accent wall, but I found that a regular Sharpie really didn’t work well on this satin enamel paint. Once I had switched over to the paint pen, it was smooth sailing. And I was surprised that a single pen lasted for this entire project!

close-up of hand outlining yellow flowers with a black paint pen on a hand-painted mural in a small powder room

woman standing on ladder, outlining botanical mural painting with a black paint pen

There were a few spots I messed up. I just painted right over them. No big deal! I also went back and cleaned up the lines down the two walls on either side with dark blue paint.