Mural Painting 101 – How to Create a Nursery Mural

When I was little, I was absolutely obsessed with Winnie the Pooh. I was so obsessed that my mom painted a mural on my wall with all the Winnie the Pooh characters on it. Even though I later covered it up with dolphin wallpaper, I still remember loving that mural. So, when I found out I was pregnant, I asked my mom if she would be willing to paint my baby a mural. Welcome to Mural Painting 101 on how my mom and I were able to design and paint a great mural for my daughter’s nursery.

I wanted something gender neutral and obviously my unborn child had no favorite anything yet. So, I decided on a picture book theme. I have always loved reading and wanted books to be a big part of my daughter’s life. Spoiler alert: 2 1/2 years later, she loves them and “reads” to her baby brother and lovey all the time. She loves going to the library and especially enjoyed doing the summer reading program there this year. Here is a great kid’s reading program you can do on your own.

How to Paint a Mural for Your Nursery

Design:

Before getting any paint out, you need to design your mural. For my picture book theme, I wanted recognizable characters and objects from a variety of picture books. I also wanted it to look like they were coming out of open books. I had several favorite books I wanted to use and I also asked a bunch of family members what their favorite books were. The only book that didn’t make the cut was my brother’s suggestion of Captain Underpants.

Then, I found all the images I wanted from each book and figured out how I could mash-up some of them. I also found an open book picture I liked. Once I had most of my images, I started adding them to a Paint 3D project. This is a free piece of Windows software that is super helpful. It has a “Magic select” feature that lets you edit out the background and any unwanted pieces of an image.

I played with the design for a long time. Paint 3D let me layer and rotate the different images until it looked like I wanted. The end design was a little rough from some of the editing, but since I could still tweak it during the tracing and painting, it was good enough.

Tracing:

Back when my mom did my original mural, she borrowed an overhead projector from church to trace her design on the wall. While this is still a valid option, I used a mini projector instead that I loaded my Paint 3D images onto. The one I used is no longer made, but this portable projector is something similar to what I used (and currently on sale).

Then, we set up a towering pile of board games on top of a chair to get the projector to the right height. This let us project my design onto the wall that we planned to paint. To get the books where we wanted them, I first projected a picture of the whole design. We traced on just the books. Then, I lined up a more detailed picture of each book and its characters and my mom traced them on.

Painting:

Now comes the part that actually takes talent. If you aren’t a talented painter, find someone who is if you are going to do a more detailed mural like this one. If you are going more abstract or don’t have any shading in your design, just go for it. I used the same projector technique on a canvas to paint a panda sitting on a potty to help motivate my daughter to potty train. With it being simpler, I could do it myself. The painting took my mom a long time, but as you can see, it turned out really good. Sorry for the blurry picture, but somehow this is the only in progress picture we took.

Conclusion:

The best part of painting a mural in your nursery (or any room) is the possibilities are endless. You can design it exactly how you want and create something completely unique for your child. You can also add another personal touch to your kid’s nursery or room by making these name letters.

Comment below what books you recognize from my daughter’s mural. There are 16, but a couple are pretty tricky.